Century-old business latest casualty of San Francisco retail closures

A more than century-old hat boutique will shutter a location in San Francisco’s Union Square, the latest retail shop to close in the city in the aftermath of pandemic shutdowns and crime spikes. 

Goorin Bros. haberdashery opened in 1895 and specializes in fedoras and leopard print hats, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The hat shop currently has nine locations in operation across the country.

The store’s location at 111 Geary St. in Union Square closed on June 23, the outlet reported, noting the city has struggled to attract tourists and office workers following government-mandated lockdowns during the pandemic. 

“It’s never an easy decision but it was time,” a Goorin representative told the Chronicle. “There are a number of reasons, I’m sure, but really it was our smallest location and there’s just been a shift in business plan/direction over the last few years. We have a large store in North Beach still.”

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The Geary Street location opened in 2008, along with another location on Haight Street that closed in 2020. It appeared to be doing well prior the pandemic and released a new line of high-end military-styled hats in 2017.

A sales associate at the North Beach location told the Chronicle that employees were mostly kept in the dark about the Geary Street closure. The sales associate said merchandise from the Geary location was being transported to the store’s Stockton Street shop, and employees were not told if the Geary Street closure is permanent.

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San Francisco has been the site of repeated smash-and-grab robberies in recent years, while a few stores have closed since the pandemic, when foot traffic cratered during lockdowns. Shoplifting issues have plagued many stores across the city, with the police staking out retail locations late last year to help curb the crimes.

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The Goorin Bros. location closure comes on the heels of Nordstrom announcing two stores in the Golden City were closing due to the “dynamics of the downtown San Francisco” that have “dramatically” changed in recent years, resulting in less foot traffic to the stores. 

A Whole Foods location temporarily closed in April over safety concerns for staff and shoppers, and Walgreens closed a handful of stores in 2021 over rampant shoplifting and other crimes.