Crate & Barrel is latest retailer to close store in SF’s Union Square

Yet another retailer is leaving San Francisco’s Union Square.

A Crate & Barrel store at 55 Stockton Street will permanently close its doors on March 23, SFGate reported. The home decor and furniture retailer, which didn’t say why it was closing the Union Square store, has already kicked off sample sales to liquidate its stock.

The company joins multiple retailers that have shuttered stores in the city. Abercrombie & Fitch said in January that it would close its Westfield Mall store at 865 Market Street because of an increase in online shopping. Not long after that, French sports retailer Decathlon said it would also shut its two Bay Area stores, one on 16th Street and the other in Emeryville, leaving it with no physical stores in the US.

In addition to the rise of e-tail, some retailers may be leaving because of a rash of burglaries that hit Bay Area stores in November. Crowds looted and vandalized San Francisco’s retail center over the course of three days, burglarizing Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Maxford’s Jewelry and other high-end brands. The incident led to officials restricting access to Union Square.

Granted, some retailers are expanding. IKEA will start construction on a 250,000-square-foot mall at 945 Market Street. The furniture company, founded in Sweden and based in the Netherlands, paid $198 million for the property, which has been empty since it was completed in 2016.

Crate & Barrel has 97 stores across the country, including six in the Bay Area. In addition to the stores in Corte Madera, Walnut Creek, Palo Alto, Livermore, San Jose and Vacaville, the retailer will also keep open CB2, around the corner from the Union Square store at 34 Ellis Street. Crate & Barrel also owns the home decor boutique Hudson Grace in Presidio Heights.

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[SFG] — Victoria Pruitt