Boutique chain closes store after more than a century – the latest retailer to shut up shop in troubled US city

A popular boutique chain has closed its doors after more than a century of operations in an increasingly troubled US city.

The hat store Goorin Bros., a chain that has been in Union Square in San Francisco, California for more than 100 years, closed permanently on June 23.

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According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the haberdashery opened its doors 128 years ago in 1895, selling men’s fedoras and leopard print hats.

Over the years, this has developed into a chain with nine other locations across the country.

The Union Square location opened in 2008 concurrently with a separate store location on Haight Street, but it closed in 2020.

Employees said fighting due to closures prompted by the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 eventually led to the closure of Union Square, and some suspect a crime spike in the city as a result, according to Fox News another relevant issue.

“It’s never an easy decision, but it was about time,” a spokesman for the publication said.

“There are certainly a number of reasons, but in reality it was our smallest site and over the past few years it’s just the business plan or direction that has changed.”

They added, “We still have a big deal in North Beach.”

However, an employee at the North Beach location told the San Francisco Chronicle that most employees were unaware of the Union Square location’s closure.

They said staff had been informed that goods from the closed store were being moved to another location on Stockton Street.

Staff added they were not told the store closure was permanent.

San Francisco has been a center for robberies in recent years as some businesses are still closed in the wake of the pandemic.

Several retailers have faced shoplifting across the city, prompting police officers to stake out stores last year to try to contain the problem.

The closure of the Goorin Bros. location comes after Nordstrom announced that two stores in the area are suffering losses due to the “dynamics of downtown San Francisco,” which has “changed dramatically” resulting in less foot traffic in the stores have suffered.

A Whole Foods location temporarily closed in April due to safety concerns for employees and shoppers, and a handful of Walgreens stores were closed in 2021 amid rising shoplifting and other crimes.