MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: San Francisco’s dying downtown suffers another hammer blow as Saks Fifth Avenue bans window shoppers from coming inside.
Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to ‘appointment-only’ this summer, according to KRON4.
Locals will have to pre-book appointments at the store located on 384 Post Street from August 28.
Customers can no longer walk in and browse the luxury items, according to a company spokesman.
It comes as areas in San Francisco have become known for their squalor and misery – so much so that local businesses are unable to recruit staff and residents have felt forced to flee.
In December of 2022, Virginia Postrel wrote in the Wall Street Journal: What Shopping Did for American Equality.
The urban palaces of early department stores, the climate-controlled corridors of suburban malls, the endlessly scrolling pages of Etsy, the utilitarian aisles of Walmart and the chatty reveals of haul videos aren’t merely sites of envy or exchange. They’re places where Americans—both buyers and sellers—work out who we are and who we want to be. Since the mid-19th century, modern retailing has tested the practical meaning of equality and freedom.
When A.T. Stewart opened his multistory dry goods store in 1846, the Manhattan merchant introduced two revolutionary practices that we now take for granted. He let anyone come and browse freely, whether or not intending to buy, and he charged every customer the same price. Both policies changed the everyday meaning of social equality.
At Stewart’s, wrote a journalist in 1871, “you may gaze upon a million dollars’ worth of goods, and no man will interrupt either your meditation or your admiration.” The store and its many emulators established a new social norm. Any well-behaved patron, regardless of class or ethnicity, could freely examine the merchandise without being pestered or pressured to leave.
It was a revolutionary concept, and at least in San Francisco, it was fun while it lasted.