Iconic San Francisco store Gump’s warns it could close

One of San Francisco’s most storied luxury merchants may join the list of other retailers who have left the city. 

John Chachas, who acquired Gump's following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, paid for ad space in the print edition of Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle in which he ran an open letter to California Governor Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and the city’s Board of Supervisors calling on them to take action regarding the worsening state of the city’s downtown area and return San Francisco to "its rightful place as one of America's shining beacons of urban society." 

Gump’s, which sells high-end furnishings and jewelry, was founded in 1861 during the California Gold Rush by Solomon Gump and his family, who were purveyors of beautiful and exotic jewelry and gifts.  

 The store was shuttered in  December 2018 amid the company’s bankruptcy. In 2019, Gump’s was acquired by the Chachas family, who reopened the store later that year, in time for the holiday selling season. Gump’s only operates one physical store, a block from Union Square in downtown San Francisco.

"Gump's has been a San Francisco icon for more than 165 years," Chachas wrote in the ad. "Today, as we prepare for our 166th holiday season at 250 Post Street, we fear this may be our last because of the profound erosion of this city's conditions."

In the letter, Chachas said that the ramifications of Covid policies advising people to abandon their offices are only beginning to be understood.

“Equally devastating have been a litany of destructive San Francisco strategies, including allowing the homeless to occupy our sidewalks, to openly distribute and use illegal drugs, to harass the public and to defile the city’s streets,” he wrote.

If Gump’s were to close, it would be the latest in a  lineup of retailers that included Whole Foods Market, Anthropologie, Gap and Saks Off5th who have abandoned downtown San Francisco. In June, mall operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stopped making payments on its $558 million loan on Westfield San Francisco Centre and would transfer ownership to its lender. The company cited “challenging “challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic.”

In May, Nordstrom announced plans to close its two locations in San Francisco, noting that the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years.”