Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

VMSD offers three retail hotspots that can’t be missed during your visit in September

By Betsy Smith, Contributing Writer, Ferry Building Marketplace, The Mission, Union Square

In the five years since VMSD’s International Retail Design Conference (IRDC) last visited San Francisco, the city’s retail story has been largely rewritten.

Near Union Square, the award-winning Westfield San Francisco Centre has been renovated and expanded, restoring its century-old Market Street façade and adding Bloomingdale’s to its diverse mix of brands. Retail spaces that emptied in 2009 and 2010 are filling again – with brands new to the city, new to the U.S., and just plain new. Target has begun construction on its first San Francisco store, an 85,000-square-foot CityTarget on the second floor of the Metreon complex. Emerging retailers such as Marmot have opened flagships on Union Square. And innovative start-ups dot the city’s multicultural neighborhoods, taking advantage of low rent and shifts in consumer values.

That’s heartening news to Bertrand Pellegrin, brand development consultant and former Gensler retail strategist, whose office sits a few floors above the Gap flagship three blocks from Union Square. “It got pretty bad here,” he says. “Americans on the West Coast were pretty demoralized by the recession and closed up their pocketbooks. It was depressing to see so many ‘for lease’ signs, even on Union Square.”
But Pellegrin sees the upside to the downturn. “It had a cleaning-house effect. Retailers that weren’t innovating fell away, and those that held on got more resourceful in terms of how they brought customers into the store,” he says. “Merchants at several luxury brands have told me they began calling customers to invite them into the store, or offered to send over staff to organize or assess their wardrobe and see what’s missing.”

But to Pellegrin, some of the most interesting innovators are at the grassroots level, in neighborhoods like the largely Hispanic Mission District. “These new retailers are offering affordable merchandise – recycled, vintage, locally designed – and people are responding to that, preferring to shop locally rather than in big-box stores.”

Here, VMSD previews The Mission, as it’s called, and two other retail enclaves that everyone should check out during IRDC, held September 7-9. (Also visit irdconline.com for information on the IRDC tours, including Westfield Centre, the Ferry Building Marketplace and Financial District Architecture.)

The Mission

Cheap rent and a rich culture combine to make this once-gritty Hispanic neighborhood a haven for entrepreneurs. The result is an eclectic mix of fiercely independent retail concepts, interesting restaurants and many excellent taquerias.