San Francisco - Retail & Industry

The founder of the 28-year-old youth violence prevention organization United Playaz, Rudy Corpuz Jr., will hit new highs with the grand opening of his new Stiiizy dispensary at Fourth and Brannan Streets on Saturday.

Bad news for SF fans of the midcentury knockoff sofas and other modern accouterments sold by CB2 — the brand's 15-year-old store on Ellis Street, next to the newly open Central Subway entrance, is giving up the ghost.

Vacation owner Kristin Klein opened a sister shop, Work, with her friend and business partner Sam Poole. You’ll find Work just four doors down from Vacation at 1445 Grant Avenue.

A new concept boutique and social club called Mikroblack (pronounced 'micro-black'), featuring only black clothing and accessories, has opened at 2323 Market Street, formerly D&H Jewelers.

Banking customers at the Wells Fargo branch inside the Church & Market Safeway (2020 Market St.) will soon have to find a new location.

Effective December 21, one of SF’s favorite homegrown grocery chains Gus's Community Market will take over operations at Glen Park’s Canyon Market, and not one single employee will be losing their job at the Christmastime transition.

One of San Francisco’s busiest shopping areas is losing another big retailer: The Container Store. But it's just moving elsewhere in SoMa.

After nearly 12 years, Castro neighborhood fine jeweler D&H Jewelers (2323 Market St.) has departed and moved to a new location in the Mission.

The OfficeMax that wouldn’t die has finally succumbed to online retail and pandemic business loss, with the SoMa office supply store’s signage now ripped down and tagging quickly sprayed all over the building.

Women’s knitwear designer Kenlynn Wilson doesn’t shy away from color. While you’ll find neutral and muted-hued pieces in her new North Beach pop-up (1522 Grant Avenue), her vibrant jewel-toned creations steal the show.

It appears to be becoming a new retail real estate trend: Large shuttered drug stores in San Francisco that offer loads of space are being reenvisioned into smaller chunks of space for retail or offices.

Another pop-up is moving into Union Square: Smartphone maker Samsung is about to open up a temporary shopping experience inside the former Uniqlo store at 111 Powell Street.

Last month, the San Francisco Small Business Commission added Castro mailbox and shipping store P.O. Plus (584 Castro St.) to the city's Legacy Business Registry, which recognizes "longstanding, community-serving businesses" that have established themselves in area neighborhoods for at least three decades.

The Mission-Bernal Big Lots at Mission and 29th Streets has delivered oddball retail joy for decades, but is now boarded up and permanently closed.

Brooklinen, a growing retail chain that promises to “deliver simple, beautiful, high-quality home essentials at a fair price” has opened up a brand new store in Hayes Valley.

The chic menswear designer Todd Snyder New York will be taking over the space at Laguna and Hayes streets vacated last year by b8ta.

In this edition: a hot chicken and ramen restaurant changes concepts to a sushi restaurant and a custom sofa store and medical spa open in the Castro.

Bouncing back from bankruptcy, the once-ubiquitous toy retailer Toys R Us will rear its giraffe head again in San Francisco, inside the Union Square Macy’s store, as early as October 15.

Plants by Rare Device (505 Divisadero), the plant store that opened in November 2021 as Plant House by Rare Device, is closing on Monday, July 18, after just eight months in business.

North Beach may soon be San Francisco’s go-to destination for fans of retro fashions.

Castro residents now have a new source for hanging plants, house plants, and moss baskets.

The longtime owner of the plant shop and nursery, David Gray, says the shop hasn't been profitable for a while. "I'm gonna have to find a job," he says.

After 13 years in the Castro, Trudy's Tattoo Parlor (2275 Market St.) quietly shuttered this month due to pandemic-related financial stresses.

Since opening in North Beach as a pop-up store specializing in Italian language books in 2017, Libreria Pino has outgrown several different locations in the neighborhood.

North Beach is home to what may be the country’s first smartshop, a retail concept born in Europe featuring mushrooms, psychedelic plants, and the like.