Gump’s plans to return to city in time for holiday shopping.
Gump’s, which closed in December after 157 years on Post Street, will reopen for the holidays under new ownership. But a permanent return to San Francisco may be in doubt.
San Francisco luxury retailer Gump’s, which filed for bankruptcy and closed its Post Street store last year after 157 years in the city, has found new owners and will be back in time for the holiday season.
The new owners, the Chachas family of New York, plan to run an online business and open at least a temporary store in San Francisco. But a permanent store may not be in the cards.
The main reason? The state of the city’s streets, says John Chachas, founder and managing principal of Methuselah Advisors, a New York investment bank, whose family is buying Gump’s.
“If I had to make a decision at this moment to invest in a physical location in San Francisco or a physical location somewhere else ... San Francisco would be a very hard place to choose right now based on the vacancy, the vagrancy, the homelessness and the grime,” said Chachas. He said the city and shopping district has changed since his family first invested in Gump’s more than a decade ago. “All things being equal, I would
really like to reestablish the retail activities where the people know it ... but this environment is unhealthy for luxury retail.”
For now, Gump’s will be coming back to San Francisco, most likely by early November, according to daughter Annie Chachas. The choice of a permanent location will depend on how the holiday shopping season goes in the temporary San Francisco location, which she said will probably be near the old store on Post Street.
“We want to make sure 2019 is a successful year before we make a multiyear commitment to San Francisco, New York or anywhere else,” John Chachas said.
John Chachas and his wife, Diane, were among a group of investors that bought Gump’s in 2007. The family became sole owners of the company after a Bankruptcy Court ruled on June 20 that they had the highest offer for what was left of Gump’s. They paid $650,000 for the brand name, trademarks, social media accounts and other things of “soft value,” but not any of the leftover inventory or other physical assets.
Their three children, Annie, Christopher and Jack, now own a majority of the new Gump’s, and are planning Gump’s comeback in North America and Europe. The transaction is expected to be completed Monday.
Gump’s is loved by so many people, said Annie Chachas, who will be an executive vice president and oversee social media and marketing. “We’re really committed to keeping that personal touch and keeping this beloved company alive.”
She sees her role as helping the store appeal to young customers. Retail analysts said the failure to reach younger shoppers was a key reason Gump’s went into bankruptcy.
The company is looking into selling personalized leather goods, like wallets, and a combination of classic and contemporary tableware, Annie Chachas said.
Part of the reason John Chachas was drawn to buying Gump’s was its reputation among Bay Area shoppers, he said. Chachas recalled visiting the store as a child — Gump’s was the kind of place a person could get lost in, browsing through the unique, beautiful items, he said, and the company seemed like an asset that had much more potential.
Gump’s started as a frame and mirror store in 1861, and adopted the motto “Good taste costs no more.” The store became known for its exotic luxury items: jade jewelry, porcelain tableware and other home decor. Buying Christmas ornaments there was a holiday tradition for many families.
“We were known back in the day for going around the world and finding unique and very precious items,” said Antoinette Gump, the greatgreatgranddaughter of store founder Solomon Gump.
But the retailer struggled and eventually filed for bankruptcy in August. Gump’s and its affiliates reported $61 million in assets and $64 million in liabilities in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
The company held a liquidation sale, let go of more than 100 employees and closed its 17,000squarefoot store on Post Street in December.
“If it were a destination store, people would go there no matter where it was,” Gump said of a prospective move.
Chachas wants Gump’s to have a physical location in San Francisco, noting that “people still like to walk into a beautiful store and buy things.” But he’s unsure whether the company should make a longterm investment in Union Square, with its trash, dirty streets and vacant storefronts that he noticed during a recent visit.
Chachas isn’t alone in his discomfort with the state of the city’s streets. Some tech companies have started offering selfdefense classes to employees, and music streaming company Spotify moved from its MidMarket location to the Financial District in part because of concerns about worker safety.
As a store, Gump’s represented San Francisco as a gateway to the world, said Rodney Fong, the newly appointed CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
“It had wonderful artifacts from Asia, it has wonderful artifacts from Europe,” Fong said.
If Gump’s doesn’t return to San Francisco because of street conditions, that would be a shame, Fong said.
The chamber is working to solve the problems Chachas cited, he said, joining other groups and the city to promote building more shelters, providing mental health services and delivering more jobs.
“While I have not heard any of these concerns from Gump’s, my office continues to work closely with the Union Square (Business Improvement District) and other retailers to maintain the area as a worldclass destination for shopping and tourism,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose district includes Union Square, said in a statement. “Last year, I authored legislation to protect retail space and implement office conversion fees that are projected to generate millions of dollars of beautification and capital improvements to Union Square. In addition, the Board of Supervisors is close to finalizing a (201920) budget that will come with significant additional cleaning, safety and beautification resources for the neighborhood.”
Gump’s longterm home may be up in the air, but John Chachas is hoping that some of the issues in the city can be dealt with so that the company can stay in San Francisco.
“We love San Francisco. Gump’s has been an indelible piece of San Francisco for a century and a half,” John Chachas said. “We’d love nothing more than to be there for another century.”