San Francisco-Ca Shopping

San Francisco-Ca Shopping information

Best Areas

What 5th Avenue is to New York, Union Square is to San Francisco. Big-name department stores such as Macy's and Neiman Marcus are situated here, as are the likes of Saks Fifth Avenue, FAO Schwarz, Tiffany & Co and Cartier. Designers such as Armani, Christian Dior and Marc Jacobs all have upscale boutiques here with equally upscale prices. Aside from haute couture, the area around Union Square, primarily Post, Stockton, Geary, Powell, and Sutter Streets, is filled with fine art galleries, some focusing on selling works by big names like Picasso and Chagall, and others devoted to exhibiting works by contemporary artists. Stores along Haight Street appeal to a wide range of people. Moneyed shoppers will find high-end boutiques, trendy alternative clothing stores with hefty price tags, and expensive name-brand shoe stores such as John Fluevog and Luichiny. But bargain hunters can spend a full day wandering between vintage clothing shops, thrift stores and used record stores. Haight Street is also the place to buy '60s, psychedelic paraphernalia, such as tie-dye shirts and peace pipes. Hayes Valley's current commercial district was helped in part by the destruction caused by the 1989 earthquake to the Central Freeway, which was an eyesore to this area and created noise pollution that kept businesses and foot traffic away. Not long after the demise of the freeway, the community began to transform, and commerce moved in. Most of the shops are eclectic women's clothing boutiques with one-of-a-kind items that fetch mid-range to upscale prices. Hayes Street itself is lined with galleries and unique home-decorating shops, such as Alabaster, which is filled with Italian alabaster lamps dating from the 1930s and 40s, among other items. The designer boutiques and upscale chain stores along Union Street tend to attract a yuppified Marina crowd. Aside from women's clothing shops, Union Street is packed with pricey jewellery stores, high-end children's clothing and toy stores, and furniture shops. Most locals prefer the less ritzy stores along Chestnut, between Fillmore and Divisadero. Chestnut features several body shops, spas and salons, as well as women's boutiques, bookstores and neighbourhood grocers and florists.

Shopping Malls

Once the largest peach cannery in the world, the 1907-built Cannery complex has become a shopping spot, mainly for tourists. This three-storey brick warehouse now boasts walkways, balconies, and bridges surrounding a courtyard with 130-year-old olive trees. Many of the gift shops feature handicrafts, such as Native American jewellery, crystal glassware, Russian crafts and handmade ceramics. The Cannery is also home to bars, restaurants, and cafés. 2801 Leavenworth St. Domingo Ghirardelli established himself as a world-famous chocolatier with the 1856 opening of his chocolate shop on Jackson Street. About 40 years later Domingo and his sons purchased the block of property on North Point now known as Ghirardelli Square. Though most visitors make the trip to Ghirardelli for its chocolate or home-made ice cream parlour, the Ghirardelli Square complex also offers an array of unique shops, boutiques, and art galleries. The speciality shops are not cheap, but do offer high-quality items, such as hand-blown glass sculptures, arts and crafts of Mexico, and hand-carved wooden gifts. 900 North Point St. The more than 110 shops at Pier 39 offer every thinkable speciality item. There is a shop just selling kites, one dedicated to Russian dolls, a gem shop solely selling pearls, a music box store, knife shop, an NFL store, sock market - the list goes on. A few named stores such as the Disney Store are at the Pier as well. Beach St and the Embarcadero. The Anchorage, located next to Fisherman's Wharf, is home to more than 30 speciality shops, and restaurants. Gift shops range from the Magnet Kingdom, featuring just magnets and novelty items, to Babushka, focusing on Russian art and collectables. There are also several T-shirt shops geared toward tourists. Street performers and musicians add to the atmosphere. 2800 Leavenworth at Beach. The Embarcadero Center is a six-block complex of five nearly identical office buildings, is filled with retail shops on the bottom floors. In all there are more than 125 shops and restaurants, mainly major chains such as Victoria's Secret and Banana Republic. A number of speciality gift shops are on hand as well. Bounded by Sacramento, Clay, Battery, and Drumm Streets. The San Francisco Shopping Center, located downtown, spans nine levels containing around 65 stores. All the big names such as Nordstrom, Abercrombie & Fitch, J Crew, J Peterman, Kenneth Cole, and Coach have stores here. 865 Market St at 5th. The Crocker Galleria , modelled after Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, has a number of shops dedicated to the big names in fashion, such as Gianni Versace and Polo Ralph Lauren. For a break from shopping, there are restaurants located on the top level of the Galleria, with indoor and outdoor dining. 50 Post St. Shopping and dining are the main activities within this five-acre complex in Japantown. It may not look like much from the outside, but inside the Japan Center, also known as Nihonmachi, there are shops selling cameras, clothes, Japanese furnishings, porcelain items, and pearls. 1737 Post St.

Markets

San Francisco is host to a number of weekly farmers markets. On Sundays and Wednesdays, United Nations Plaza (Market St between 7th and 8th) bustles with fresh produce vendors, who sell their goods from 07h00-17h30. Justin Herman Plaza, at Market and Embarcadero, features a farmers market on Tuesdays 10h30-14h30 and Thursdays (Apr-Nov only) from 16h00-19h00. Also on Saturdays, there is a large farmers market along Alemany Boulevard, with organic produce and other products offered at lower prices than the Embarcadero Farmers Market. This is the oldest farmers market in San Francisco. On Sunday mornings the site of the Alemany farmers market hosts a lively flea market with myriad vendors hawking clothes, books, toys, and an assortment of other gadgets and knickknacks. 100 Alemany Blvd. About 20 local artists put their handmade, homemade crafts for sale in Jack London Square on weekends. The marketplace runs along the marina walk at the foot of Franklin Street in Jack London Square. Since 1976, Berkeley has been holding an eclectic flea market featuring antiques, household items, collectables, and international products. There is a produce section and snack bar at the market, as well. Located at the Ashby BART Station on Ashby Ave and Martin Luther King. About an hour south of San Francisco is the San Jose Flea Market, with more than 2,200 vendors, restaurants, and amusement rides. Admission is free, though there is a USD1 parking fee, which goes up to USD5 on weekends. 1590 Berryessa Rd.

What to Buy

You won't struggle to find whatever you want in San Francisco. Fashions range from the outlandish, to the mainstream, to antique - and wares run the whole gamut from tacky souvenir to bespoke jewellery. Souvenir shops at Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, and Chinatown all sell the standard miniature cable cars, Golden Gate Bridge paraphernalia, Ghirardelli chocolate bars, and cute T-shirts. The most useful items to be found for San Francisco itself are the myriad souvenir sweatshirts, which keep visitors warm in the bone-chilling winter wind and fog. Artists set themselves up in Union Square and along Fisherman's Wharf, selling handicrafts and their own talent, creating portrait drawings and caricatures of tourists on the spot. Other popular items include handmade jewellery and paintings of San Francisco. San Francisco is home to an abundance of music shops. One of the best CD stores in the city is on Haight Street; Amoeba Records (1855 Haight St), offers a massive, wide variety of musical styles, which can take the best part of a day to browse through. Street Light Records in the Castro (2350 Market) is another local favourite. And if you still haven't found what you're looking for then there is the gargantuan Virgin Megastore (2 Stockton at Market) that has separate sections dedicated to CDs, books, and DVDs. There are far too many excellent bookshops in San Francisco to start naming them all. But by far the most historic is City Lights Bookstore in North Beach, a link to the Beat Generation era whose unofficial San Francisco headquarters were in North Beach. Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti opened the shop in 1953, and it still has one of the best collections of poetry in the city, and extensive collections of just about every other literary genre. 261 Columbus Ave. One of the most metaphysically San Francisco-style establishments in the city is Psychic Eye, which caters to all religious and pagan persuasions. This expansive store stocks crystals, imported masks from Indonesia, gargoyles, candelabras, a wall of roots and herbs, incense, fortune-telling kits, healing candles and books on Sufism or "Extraterrestrial Visitations". Half of Psychic Eye's business is generated from a variety of psychic readings, such as tarot, astrology, numerology, as well as services such as chakra balancing and ritual magic, performed in private reading rooms. 301 Fell St.

Opening Hours

Stores are usually open from 10h00-19h00 Mon-Sat. Major department stores stay open for longer hours and also open on Sundays.

Tax Refund

A non-refundable state sales tax of 8.25% is charged on goods in California. Be aware that this isn't shown on the marked price. Tax can be refunded if you ship your goods outside California but this will not be returned to you until departure at the airport.