Any new activity in the Emporium Centre (formerly the San Francisco Centre, and better known as the Westfield mall) is a welcome sight. With its greyed-out windows and myriad signs of former glory, the hulking shell is perhaps the most visible casualty in the city of the retail apocalypse caused by the one-two punch of Internet shopping and the pandemic.
The mall’s limbo has been interminable: A long-awaited auction for the in-default property, set for early November, was postponed for an undisclosed reason.
So, the Sunday soft opening of Sucka Flea Marketplace — the first brick-and-mortar outpost of wildly popular pop-up markets in the Mission and Potrero Hill — feels like a genuinely thrilling proposition for the struggling shopping center. In lieu of classic mall brands like Abercrombie & Fitch or American Eagle, why not infuse the mall with a cool cachet of vintage shopping and local wares?
Sucka Flea Market is tucked away on the ground floor of the Centre, not far from the central food court. Walls of shelving are filled in part, while racks of apparel await set-up — a Sucka Flea Marketplace step-and-repeat stands in the corner. They’re still in soft launch mode, Kat Pham, one of the heads of the Marketplace, said when I stopped by on a recent visit. (Pham declined to provide further comment until the official opening, but said that it’s been a mad dash to get businesses settled in after picking up the keys early last month.)
Soft or not, the store’s launch is already a shot in the arm for the mall. According to Ben Davis connoisseur Ray Abad, whose vintage shop Frisko Bens has been a longtime fixture at the Sucka Flea pop-ups, the foot traffic on Day One was strong and steady, despite some initial skepticism from shoppers.
“The store made good money on the first day,” Abad told Gazetteer SF. “People seem to be very excited with what we’re doing. People are excited to see some life in the mall.” Abad touted one hopeful statistic: In the days since it opened, his shop has made enough to cover its share of rent. The shop’s proximity to the food court, where a good chunk of foot traffic still goes despite retail woes, also helps, he quipped.
Crucially, the shop feels cool, a word that has not come up when describing the mall — or, really, much of Market Street — in recent years. But Abad noted that Market Street was a big fashion hub for Frisco locals in the ‘80s through the early aughts. Stores like Kaplan’s were flagship destinations, and drove foot traffic from young mall rats, he told Gazetteer. Sucka Flea’s launch might be a way to bring back not just the vitality of the mall, but a real sense of throwback San Francisco pride.
“What’s kind of cool about it is now that malls are becoming a thing of the past, it’s like, vintage gear is the same spirit of nostalgia,” Abad said. “Us being able to be here is a nostalgic thing.”
