(KRON) -- After owning a small business in the Bay Area for over 20 years, one owner tells KRON4 that the death of downtown San Francisco has pushed him out of the city.
Much attention has been focused on the big names leaving downtown San Francisco including Westfield, Nordstrom and Cinemark. However, the slow return of downtown to pre-pandemic foot traffic has also left many small business owners with high leases that they can't maintain.
Roseller “Ariel” Tolentino has been involved in small businesses across the Bay Area for more than three decades. He worked at Russell's Convenience store, which has been a part of the San Francisco area since 1977. After working at Russell's for over 10 years, Tolentino then became an owner for the past 22 years.
"The problem isn’t the leasing, even if they give you a break on your rent, it’s not enough," Tolentino told KRON4. "There’s not enough people coming to work anymore."
(Photo courtesy of Tolentino family)
At one point, Tolentino owned and operated six convenience store locations across the Bay Area. He hoped to eventually pass the business on to his three children, who worked and spent time at the stores as they grew up, but "it didn't go as planned," Tolentino said.
Tolentino lost the leases on two of his locations, and another three closed slowly over the following years. He closed his final location at 333 Market on Friday.
Before the pandemic hit, Russell's Convenience would serve between 500-600 customers in each location each day. On his last days in business, that number was down to 150 customers.
One of Tolentino's previous locations on Mission Street is now an Equinox Gym. A monthly membership at that location will run you $195, but Equinox requires a yearly commitment as well as a $500 initiation fee. So anyone hoping to workout in the decked out gym should expect to drop over $2,800.
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While he is incredibly grateful for his experience as a business owner, closing the store was still a difficult choice. "It's very sad to say this is the end of the journey," Tolentino said.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/3a2rMi6
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