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With its grand department stores and funky secondhand boutiques, San Francisco summons a full range of shopping experiences. From the anarchist bookstore to the mouthwatering specialty-food purveyors at the gleaming Ferry Building, the local shopping opportunities reflect the city's various personalities. Visitors with limited time often focus their energies on the high-density Union Square area, where several major department stores tower over big-name boutiques. But if you're keen to find unique local shops, consider moving beyond the square's radius.
Each neighborhood has its own distinctive finds, whether it's 1960s housewares, cheeky stationery, or vintage Levi's. If shopping in San Francisco has a downside, it's that real bargains can be few and far between. Sure, neighborhoods such as the Lower Haight and the Mission have thrift shops and other inexpensive stores, but you won't find many discount outlets in the city, where rents are sky-high and space is at a premium.
Seasonal sales, usually in late January and late July or August, are good opportunities for finding deep discounts on clothing. The San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner advertise sales. For smaller shops, check the free SF Weekly, which can be found on street corners every Wednesday. Sample sales are usually held by individual manufacturers, so check your favorite company's website before visiting.
The Spanish brand's whimsical footwear is wildly popular with young adults. Unexpected embroidered patterns (leaves, butterflies) adorn many of the pairs, sometimes beginning on one shoe and continuing on the other. Other styles are reminiscent of bowling and boxing shoes.
Three floors of designer shoes, both dressy (Kenneth Cole, Anne Klein) and sporty (Adidas, Timberland), beckon bargain hunters. In return for the bare-bones ambience and do-it-yourself service at this branch of a national chain, you get discounts of 25% to 50%—and up to 70% off the clearance items in the basement.
From the chunky to the sleek, the shoes carried here—including those by Chie Mihara, Red Wing, Del Carlo, and Paul Smith—are top notch. And if $500 seems steep for a pair of black boots, perhaps you haven't seen the perfect pair by Fiorentini + Baker.
After more than a century of selling trunks, handbags, and pet leashes to Parisians, Goyard opened its second store here to offer San Franciscans a discreet alternative to Louis Vuitton. Rather than splash its name everywhere, the store signals luxury with a signature chevron pattern. Even if you walk away empty-handed, you'll be reminded of what travel used to mean.
Punchy colors, retro shapes, and a cheeky sense of humor have made Kate Spade purses wildly popular among ladies of all ages. Case in point: the Over the Moon Rocket clutch is actually shaped as a rocket and contains 14-karat gold-plated hardware. The shop also stocks shoes, cosmetics cases, datebooks, and note cards.
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