Latest / Best of: Features / Small business owners are at war over a new gift shop on a quiet SF street

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Small business owners are at war over a new gift shop on a quiet SF street · Best of: Features

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  Small business owners are at war over a new gift shop on
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  a quiet SF Street. Written by Amanda Bartlett. This article is
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  being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. A popular gift
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  shop is about to open on Clement Street in San Francisco's Richmond
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  district, but not everyone is happy about it. On Thursday, the San
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  Francisco Planning Commission voted to approve a new outpost of therapy, a
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  chain of boutiques with ten locations throughout the city and around the
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  Bay Area at 32 Clement Street. The 1,231 square foot space has
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  been vacant for two years and previously served as an eyeglass store.
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  The decision is the culmination of a month long battle for owner
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  Jing Chen to open the boutique, which specializes in toys, candles, jewelry,
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  and other knick-knacks, after she bought the building for two million dollars
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  and registered her business there last December. Neighboring businesses pushed back. As
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  Mission Local first reported, members of the Clement Street Merchants Association argued,
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  the high foot traffic, small business dominated Clement Street corridor already has
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  enough jellycat plush toys, whimsical baby onesies and magnets with sassy slogans.
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  In San Francisco, chain stores, defined as any business with eleven or
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  more locations, must file for a permit before getting permission from the
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  city to open. Business owners said that an eleventh location of the
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  store would make Therapy a formula retail chain requiring conditional use approval,
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  leading to an enforcement complaint in March after Chen reportedly installed an
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  awning and sign and displayed merchandise in the space without securing the
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  proper permits. City planners issued a notice of enforcement to Chen to
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  correct the violations in April, namely over the zoning of the store,
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  which had been classified as a medical office, not retail. In the
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  months since, signs have been posted to store windows along several blocks
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  of the Richmond by the Merchants Association, lobbying for no formula retail
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  on Clement Street. Their Change dot org petition urging the Planning Commission
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  to deny transconditional use application also amassed over four hundred signatures. At
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  the Thursday hearing, Chen said she spearheaded therapy in nineteen ninety four
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  after moving to San Francisco from Guangzhou, China at the age of
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  eighteen. She used the money from her job at a Burger King
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  in Japantown to open the closet sized store on Valencia Street, which
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  she now runs with her daughter and two managers, who were employed
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  there as college freshmen fifteen years ago. I am a person. I'm
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  not just this invisible retail chain, she said. I'm not some faceless
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  monster that some portray me to be. Chen acknowledged that she made
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  a mistake in preparing to open the store without fully understanding the
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  planning code, and tried to remedy it once the notice was issued.
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  We can either have that storefront empty for another two years, or
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  they can welcome me, she said of her neighbors. During public comment,
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  Chris Squire, president of
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  the Merchants Association, said their major concerns about the project stemmed from
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  Therapy's lack of communication with the neighborhood until Chen had received the
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  notice. As small business owners we're held to a certain standard, he
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  said, and having somebody come into the community with piles of cash
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  to buy a building to flagrantly skip over major parts of the
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  code and the processes that we are upheld to, it's just not
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  right. Lindsay Hanson, owner of the Future Past, a vintage clothing store
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  offering alteration services, was among five business owners who spoke out against
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  Chen, calling therapy the antithesis of the unique business corridor that hats,
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  come to represent Clement Street. I've learned in this process that the
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  owner of therapy has been proved to be dishonest and unneighborly, she
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  said. Meanwhile, Amanda Weld, co owner of Tantrum, a store specializing in
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  children's toys and other accessories, said she was not seeking protection from
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  fair competition, but asked that the Planning Commission uphold San Francisco's formula
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  retail protections to prevent corporate duplication. How does allowing a Formula retail
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  chain that carries the exact same stuffies, onesies, SF merch, hats, hair
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  clips, candles, cards, socks and jewelry lines as several other existing businesses
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  within the same three blocks fill a need? She asked. But several
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  spoke in favor of Chen and Therapy, which also collected over seven
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  hundred signatures in support, according to the Planning Department. Agnes Leong, a
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  resident of the Richmond for thirty five years, who previously worked as
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  an elementary school teacher and is now employed at Schubert's Bakery, said
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  she was surprised by the widespread resistance to the store. I've always
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  known the Richmond merchants to be friendly, welcoming, and inclusive, she said.
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  Chen is not a corporation, Liang added. She’s is a small family
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  business, with her daughter running the business. I think it's great that
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  she wants to buy a storefront that has been empty for two
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  years. Rick Salazar, a sales agent in San
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  Francisco’s said Therapy was responsible for the renaissance of Valencia Street, and
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  called Chen an incredible businesswoman he had worked with for years. Henna
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  Ramos, who identified herself as a neighbor of Chen's, called her a
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  connector, stating that she loves her community, she loves her people, so
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  I just want to make sure she's not being mischaracterized here as
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  a greedy business owner. In the end, Chen received a special permit,
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  through the Merchants Association told Mission Local they plan to appeal the
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  decision when it goes to the Board of Supervisors. The news raises
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  questions over the strict enforcement of San Francisco's Formula Retail Regulation and
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  whether it helps local businesses or keeps storefronts vacant and openings delayed.
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  Initially enacted to prevent corporations like Starbucks and McDonald's from pushing out
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  mom and pop shops, the rules have led to hurdles faced by
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  restaurants like El Farolito, which fought to open in North Beach last
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  year after a ten month long saga. Once it opens, therapy's hours
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  are expected to be nine AM to nine PM on Monday through
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  Sunday.