San Francisco’s legendary department store boss Gump’s has challenged Mayor London Breed to swap jobs with him for 180 days so he can tackle the crime-ridden city’s mounting homelessness.
CEO John Chachas, 59, compared the Golden City to Gotham and said he believes Democratic officials are at a “crisp point” in their ability to change fortunes.
The multimillionaire’s call to action comes after he paid for a full-page ad in the city’s most-read newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, to publish a scathing open letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Breed.
He accused politicians of dereliction of duty, citing the rampant homelessness and theft that have become a hallmark of the city’s streets – and now threaten the existence of his historic, 166-year-old shop.
On Monday, he said he would not allow his long-standing luxury furniture business to become the latest victim of the so-called “retail apocalypse” without a fight – and even offered to take over Breed’s job for six months to sort out the problem.
John Chachas, 59, the CEO of legendary San Francisco department store Gump’s, has urged Mayor London Breed to swap jobs with him for 180 days so he can fight rising homelessness in the crime-ridden city
Gump’s, a luxury furniture and home accessories retailer, has been in business for 166 years – its only physical location is just a block from San Francisco’s Union Square – the heart of the city’s crime and homelessness problems
Chachas accused the politicians of dereliction of duty, citing the rampant homelessness and theft that have become a hallmark of the city’s streets – and now threaten the existence of his historic, 166-year-old shop
Gump’s has been a Bay Area staple for decades. The only physical location is just a block from the once-glamorous Union Square, which is now at the heart of the city’s homelessness issues.
“What motivated me to write the letter was the belief that until public opinion was publicly debated, we would not see any change in the behavior of elected officials,” Chachas told Fox News.
“And so I decided that since I have the money and the ability, I would try to make that clear to them.”
“I have a wonderful company with wonderful people who care deeply about it – but we live in a city that doesn’t work.”
“I would probably swap jobs with Mayor Breed for 180 days,” he added.
“I’ll let her run Gump’s for 180 days, she can let me run the city for 180 days and we’ll see how we do… You’d see a lot of change in 180 days, I can tell you that.”
Chachas said the situation was “getting worse” but that Newsome and Breed were “either unable to understand it or unwilling to actually make the necessary policy changes.”
“I’ve decided I’m going to swing downstairs,” he said. “Gump’s will survive and we will move elsewhere if we have to.”
“I don’t really want to do that, but it’s kind of crazy living in an environment where you go to work every day or people go to work and customers can’t go to your store – it’s not normal operations. ” Environment.’
Chacha’s call to action comes after he paid for a full-page ad in the city’s most-read newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, to publish a scathing open letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor of London Breed
Newsom and Breed have observed a sharp decline in San Francisco since the pandemic
The dirt and squalor at the intersection of Jones Street and Eddy Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, a few blocks from the department store
He added that officials must act now to prevent the city from becoming more like Gotham – a fictional dystopia from the Batman movies.
“I think we’re at a critical juncture,” Chachas said. “This can be reversed.” This can be fixed. It cannot be fixed by pretending that the problem will go away.
“Functioning business districts are incompatible with these two awful pillars of empty offices on the one hand and huge conglomerations of homeless people on the other that aren’t being serviced.” You won’t have a functioning city center.
“Look at the movie ‘Batman’ and ‘Gotham’ – because that’s the direction you’re going if you don’t change that.”
In his letter, published Aug. 13, Chachas said he feared his shop’s 166th Christmas season “may be our last” as what he called the “tyranny of the minority” threatened the “livelihoods of the many.”
Chachas, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the US Senate in Nevada in 2010, blamed the acute decline in downtown on the “impact of Covid policies advising elected Democrats to leave office.”
Gump’s, which specializes in luxury furniture and jewelry, was founded in 1861 and purchased by the Chacha family in 2019.
The company has only one physical location — on Post Street, just a block from San Francisco’s once-glamorous Union Square, which is now at the heart of the crime crisis.
A woman lies unconscious in front of a children’s playground. Even upscale areas like Russian Hill, which is part of the cable car route along Hyde Street, and tourist hotspots like the Golden Gate Bridge have been affected
The luxury retailer would be the latest in a long list of stores to leave the city as politicians have failed to tackle the persistent crime and homelessness seen since the pandemic
The dire situation has prompted a mass exodus of retailers in the area, with at least half of the neighborhood’s stores closing their doors since the pandemic began.
Brooks Brothers, Ray-Ban, Christian Louboutin, Lululemon and Marmot are among at least 95 retailers who have packed up and left town for the countryside.
That number continues to grow — Williams Sonoma, AT&T, Nordstrom, and Banana Republic all recently announced that they will also be closing their downtown stores in the coming months.
The last remaining stores, like Target, have taken to locking all of their inventory behind glass to deter shoplifters.
Industry groups have identified that there is a problem with theft. The National Retail Federation says organized retail crime costs stores about $100 billion a year in losses, according to a 2022 survey.
According to the survey, retailers saw a 27 percent increase in thefts from organized crime rings in 2021. To address the problem, they invested more money in security measures to protect employees, customers, and goods.