Nordstrom is coming back to San Francisco — but not how you remember it

Nordstrom is set to reestablish a presence in San Francisco with a new, smaller store, Nordstrom Local, following approval Thursday by the city’s Planning Commission. The move comes nearly two years after the retailer’s dramatic departure from downtown San Francisco, where it closed both its flagship store at Westfield Mall and a nearby Nordstrom Rack in 2023. Those closures were widely seen as emblematic of the city’s retail struggles, as foot traffic plummeted and commercial vacancies rose in the urban core. Unlike its full-scale department stores, the upcoming 1,648-square-foot Nordstrom...