Most retail is on busy streets, so it wouldn’t be great for SFH. Most cities could rezone retail to MFH though. The US has WAY more retail sq footage per capita than any other country. It could go a long way to alleviating the housing shortage. It’ll never happen though.
Another retail death => Link => All Orchard Supply Hardware stores to close by year’s end
SAN JOSE — A South Bay staple since the Great Depression, Orchard Supply Hardware is closing all its stores by year’s end, a spokeswoman for parent company Lowe’s said Tuesday.
The news comes ahead of an earnings call Wednesday, when more details about the move are slated to be released.
Orchard’s 4,000 employees learned of the permanent shutdown Tuesday, said Jackie Hartzell, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s. Store liquidations are scheduled to begin Thursday.
The Bay Area is home to more than 40 of Orchard’s 98 locations. Others are in California, Oregon and Florida.
Orchard has been a Bay Area fixture since it was founded in 1931 in San Jose as a farmers co-op. Faced with growing competition from big-box retailers, Orchard was bought by Sears in 1996, but then was spun off as an independent, publicly traded operation at the end of 2011.
In 2013, Orchard filed for bankruptcy protection in a bid to preserve its iconic name while turning over most of its stores to Lowe’s.
“We want you to know that our customers will see no changes in their Orchard shopping experience as part of this transition — there will still be an Orchard sign in front of all of our locations, and our teams will still dress in green,” Orchard’s president and CEO, Mark Baker, wrote on the company’s website at the time. “In short, we’ll be the same Orchard, but we’ll be in a much stronger position to serve you in the future.”
News that Orchard is closing all its stores was met with shock and disappointment in San Jose. At W. San Carlos and Montgomery streets, where the first store was built and later rebuilt, a steady stream of customers pulled up to locked doors and a sign on the windows saying “temporarily closed.”
“It’s horrible. I’ve lived my whole life in San Jose. It’s an institution and it’s too bad Lowe’s doesn’t appreciate that,” said Reuben Castillo of San Jose. “It’s one of the few stores left where you get customer service, where you can go and say, ‘I need this,’ and someone can tell you what aisle it’s on and where to find it. You don’t get that at Lowe’s and Home Depot.”
The store is usually open until 9 p.m. on weeknights, but dozens of cars and trucks pulled up and turned around after 7 p.m.
Eric Miguel, 32, said he’s going to miss the convenience of coming in for nuts and bolts, the items he needs for “small handyman tasks.”
“It will be a blow to have Orchard Supply go away,” Miguel said.
Castillo, however, says he’s downright upset and thinks the closures will hurt Lowe’s.
“I think Lowe’s is going to lose customers. You’re closing down an institution in San Jose and firing people so they’ll go to Lowe’s,” Castillo said. “Customer service doesn’t exist anymore.”
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OMG, I just saw this reported!!! God, I love OSH…
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I always prefer OSH, even two weeks before I was there and looked at sign of “Store Closing”, thought it was for that particular store, but not realized entire OSH !
Yeah, this one hits home for me. A good hardware store with plenty of attentive clerks and even a workshop that will cut something for you on the spot is really a nice resource to have and I am willing to pay for in terms of higher prices. Since owned by Lowe’s, I wonder if they will simply convert to Lowe’s. Better than nothing, I suppose…
Their store aren’t big enough to convert to a big box store. I am sorry to see them go too.
Consumers will have less options as more and more retail go out of business. It’s sad but unavoidable.
In the future, consumers will need to pay more but retail business will get healthy profit margin to pay their workers better. I think it’s a positive development in the long term. Consumer price is too low in America, we need to raise prices so that people can reduce waste and reduce trade deficit.
We have a housing shortage. These prime real estate can be built into high rise condos or offices to provide better and higher land use. Hope neighbors won’t fight off their teeth 
Just like my last ordeal in finding a gas cooktop, nobody had inventory that I could take home that day. That, was the frustrating thing. Yeah, if I wanted a floor sample or whatever they had in stock then I could get something.
Should be doubled so Americans don’t have much money to spend in housing. Wait… confused 
Environment has become my chief concern. Home price is already high enough let it be if it wants to plateur
Frankly, I feel price of houses are still low compared to the pay 
Historically high doesn’t imply high It has been too low. Verify yourself. Check median price of house/ median pay for various nations.
Thing is cities (or at least NIMBYs) don’t want to do that (at least in the bay area) because of fear )of loss of tax income??). I sat in on a couple of city council hearings in Cupertino on proposed development and it was amazing the number of people who came out of the woodwork to complain if a supermarket was going to go away as part of a redevelopment because of reasons a, b, c, d, … Cupertino has more then enough supermarkets…
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Wow! You did that? Only you or wife also?
both. Just for the heck of it.
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Participation is super important. Thank you for your time well spent.
More people need to get out of their couch and live the real society instead of live a life made from media.
RIP OSH …
Ace Hardware should pick up the strategically located stores…
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Just-not-running-well-why-87-year-old-13175388.php
Amazon should buy it…Like Whole foods…and try to take on Lowes
The Ace Hardware closest to me as an alcohol section.