Distractions, one of Haight-Ashbury’s oldest shops, could close this fall — a victim of lower pandemic era foot traffic and the retirement of founder Jim Siegel after almost a half-century career.
The potential savior: A buyer who would be willing to update the store’s clothing and costume merchandise, and modernize its pen-and-paper sales system for the digital age.
Siegel, who’s known as the “Godfather of the Haight,” is accepting offers and hopes to make a six-figure deal for the store at 1552 Haight St. A sale would include all unsold merchandise and furniture and fixtures. If a buyer can’t be found, he plans to shut down by September.
More important than price, he said, is finding someone who will honor the hippie culture principles that have defined his business, which opened in May 1982: “peace, no racism, everybody’s equal, love everybody.”
“I never did anything for money,” he said. “We wanted to keep the spirit of the hippie movement alive.”
Left: Items for sale in the window of Distractions store in the Haight in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Right: A “For Sale” sign in the window of Distractions store in the Haight in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Photos by Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
But economic realities mean that the store — which offers Victorian dresses, steampunk costumes popular with Burning Man attendees, cannabis bongs and trinkets from around the world — isn’t sustainable in its current form.
In 2020, during shelter-in-place orders, annual sales plunged to around $100,000 from around $650,000 per year before the pandemic.
The return of Burning Man last year led to a boom in business, with sales reaching $800,000. But the past few months have been rough, with foot traffic around half of pre-pandemic levels and relentless, record-breaking storms discouraging shoppers from going outside. Siegel said he has lost around $60,000 since last fall. The store has just two employees, down from five in its heyday.
“Haight Street’s a ghost town on weekdays,” he said. “If you’re not a completely neighborhood-serving business, you’re going to be hurting.”
Distractions is far from the only long-tenured San Francisco retailer on the verge of disappearing. Alexander’s Books at 50 Second St. is shuttering after 32 years. Just For You Cafe in Dogpatch closed last week after 43 years.
Even before COVID, Siegel was hoping to retire and said he hasn’t stayed updated on merchandise trends.
“I haven’t been giving my store the love it needs,” he said. “Someone needs to reinvent it.”
The store also doesn’t have an active website or any online sales capabilities, said Siegel, who calls himself “anti-tech.” But a rich person — maybe someone working in tech or a Burning Man enthusiast with the right attitude — could save the store, he said.
The Summer of Love made Haight-Ashbury world famous and drew Siegel to the neighborhood when he was 16, after he ran away from home in Pennsylvania “to be a hippie.”
As a gay, liberal teenager who protested the Vietnam War, he was bullied and beaten up in school. In San Francisco, he found his community. He joined Haight-Ashbury Switchboard, a free information hub for residents to find out about services like housing and social events.
“I was an outcast. Everybody welcomed me with open arms,” Siegel said. “I’m very blessed.”
In 1976, in a parallel to today, Siegel’s friend Bob Stubbs was ready to retire and shut down Phoenix, the last smoke shop in the Haight at the time.
Siegel and two friends, Rick Stypman and Dennis Stone, thought it would be a tragedy and wanted to take over.
Siegel was 19 and had no business experience. But he and both his friends had each qualified for $5,000 grants through a predecessor to Social Security Disability Insurance, the equivalent of $26,600 each in 2023.
There was plenty of cash to fund a store that rarely turned a profit hawking Indian bedspreads and vintage posters, with Stone selling plants in the front of the store and Stypman managing pet supplies in a loft space.
But the partnership didn’t last, and Siegel eventually opened Distractions as sole proprietor in 1982. Haight-Ashbury was struggling amid the crack cocaine epidemic, with boarded up stores and Siegel remembers being robbed at gunpoint.
“It was a boarded up ghetto,” Siegel said. During the pandemic, the neighborhood has seen retail crime and grappled with tent cities, but Siegel said it’s far safer now compared to the 1980s.
Customers Taylor Preminger and Luna Cuevas laugh as they shop at Distractions store in the Haight in San Francisco. The store is known for selling clothing to Burning Man attendees.
Gabrielle Lurie/The ChronicleAs the counterculture shifted, Distractions followed, selling new wave, punk rock, reggae, Grateful Dead and skateboard culture merchandise over the years.
In 1995, Siegel and friends threw the first electronic music party at Burning Man under the group Consortium of Collective Consciousness. A few years later, Distractions became the festival’s first San Francisco ticket outlet, as recounted in a city report that led to the shop becoming designated a Legacy Business.
Siegel remembers Burning Man growing more and more popular, and one year Distractions had $1 million in cash from ticket sales hidden in the back of the store. He said Burning Man eventually provided a safe. In 2012, Burning Man sold out for the first time and switched exclusively to online ticketing, Siegel said, but customers still flock to the store for costumes and gear and a substantial portion of its yearly sales happen in August.
“Burning Man is what has kept the store afloat in the last 20 years,” he said.
The festival didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
People pass by Distractions store in the Haight in San Francisco. The clothing shop has been open since 1976, but could close this fall if a buyer isn't found. Owner Jim Siegel says he's seen less business since the pandemic began.
Gabrielle Lurie / The ChronicleSiegel lives by Alamo Square and plans to visit Haight-Ashbury regularly, even after retirement. “This is my whole social life. Every one of my friends is from the store,” he said.
He’s saddened by recent deaths of many “old timers” in the hippie community. But he feels part of a still vibrant neighborhood, getting to know the homeless youths who hang out near the store. In turn, they’ve helped chase down would-be shoplifters.
“It feels like we’ve been protected by guardian angels,” he said.
For all the struggles of the pandemic years, Siegel remains optimistic about the future of both the neighborhood and the city.
“San Francisco has reinvented itself so many times in the 50 years I’ve been there. I think it will reinvent itself again,” Siegel said. “I always want to have hope.”
Reach Roland Li: roland.li@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @rolandlisf
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