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Downtown San Francisco See’s Candies shop closes for good on Christmas Eve

Box that says see's candies in a window
A See’s Candies location in the Embarcadero Center in Downtown San Francisco is closing. | Source: Robert Alexander

A See’s Candies location in the Embarcadero Center in Downtown San Francisco will have its last day of operations on Sunday, according to a store employee.

Employees at the store will transfer to work at the company’s nearby location at 542 Market St. The closure leaves four See’s Candies locations in San Francisco in all, including one at 754 Clement St. in the Richmond District and another store at the Stonestown Galleria mall.

The company also operates a pop-up location at the Fairmont Hotel during the holidays. See’s Candies did not respond to a request for comment about the reason behind the closure.

The Embarcadero Center is struggling with a broader vacancy challenge that has hit Downtown San Francisco as the pandemic changed office work patterns. Many retail businesses in the Financial District have closed amid dramatic drops in foot traffic.

Earlier this year, Banana Republic closed its location at the Embarcadero Center, amid a larger pullback by parent company Gap Inc.

Vacant spaces have been turned into temporary pop-up retail locations in the Embarcadero Center via the city-funded Vacant to Vibrant program.

See’s Candies is a California institution known for its variety of confections often given as gifts during the holidays. From a single store in Los Angeles in 1921, the company has expanded to more than 200 locations around the country.

See’s headquarters are located in South San Francisco and the company is controlled by Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Correction: This post has been clarified to state that there will soon be four See’s locations in San Francisco in all.