Forever 21 now open in San Francisco

The San Francisco location of Forever 21 opened last week. It's in the old
Bank of America building right at the Powell Street cable car turnaround,
near Gap and across Market Street from the Nordstrom mall (SF Shopping
Centre or whatever it is).
I didn't notice the store right away because the sign is the most subtle
thing about this Forever 21 store, considering the flashiness of the
clothes, the yellowness of the bags, and the loudness of the music, lol. If
I hadn't seen a shopper with a Forever 21 bag I wouldn't have known it was
open. (Not complaining, as a yellow and black sign would be tacky here, or
anywhere for that matter.) BTW, does anybody know whether their shopping
bags still have bible quotes on the bottom?
There are three floors of selling space and the store is HUGE. The bebe
knockoff stuff is on the third floor, more activewear type of mdse is on the
second floor, and the first/ground floor houses the more typical pants,
tops, blazers, etc.
The line for the dressing room on the ground floor was short but it took too
long anyway so even though I was only 4th or 5th in line I gave up after 12
minutes. I had only one top to try on and frankly it wasn't worth my time
(clock ticking away in the parking structure). I'd have bought it and tried
it on at home but they have a "no refund" policy (store credit only) and I
don't want them hanging onto my few dollars if I didn't like the top.
Considering there is always a dressing room line at the smaller F21 store at
the Serramonte mall, I can't believe they didn't add at least a few more
dressing rooms on the ground floor (there were only 8, I believe and only 7
were being used).
Some details of the bank's interior architecture were preserved by building
an interior inside of the shell. But it is ironic that a pretty grand
interior is now being used for a cheapo store with an inherently
unsophisticated selling environment that can never live up to the grandeur
of the bank building. In a way I sort of longed to see a more sophisticated
selling environment in that space, but it's such a large building in such a
high traffic location that something like F21 (or H&M) probably will work
well there.
No "grand openeing" promotions or sales, at least not when I was there.
Happy shopping.
Claire

too
It always seems to take a lot of time to get a dressing room for me too.
Forever 21 has really blown up, hasn't it? IIRC, they used to have one or
two stores just in Latino neighborhoods in LA and I used to shop there for
trendy tops. But I'm not sure if they started out here or not? At any rate,
the prices used to be cheaper and more in line with the quality, I think. I
have some "in–store credit" there, which I'm having trouble getting rid of!

"Miss Livvy" <Xeveryidiwantistak...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:nfLRd.949$873....@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
rate,
I of!
I don't know that much about Forever 21 but it was my understanding they
began in LA and were originally called Fashion 21 (from the pictures I've
seen on the boycott sites). I first heard about them here on AF :)
Apparently they have over 200 stores now. They announced on Thursday they
are buying Gadzooks chain in the Dallas area.
I've only shopped at F21 a few times but it does seem that the prices have
risen somewhat (that means a few dollars per item). It is still
comparatively inexpensive, just not an insane bargain, so I agree with you.
What you said about the "in store" credit is exactly why I didn't buy the
top.
It cracks me up that the company advertises for a store manager with this
typo (not to mention the poor grammar) in its ad on Yahoo:
"Please indicate the position and specific Mall or City your interested in"
Claire