A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NINTENDO STORE opened in San Francisco’s Union Square, breathing new life into the shopping destination, not unlike a gamer gently blowing into a game cartridge in the 1990s to fix a glitch.
The store is one of the most high-profile openings in the tourist-heavy shopping district since a spate of retail closures or planned closures in recent years left the area with an uncertain future, as anchor tenants like Nordstrom’s, Barney’s, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue all closed or announced plans to shutter their Union Square stores.
A crowd of roughly 50 people — and maybe as many reporters — on Thursday stopped by the store on the corner of Geary Boulevard and Powell Street to see Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser welcome shoppers to the company’s second store in the United States, and the first to open in 20 years.
“We see Nintendo San Francisco as an incredible opportunity to give visitors near and far and of all ages the chance to experience the worlds of Nintendo, our characters and our products,” Bowser said. “Being here in historic Union Square puts us literally in the heart of San Francisco,” he said.
Before cutting the store’s ribbon with the assistance of a person dressed like a giant Mario, Mayor Daniel Lurie told the crowd that he used to sneak his Game Boy under the covers for bonus playtime before bed as a child.
There was no Black Friday-style rush once the doors opened — the store is taking reservations for the first weekend in anticipation of heavy demand and will also require reservations on Memorial Day weekend.
The store sells Nintendo-themed apparel and home goods, plushies, totes, art, toys and, of course, video games and consoles like the company’s Switch console. The company’s next generation console, the Switch 2, will be available starting June 5.
The store has a kiosk that lets customers design a customized console and a testing area to try games and different products. Some products are sold exclusively at the San Francisco store, according to the company.
Trevor Strohl, a 27-year-old Benicia resident with a jazz/video game music fusion band called “Character Select,” said he was excited for the opening and managed to secure a reservation to visit the store on its opening day. He played along on his saxophone with the Nintendo themes playing outside the store as the crowd gathered, creating a festival-like atmosphere on the western side of Union Square that included a few costumed fans.
Strohl said he thought the store could help area businesses by attracting new types of customers.
“It will bring out a lot of people that don’t normally come out here,” he said.
Another Nintendo fan, Michelle Javier, was dressed as Luigi and met up with her friend, Carissa, who was dressed as Toad, Mario’s mushroom-domed pal. She had even made her own Toad stickers the night before.
Javier said she hadn’t made a reservation and would visit the store another day. But for the opening, she came to “have fun, catch vibes, make friends and cosplay.”
“It’s going to make more people come out, especially after COVID,” she said.
“It will be a place to gather, and that’s exactly what we need. It will bring the community together,” she added.
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