“It’s not the spirit, it’s the pocketbook,” that’s waning, Uti said, watching visitors flip through racks of neon short-shorts and shiny bralettes. The shop’s seamstresses produce about 90% of its inventory of jewelry and clothing, Uti estimates, noting that her stockpile of 1980s-era fabrics allows her team to create unique looks.
While she hasn’t seen this kind of dip in decades, she and other shopkeepers are taking heart in the fact that the biggest surge in sales typically comes 10 days before the festival, when out-of-towners fly to San Francisco to stock up ahead of their departure for the desert.
“The store is running every single day, with longer hours, up ’til the Burn,” said Dave Carr, who founded the fuzzy-coat purveyor Kimono Dave at 1681 Haight St. He and his team plan to hustle over the next few weeks to take advantage of what they hope is a rush, amid what has been a slower festival season overall.
“This whole year has been a struggle,” Carr said. The lower festival attendance has affected sales for artists and designers who sell at or for them. “I’ve just seen a massive slip, personally, but also from the people around me.”