STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Thanks Detroit for your post - made me remember to look up when the SF store is opening!

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/11/07/daily10.html

Swedish retailer moving into San Francisco
Sarah Duxbury

H&M is following its usual pattern.

The Swedish fashion retailer likes to enter a new region and blanket it in a short time with scads of new stores. Next week, it will open its first two San Francisco stores -- the first west of the Mall of America in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

The 150 Powell St. location will be a West Coast flagship, with 35,000 square feet of retail space. In a building with a historic facade, that project has been in the works for over a year.

Several blocks away, at 150 Post St., H&M will open a smaller, 10,000-square-foot location on the same day, Nov. 19. That lease was signed just two months ago.

"We felt like we wanted to make an impact and state: 'We're coming to San Francisco,'" said Lisa Sandberg, a spokeswoman for H&M. "Opening these on the same day was a good way of saying here we are."

The smaller store will feature fashions for adult and young women. The flagship will also feature men's items and cosmetics. Both stores will sell lingerie.

The Powell Street store will eventually employ 164, and the Post Street store will employ 43.

Other H&M stores are likely to come soon, with the company looking for new locations throughout California. A contract has been signed to open a store at Concord's Sun Valley Mall next spring. And rumors are circulating that H&M is looking to have a third location in San Francisco when the new Westfield San Francisco Shopping Center opens next Fall.

Union Square is quickly becoming home to fashion-forward, low-cost retailers. H&M will have two locations. Forever 21 recently opened its doors to capture the youth market, and Zara International also has trendy, cost-conscious shoppers lining up.