San Francisco-area businesses see uptick in customers during week-long heat wave

SAN FRANCISCO – The week-long heat wave has been great for businesses in coastal cities like Half Moon Bay, Sausalito and San Francisco.

The scorching heat pushed a lot of inland neighbors to cool off along the Pacific Coast.

“We see a lot of guests coming from Sacramento, the East Bay, even the Central Valley will come up for overnight, just to get away from the heat because it’s so unbearable,” said Bob Partrite, CEO of Fog Harbor Fish House at Pier 39 in San Francisco.

Partrite said the length of the heat wave gave them time to bring in more food, alcohol and chefs and servers to handle the rush. He said the heat has been great for business since Monday.

“We’ve got five restaurants here, so we’ve seen a 15 to 20 percent increase depending on the day,” Partrite said.

Many retailers said sales are also heating up for them with a lot of inland shoppers.

Dylan Defreitas owns three shops at Pier 39.

“We’re probably seeing about 20 to 30 percent more [customers]. It’s a big jump for us,” Defreitas said. 

Defreitas stocked up his stores with extra merchandise and added two to three more workers this weekend.

“Getting the stores with as full of products as we can. We have extra people here today. We’re probably going to be here late, we’re going to be staying late,” Defreitas said.

Not just the stores, but the local beaches were packed with people.

“We decided to have a fun beach day. We have a picnic going with some food and we’re just enjoying the nice heat,” said beach-goer Gemma Estevez, who was visiting from Southern California. Estevez and a group of friends were enjoying the sun at Crissy Field Beach.

Nearby Baker Beach and Ocean Beach also had a lot of visitors.

“It’s absolutely gorgeous with the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, which never gets old.  I might even get into the water today,” said beach-goer Chloe Neilson.

Some families also fired up the grills at the local beaches.

“Our house is way too hot right now. San Francisco doesn’t have A/C because it doesn’t typically need it. So, this is very unusual.  Better to get outside and enjoy it than to melt at home,” said San Francisco resident and beach-goer Emilie Boras.

While this heat wave was rare for San Francisco, Partrite said he and nearby business owners needed it. They were thriving under the sun.

“Anytime we can get this amount of people coming on a Monday to Thursday or Monday to Friday outside of our Summer months is a big bonus,” Partrite said.

With Fleet Week several days away, retailers believed any leftover merchandise that they ordered extra for this weekend would likely be sold by next weekend. They plan to staff up for the air show as well.