San Francisco toy store, Jeffrey’s Toys, inspiration for ‘Toy Story,’ closing after 86 years over ‘perils and violence’ in city

San Francisco’s oldest toy store, which inspired the Pixar classic “Toy Story,” is permanently shutting its doors after nearly a century in business with the city’s widespread crime and violence problem playing a significant factor.

Jeffrey’s Toys broke the news Friday it will be closing up shop at the end of February, marking the end of an iconic 86-year run.

“The store has been struggling for a number of years, due to the perils and violence of the downtown environment, inflation, the decrease in consumer spending and the demise of retail across the world,” attorney Ken Sterling told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The family is saddened it has come to this and we’ve explored all other options to try and keep the business going,” Sterling explained.

Founded in 1938 by the Luhn family, Jeffrey’s Toys once had several locations across the Bay Area but has since dwindled to one final location in the Financial District of San Francisco.

Its founders, Morton and Birdie Luhn, had opened a five-and-dime variety store called “Birdies Variety,” but the couple rebranded the store as “Birdie’s Toy House” — exclusively selling toys after World War II, according to the shop’s website.

The store eventually transferred to their grandson Mark Luhn, whose son and current co-owner Matthew Luhn had worked for Pixar as a story artist and writer in the mid-1990s.

“During ‘Toy Story,’ we would have my dad come to give us ideas,” Matthew Luhn told SFGate in Dec. 2023. “And when we did reference for almost all the ‘Toy Story’ films, we always went to Jeffrey’s Toys. My dad just closed up the store and said, ‘Just play, have fun and let me know if you need anything.’”

Signs of trouble first arose when the business saw a decline during the pandemic.

The family paid close to $20,000 each month in rent, and the cost of keeping the shop running became unattainable.

San Francisco’s rampant violent crimes also impacted the store’s staff.

Luhn told the San Francisco Chronicle that one of his former employees was pushed up against the shop’s wall and nearly stabbed.

Sterling blamed “the leadership of the City of San Francisco and the Downtown Association” for letting crime run wild in the “once vibrant and fun downtown experience.”

Luhn, who manages the toy store with his dad and stepmother, said they were “putting our money in, we’re putting our hard work in, and we’re putting our love into it,” but the local business was not getting any help from the city in return.

Robberies across San Francisco shot up a staggering 14.4 % percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to the latest crime statistics.

San Francisco was ranked safer than just one percent of US neighborhoods, and it owns a robbery rate over 4.5 times higher than the national average, according to Neighborhood Scout.

Jeffrey’s Toys is only the latest of a long list of retailers to close its doors due to the crime epidemic that has a stranglehold on the city.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, some 40 retail stores have shut down in the city’s downtown area.

In October 2023, Starbucks announced it was closing several downtown locations in crime-battered San Francisco.

Popular retailers like Whole Foods, Old Navy, Saks Off 5th, Office Depot, Athleta, Abercrombie & Fitch, Disney, Marshall’s, H&M, and Gap are just a few to close down as the exodus of crime and homelessness has gone unchecked in the city over the years.

The city’s largest mall, Westfield San Francisco Centre, has lost nearly $1 billion in its estimated worth after its owners, Westfield and Brookfield, stopped making mortgage payments on its $558 million last year, according to the Real Deal. 

The mall has seen a mass exodus of prominent retailers since last year, but its biggest blow came when Nordstrom moved out of its 312,000-square-foot, multilevel space in August due to fentanyl “zombies” roaming around outside among drug dealers and thieves after 35 years.