Theft concerns, retail’s downward national trend make Rip Curl latest downtown Santa Cruz closure

A second national surf apparel retailer closed its downtown Santa Cruz location last week amid apparent ongoing concerns about employees’ health and safety, but others say the closure speaks more to the changing retail landscape nationally. 

A sign posted last week on the window of the Rip Curl Surf Center at 1395 Pacific Ave., at the corner of Church Street, said the store was closed as of Monday, Jan. 20, but that its other two locations in the county remained open.

A manager at the retailer’s 41st Avenue store said all employees of the downtown store had been offered the opportunity to transfer there or to the outlet store on Mission Street in Santa Cruz. Most took that option, Katie Armstrong told Lookout on Wednesday. 

Armstrong said theft on Pacific Avenue was a factor for the store’s closure, adding, “It was putting the health and safety of my employees at risk.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Rip Curl’s parent company told Lookout that consolidation was a key reason for the closure, given that the company already has two other local stores. That mirrors a national trend toward consolidation and closure. According to Coresight Research, a retail advisory group, store closures in the U.S. spiked in 2024 and are expected to rise to about 15,000 this year as the trend toward online shopping continues and more national retailers file for bankruptcy.

The conversation around downtown safety – and its impact on downtown retail – continues to resonate. City leaders caution that reality might not always match perception, but it’s a nuanced situation.

While not all thefts are reported to local law enforcement, records from the Santa Cruz Police Department showed there were 13 reported incidents in and around the Pacific Avenue store last year – up from 10 the prior year. That includes five reports of theft and one vandalism report, in addition to other reports not necessarily tied to the Rip Curl store itself, such as drug overdoses that occurred on the sidewalk outside the store, according to police spokesperson Katherine Lee. In 2023, the 10 reported incidents included two reported thefts and two unspecified instances of the alarm going off.

Jorian Wilkins, executive director of the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz, echoed Lee’s findings and said police have told her they aren’t seeing more theft downtown than elsewhere in the city.

While the closure of another store downtown might seem concerning, Wilkins points out that more than 15 new businesses opened downtown last year. 

“I think there are a number of people who aren’t shopping downtown because of perceived interactions with homeless people, for example, or who feel uncomfortable with the urban environment here,” said Charles Nelson, owner of Toque Blanche on Pacific Avenue. “I don’t think it’s unsafe, but I think some people feel it is.”

Nelson pointed to parking fees and challenges as another potential challenge for the downtown retail community, but also pointed to the national trend of online shopping as one of the biggest causes. He previously had to shut down his sister store in Half Moon Bay due to declining sales. 

“These are the headwinds we’re facing,” he said. “If you don’t support your local businesses, they will close.”

Rip Curl’s closure follows the departure earlier this month of O’Neill Surf Shop from its 25-year-old store at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cooper Street. A store manager there told Lookout the company was consolidating its operations; its four other Santa Cruz County stores are still open. 

Two other surf apparel shops – Pacific Wave and Berdels – continue to operate downtown stores. They will soon be joined by a third, Midtown Surf Shop, Wilkins told Lookout earlier this month. 

In the meantime, the search is on to find a new tenant for the 5,295-square-foot space on the ground floor of the E.C. Rittenhouse building that Rip Curl had occupied since 2014. Jackie Copriviza, a broker with real estate company Sherman & Boone, said it was already receiving calls about the space, but a new tenant isn’t lined up yet.

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