Mission mainstay Scarlet Sage moving away after 28 years

After 28 years in the Mission, and a steep drop in revenue during the pandemic, the Scarlet Sage Herb Co. is pulling up stakes and moving to Fillmore Street this summer.

Owner Laura Ash said that the store’s last day at 1193 Valencia St., near 23rd Street, will be June 25. The shop’s 10-year lease is up at the end of June, according to building owner Yosef Peretz; they were unable to negotiate a new lease that the shop could afford, Ash said.

“I’m feeling good, feeling hopeful, and also grieving,” Ash said. “I think that comes with the territory of not expecting to have to make this decision.”

Founded in 1995 by former owners Lisa Kellman and Dino Lucas, Scarlet Sage sells a wide range of alternative and witchy products, including bulk herbs and teas, tarot decks, crystals and essential oils. It also offers in-person classes on herbalism, astrology, tarot and more. 

The move means that the Mission is losing one of its last longstanding lesbian-owned businesses.

Like many businesses, Scarlet Sage shuttered during the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. It was able to reopen as an essential business within 6 weeks of the original lockdown orders, and Paycheck Protection Program funds helped Ash rehire her staff. But in 2022 and 2023, foot traffic didn’t return to Scarlet Sage, and revenues continued to flag. 

“We’ve always paid our rent,” Ash said, but 2022 was the first year since she took over the business — in July, 2015 — that the store lost money.

“We were waiting for 2022 to be the year that people started coming back in person. We started in-person classes, but [students] didn’t return,” she said. For one thing, many Mission residents are working from home now, instead of walking to and from BART to work downtown. The 6 p.m. commute hour used to be one of Scarlet Sage’s busiest times. 

In recent years, Scarlet Sage has paid $11,800 a month to lease its Valencia store, Ash said. That includes 1,600 square feet of retail space at the street level, and a 1,400-square-foot basement that the shop used for classes and storage, Peretz said.

The new space, at 1903 Fillmore St. near Bush Street, has a similar amount of space between its street-level storefront and a mezzanine, and leases for about $4,000 less than the Valencia store, Ash said. She’s hoping to bring in diverse shoppers from the Fillmore as well as nearby Japantown and Pacific Heights.

“I hope it will bring us to a place where we can survive as a business,” she said. 

In the Fillmore, Scarlet Sage plans to add personalized herbal wellness consultations that will run about $50 an hour, and bring in one or two naturopathic doctors who can tailor herbal recommendations to customers’ needs, Ash said. In the long term, she hopes to open a medicinal tea bar, which store regulars have requested. But doing so will cost $150,000 in plumbing and architectural upgrades, as well as permitting — money Scarlet Sage doesn’t have right now, she said.

Kellman and Lucas opened Scarlet Sage in a small storefront at 22nd and Guerrero streets before moving to 1173 Valencia St., where Needles & Pens is now, a couple of years later, Ash said. It moved down the block to 1193 Valencia about 10 years ago. Ash was an employee of the store who took over as the owner when Kellman and Lucas retired in 2015. 

That’s around the time local author Virgie Tovar fell in love with the store and its witchy, Stevie Nicks vibe, as well as its connections to Bay Area communities celebrating sexual liberation and feminism, Tovar said. Although she sometimes came to the store to shop, her favorites were Scarlet Sage’s gatherings and classes, particularly on tarot.  

Tovar was one of a handful of longtime supporters who helped Ash brainstorm new ideas and directions for Scarlet Sage, once it was clear the store would have to move.  “It really is a pillar-of-the-community kind of store, but without foot traffic, it’s really hard,” Tovar said. 

Ash hopes to have the new Fillmore Street store up and running by July 1, and is planning both a goodbye celebration at the Valencia Street spot as well as a welcoming party once the shop is open on Fillmore. Scarlet Sage is seeking donations to support the store and to open the tea bar in the new location.