Regulars expect to find Jason Feng sitting in the green box no bigger than a tool shed, peering out from the middle doorway with a red news rack on one side and a yellow news rack on the other. What they might not know is that Feng oversees possibly the last newsstand in San Francisco.
Positioned at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Stockton and Green streets, Feng sells newspapers seven days a week. His inventory — mostly the San Francisco Chronicle and Sing Tao Daily — reflects the geography. He’s in North Beach, but close to Chinatown.
Customers, almost exclusively over 60, come and go every few minutes, bringing daily sales to 30 or 40 newspapers, according to Feng, a 55-year-old who lives nearby in Chinatown.
“In the earlier years, we sold some 80 papers a day. Now, it’s getting fewer and fewer and fewer. Where do you think those people have possibly gone?” Feng asked in Chinese. “Usually, if a regular doesn’t come for a few days, the probability is that they have passed away.”
“It’s winter now; older adults pass away more easily,” he adds, grimly.
Nevertheless, Feng, who took over the green newsstand from his retired uncle in the midst of the pandemic, plans to remain. It beats driving for Uber, he said. What happens when he takes a vacation? He gets a friend to look after the booth. “It’s not that complicated,” he said.
Around 10 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, trucks delivering to the neighborhood grocery store and seniors dragging shopping carts made their way around Feng’s stand.
His patronage is evenly divided into English- and Chinese-speaking customers. Feng, who hangs two Italian flags in the stall, believes sales would drop if he moved the newsstand to Chinatown, where many seniors kill time by reading newspapers but don’t like paying for them.
“Chinese-language newspapers don’t sell well in Chinatown,” he said. “The elderly there struggle financially now, and wouldn’t buy much.” That wasn’t always the case. Years ago, he said, a newsstand in front of the Ping Yuen affordable-housing buildings sold hundreds of newspapers a day.
Back then, the best-selling newspapers in Chinatown — the San Francisco Chronicle and Sing Tao Daily — were sold as a set, or “twins,” for less than $2, Feng said in Cantonese.
Nowadays, the Chronicle alone runs $3, plus another $1 for Sing Tao. “That was at least seven or eight years ago,” said Feng. “A lot of the older-generation Chinese Americans in Chinatown knew English. Now, they’re all in heaven.”
Feng also misses his peers in the newsstand business; there used to be four news racks at his intersection, even just a few years ago, he said. Now, there’s only one news rack left, plus Feng’s newsstand. “Do you know why they are removing these news racks?” he asks. “They were convenient for the elderly who didn’t want to walk far.”
Feng hasn’t been able to find the answer to his question in the two Chinese-language newspapers, Sing Tao Daily and World Journal, which he reads religiously while sitting in his stall from 6 a.m. to noon every day.
But the answer is simple: The city did not renew its contract in 2022 with Clear Channel, which offered the news rack services. The number of news racks has diminished, because publishers are now responsible for furnishing their own racks.
Feng, for his part, takes pride as a loyal reader of printed media. Alongside his Chinese dailies, he browses the headlines and featured images of the English-language newspapers he distributes: The Chronicle, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, and USA Today — although he says that he knows absolutely no English. The Wall Street Journal, not so much; he blames the obscure financial coverage.
Being an avid news reader also means being picky about quality. “I don’t read the Epoch Times,” said Feng, referring to the right-wing paper affiliated with Falun Gong. He knows the latest developments in conflict areas he’s barely visited, from real hotspots like Ukraine and Hong Kong to the Sunset District, where the brewing battle is over Supervisor Joel Engardio’s recall.
He has strong views against adding any bike lanes to Chinatown, and can rattle off the names of some local politicos: Daniel Lurie, the “nice” mayoral candidate who visited Feng’s stand; Sharon Lai, whose sign still stays in his stall; and Aaron Peskin, who Feng or his uncle has been supporting since at least 2016. A Peskin campaign button still sits at a corner ledge inside the stand.
Despite the diminishing revenue, Feng sells only newspapers (some customers leave tips).
“It’s public service!” said an old man who paid $4 for the New York Times.
Additional reporting by Julia Gitis.
If we use a broader definition of “newsstand,” there are still 2 more in the City. Smoke Signals survives on upper Polk (between Vallejo & Green) and Heath is on 18th Street near Bryant. Both provide other products – Smoke Signals has tobacco and Heath does ceramics, so it’s good to learn about an old-fashioned newsstand selling only news periodicals. Thanks for this article and I’ll try to include Mr. Feng’s establishment on my next newspaper hunting safari. Newsstands truly are a public service.
I miss seeing those newsstands all over the place! Having a newspaper everybody reads really makes a community stronger.
Who bothers to read Hearst rags these days? It’s thin garbage at best.
I miss all the newsstands. There used to be so many of them, especially in the Financial District and throughout downtown. (Is the one that was always at the end of the cable car line at California and Market gone too?) But then, I miss newspapers themselves, real newspapers.
My heart goes out to this guy. But $3 for a crap rag like the Chronicle?
One could buy a real paper like the WAPO instead, perhaps…
I tried to clean out the booth and buy one of everything during the pandemic four years ago (a woman was working). She pegged my haul at $50 and as I got the money out she said $30. I told her I wasn’t willing to pay more than $40. She repeated $30 several times so I told her $50 was my final offer. She took it.
So if anyone needs a horse race betting guide circa Golden Gate Meadows, hit me up. The Peskin pin is similar vintage and I can already tell you: it’s not for sale.
You drive a hard bargain, don’t you?
I guess my story isn’t very popular, but it’s a true telling (and I really did end up with several outdated pony race guides). I felt fine about it. It was humorous and I feel confident I was the biggest tip in days, if not weeks or months.
There’s a way for that stand to increase product and profit. They need Peskin to comb the law and go through their options while he is still in office. Obviously they’re selling masks, as the pic indicates. What else can they add?