Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

In a neighborhood where the closure of longtime businesses has become not only regular, but expected, the news that Mission Thrift would be shuttering immediately nonetheless took many by surprise. Spray-painted in black across the roll-down door of the building with its signature pink sign were the words “Huge closing ½ off sale next Saturday noon to 6pm. All need to go. Buy by.” The last of the store’s funky used fashions, Halloween costumes and accessories would be liquidated every Saturday in January until it was gone, and regular business hours had ceased.

It was a decision Werner Werwie, the owner of Mission Thrift and its parent company Retro City Fashion, arrived at for many reasons. The first, of course, was real estate: After 20 years at 2330 Mission St., the store’s lease was up, and it was operating month to month. Werwie had closed Valencia Street’s beloved Clothes Contact in 2015 in the face of a large rent increase. Then there was the problem of the Muni lanes in front of the store that, he says, made loading and unloading merchandise problematic.

But most of all, after 33 years in business in the Mission, he felt the culture of the street had changed for the worse.

“I consider myself as one of the original pioneers,” Werwie said in an email. “Our customer base has changed. Too many drugged-out, crazy, aggressive, stealing, in general, problem people. It’s very demoralizing (for) my crew.” This made it difficult to find and retain employees, especially with job hazards like finding knives and syringes in the store.

Werwie called the past few years in the Mission “overall unpleasant,” and said that it’s “time to move on. I’m happy to let go.”

Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Mission Thrift was the third store last month to announce its closure on the Mission block between 19th and 20th streets, following Siegel’s men’s boutique and the Mission Loan pawn shop. Along with the demise of dive bars and the Elbo Room, a number of the neighborhood’s other resale stores, including Thrift Town and Retro Fit, have been shuttered in recent years. The Wallflower boutique on Valencia also recently announced it will be closing at the end of January.

Is San Francisco in danger of losing another piece of the city’s cultural fabric — its thrift and vintage clothing epicenter?

The closures come as many of the neighborhood’s past identities as working class, Latino, creative and queer meccas are being erased as businesses and residents face eviction along with being priced out. The area’s reputation as one of the prime destinations for thrift and vintage clothing in San Francisco (along with Haight Street) was in many ways tied to these populations, for whom inexpensive clothing was an economic necessity.

Roberto Hernandez, a representative of community group Our Mission No Eviction and a lifelong resident of the district, said that his family and many low-income families he grew up with depended on the neighborhood’s thrift stores.

“These stores were cheaper than Macy’s, Mervyn’s or even Siegel’s,” Hernandez said. “My parents taught us it was OK to shop there — you could get a pair of pants worn maybe once like new. There was no shame. Their closure affects the people especially who are waiters, janitors, people on minimum wage.”

In addition to socioeconomic reasons, there is also a DIY style cachet for many who shopped thrift and vintage in the neighborhood, especially for members of the city’s drag, theatrical and Burning Man scenes.

Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Steven Raspa, a 23-year resident of San Francisco and the leader of the community-events team for Burning Man, was disappointed by news of Mission Thrift’s closure, as he had been when Clothes Contact closed.

“These places have been a resource for the creative community,” Raspa said. “You could get costumes for dancers, supplies to make your own things, raw materials to live an expressive life in the Bay Area. I’ve heard from some retailers that left the city saying taste in the city is changing — people just want Ikea.”

Steven LeMay’s vintage boutique Retro Fit, a legacy-designated business that was priced out of its 20-year location on Valencia last year, was well known as a destination not only for the city’s performers (LeMay is an actor and drag artist) but also for visiting actors like “Aquaman” stars Amber Heard and Jason Momoa.

LeMay, who lives around the corner from his former shop, passes his still-vacant former store daily (a children’s boutique recently announced on its website that it is moving into the space and projects a March opening). For small-business owners like himself, said LeMay, it’s not just rising rents making it harder to survive in the area, it’s an overall change in the neighborhood’s shopping attitudes.

Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“Foot traffic from the street you could have counted on to sustain (you), you can’t anymore,” LeMay said. “Unless businesses have a huge internet presence or are part of a huge group like Goodwill or Salvation Army, they need a secondary income.”

Hernandez, who is also a member of the Mission Merchants Association, said many local businesses second LeMay’s complaint about a lack of foot traffic in stores, and many attribute it to the rise of online shopping. The internet has affected the psychology of resale buyers — and retailers.

Vintage clothing dealer Ricky Serbin says that while interest in vintage clothing is at an all-time high due to prominent e-commerce resale sites like eBay, the Real Real and Etsy, it’s also led to people satisfying their “hunter-gatherer instincts” with shopping apps and portals instead of at physical stores.

“I used to score from stores across the country for my business,” Serbin said. “Now I do it online.”

Other secondhand businesses that remain in the neighborhood — the Salvation Army, Buffalo Exchange and more curated recent vintage boutiques including No. and Afterlife — are trying to stay the course. Goodwill, which closed its Van Ness and Market Street flagship in 2017, is planning a new location with a 50-year lease option at the former Dollar Store on Mission Street.

Longtime neighborhood landmark Community Thrift also has no plans to leave, especially since it owns its longtime home on Valencia.

“We’ve seen our clientele change — it’s inevitable,” said Community Thrift executive director Zarin Kresge. “We want to stay true to our mission. When you think of people who shop at thrift stores (it’s been) low-income, students, artists, but we now have all kinds of people, including the younger tech workers.”

Part of the clientele shift is changing attitudes. “Perception around secondhand has changed,” Kresge said. “It’s cool. There isn’t the negative stigma there once was.”

Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Vintage boutique Schauplatz also has no plans to leave its location (791 Valencia) near music venue the Chapel. Co-owner Bernhard Wetsch says vintage and thrift businesses have adapted their inventory in the neighborhood, and that he now stocks more recent vintage 1980s pieces and costume items geared to Halloween, 1920s speakeasy-theme parties and, especially, Burning Man.

“When we started over 20 years ago, people wanted older stuff — they were big on the 1940s because of swing dancing.” Now, Wetsch said, younger shoppers are more trend-driven. “They want shiny. Sequins are in high demand. Kids buy blouse-y jackets with crazy prints.”

But longtime vintage and thrift shoppers are still out there. Michele Simmerer, a hairdresser and Mission District resident who bought over a dozen items ranging from silk scarves to atomic patterned dishes on a recent trip to Community Thrift, said the possibility of a bargain or undiscovered gem is still a strong enough lure to bring her to the remaining shops.

“It’s the thrill of the hunt,” she said. “I love digging through all of it, even if I don’t buy anything.”

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @tonybravosf