Expecting mothers in the city are increasingly frustrated by the near-total disappearance of brick-and-mortar maternity sections. As one SF resident put it with admirable bluntness, she's "desperate for some work outfits that actually fit" at 25 weeks pregnant and "sick of ordering stuff on the internet that doesn't fit and having to return it."

She's not wrong to be annoyed. The retail landscape for maternity wear has become a case study in everything going online whether consumers want it to or not. Stores that once had dedicated maternity sections — Gap, Old Navy, Target — have quietly gutted their in-store offerings and shoved everything onto their websites. The message to pregnant women is clear: figure it out from your couch and enjoy the return shipping.

This is what happens when retail economics collide with San Francisco's notoriously hostile business environment. Sky-high commercial rents, layers of regulation, and retail theft concerns have made it brutally expensive to keep inventory on shelves. So retailers optimize. They cut niche departments first. And maternity — a temporary need for a relatively small customer segment at any given time — is always first on the chopping block.

The irony is rich. City leaders love to talk about making San Francisco "family-friendly." They tout new parks, childcare subsidies, and parental leave policies. But they can't create conditions where a pregnant woman can walk into a store and try on a pair of work pants. The basics of functional city life — the stuff that doesn't require a press conference — keep slipping through the cracks.

If you actually want families to stay in this city, maybe start by making it possible for a business to keep its doors open long enough to sell them something.