After 22 years, San Francisco’s Fog Metropolis Information newsstand to shutter

Fog City News in the Financial District is closing after 22 years in business.
Kevin Y./Yelp
Fog City News, an acclaimed retailer of magazines, chocolates and other merchandise in the Financial District, will close permanently on New Year’s Eve after 22 years in business, its owner announced.
Where most kiosks have a few dozen magazines, Fog City News at 445 Market St. offers its customers more than 1,200 titles. It has issued more than 1,000 greeting cards — at least 100 of which contain a swear word, I’m told. Zero of its products is available online, reminiscent of the good old days when, dare we say it, you had to set foot in a brick-and-mortar store to buy reading material.
“I named my company Fog City News as a tribute to San Francisco,” said founder and owner Adam Smith in a statement sent to SFGATE. “And I felt it my duty to present this city to visitors in the best possible way by offering a welcoming, elegantly old-fashioned atmosphere, attentive service and the very best products I could find.”
Fog City News in the Financial District is closing after 22 years in business.
Catherine W./Yelp
The store has repeatedly won awards for Best Newsstand and Best Chocolate Shop in the more than two decades of its existence. As the latter designation suggests, Fog City News was not only a go-to place for maps and magazines, but also for fine cocoa products. According to the press release, the store evaluated more than 5,000 candy bars at the time.
Smith said he is not closing the store because of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor because of health or landlord issues (the reasons so many small businesses have had to close in recent years). He’s just ready for the next rodeo.
“I ended up achieving everything I set out to do with Fog City News (and some things I didn’t know I set out to do!). And now I’m ready for a new chapter,” Smith said. “I feel lucky to be riding into the sunset on my own terms.”