Economist explains how Salesforce's return-to-office policy could benefit San Francisco as a whole

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Head to the Salesforce Tower in downtown San Francisco on any day during the week, and you'll notice the foot traffic in and out of the building is still much lower than before COVID-19.

That could soon be changing though.

Salesforce recently announced it will require most of its employees to return to the office for at least 3-5 days a week.

Welcome news to Yolanda Olguin who runs El Faro Mexican restaurant just half a block away.

"Friday was our best day before the pandemic. Now, you know, it's one of the... it's not the same," said Yolanda Olguin.

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Olguin's restaurant has been in business for nearly 45 years.

She tells us after booming in the time prior to the pandemic, the recovery since then has been difficult and she hopes Salesforce's new policy will boost business once again.

Down the road at Japanese House, it was a similar story.

Owner David Chuen says he just opened a few weeks ago, but chose this location specifically because he was hoping an increasing number of office workers would help the restaurant's bottom line.

"I think maybe after half a year, maybe it'll go up and we'll have customers coming more," Chuen said.

But Salesforce's new policy will likely have a much bigger impact than just small businesses, according to San Francisco city economist Ted Egan.

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"Office workers working from home is really the single biggest reason why downtown has remained relatively depressed since the end of the pandemic," Egan said.

Egan says more employees in the city means more economic output and higher tax revenues.

He also tells me San Francisco officials are hoping other companies will soon follow Salesforce's lead.

"I think the important thing to watch is what is the employees' response to that. Downtown San Francisco is quite a bit different than it was three years ago when people were first starting to say I don't want to come back to the office," Egan said.

And as for the employees, some tell us while the new policy will likely be popular among some, it may not be among others.

"It's 50/50 because obviously, some people live like in Sacramento or further out like in SoCal or something like that. And they obviously can't make it to San Francisco every day," said Omar Agha.