Minimal

Koo-​Koo Cray-​Cray. Be sure to inspect your purchase before leaving the store as she resells returned damaged products. She is a shifty kind of gal.

If I could give zero stars I would! Minimal’s service is minimal! I have purchased there two or three times. Trouble started when I found one of the two Swell bottles I bought had defects in the bottle coating. I live in the South Bay and only go to the City occasionally. I emailed the shop, the owner wrote she’d set one aside for me. That’s great. However I have tried twice to exchange with no success. First time, I found the shop was closed at around 1 pm on a weekday. I called the shop number. No answer and no forwarding. There was no sign on the door as to «I’ll be back at xx time.» I could only give up. The Second time was yesterday. The shop was open, but the employee told me he couldn’t do anything because I had exceeded the window in the 30 day return policy, even though I showed him the receipt and the bottle was in its original packaging. I explained to him my email w the owner and my frustrating first visit, he was unsympathetic. I feel the shop runs in an amateurish way — erratic business hours, employees not trained in customer service. I told him I’d write a bad Unilocal review. His response was «go ahead.» I gave my contact info to the employee. Let’s see if the shop owner herself cares more about customers or not.

Heading to a friend’s for a holiday feast, and realized I needed to pick up a little holiday gift. As I’m walking to their place I pass this lovely little store called minimal. What a find!
This place is a must go in San Francisco over the holidays and beyond. Great store, great prices, great staff.

Owner is super nice. Got a coffee and it didn’t work properly, she exchanged me a new one with no hassle. Love all the nice design stuff in the store. Very worth to go and check it out.

Great little shop in Hayes Valley with one-​of-​a-​kind items! A little on the pricey side, like everything else in this neighborhood, but there are some good finds for a reasonable price, and they regularly put select items on sale.
I love their silicone selection– like the «mark-​mats», placemats with cool designs that kids can color with. The set comes with reusable markers for $ 26. The baby bibs are pretty cute and handy too. I’ve given these as gifts, and my friends love how practical they are.
Stop by for a visit– and say hello to the adorable furry cat lounging in the comfy fur basket in the middle of the store!

Shopped here with my homefries Ja Cqueline and A. A. Ron. (
) I met Ti MO’thy, who narrated the selection of chic mens wallets. Dude was so style knowledgeable that I wish he’d advise me in my other shopping, too. I’m talking about at other stores — like have him appear out of nowhere when I’m confused with suits, or at Nike (
), or IKEA (
).

Wow.
It’s not often that I walk into a shop and get to talk with the owner about design, business, the design business, and how she can get *everything* that’s been on my list of wanted wares for years, no problem.
To put this in perspective I will say this: for such a design-​centric town, most SF stores know surprisingly little about true heritage design. Those are fighting words to some, sure, but $ 350 jeans and a $ 7 cappuccino do not mean these are quality things, just overly precious things. 99% of what is passed off as «design» in SF is just overly precious and not truly, truly designed OR made from craft materials.
They thing about Minimal is this: they know what they have and they aren’t bullshitting you about it by charging Cole Valley prices– just literally what stuff is worth. Yes, that’s a lot, but yes, most of it will increase in value so there.
Look, every single shop in SF supposedly has «Mid-​century Danish furnishings» but let’s be honest kids– they don’t. So when a shop owner just humbly presents deep knowledge of craft instead of some shoddy brand positioning — they can have all of my money as long as I have any.
Real knowledge of real design is always worth more to me than a desperate push to cash in on the Cole Valley goes Mid-​Century Craze. I’ll pay for real knowledge and to that end I probably will NEVER start a shopping trip anywhere else until I see what is at Minimal.

Cool small sized gadgets. A great city store. Unique items with local flavor.

To all my peeps who like modern unique gifts~You need to checkout Minimal~Very cool home décor from Scandinavia and lots of local designers too! A must if in Hayes Valley

This is a fantastic little shop for those who love design — alessi, marimekko, design stockholm, etc. My experience with the sales associates via phone (when I was asking about a stool) and in person (when I purchased a scarf) have all been very positive.

I am not the needy type so not being bathed in greetings upon entering does not affect my rating. I’m so thankful I’m able to separate service from personal insecurity.
On December 16, my wonderful boss invited us to a holiday party at Absinthe… a couple of doors down from Minimal. We had a wonderful time and — as is typical of the holidays — decided to do a little window shopping to work off our holiday «cheer».
Minimal is the type of place where you instantly find things you never knew you wanted (or your significant other does) but can’t live without once you’ve seen them. One stop shop! My partner pointed three times; I came back the next day. Shopping done!
I have to mention the service. On Sunday, I was assisted by someone who identified herself as a very part time assistant from Berkeley. But truly, she could not have been any more excited than we were about the merchandise.
Day Two. I go back to purchase the «surprise» Christmas gifts I was instructed to buy the day before. I think I was assisted by the owner. Wow! What personable and memorable service. Sadly was not greeted by the store cat. BTW, if you want a really good looking shopping bag to accentuate your look, START HERE. I got glances all up and down the street.
Minimal is a carefully curated shopping experience. Don’t fool around elsewhere! You’ll find everything you need here.

Great modern home décor, and an adorable store cat

I often drive through Hayes Valley but never stop. This time I went to the neighborhood with the intent of checking out all the stores I always pass. Awesome stores, for sure, but disappointed with Minimal. I’m not the first Unilocal reviewer to make the parallel between the store’s name and the service offered.
Three people were in the store when I came in and they were chatting. I walked up the ramp and looked up, expecting some sort of acknowledgement. Maybe a «let me know if I can help with anything.» Nothing. I slowly meandered through the entire store. I walked around the trio blocking the path. Still nothing. I was probably in the store for about 5 minutes and not a single word came my direction. Not a «thanks for visiting» when I left. Absolutely nothing, which is a little awkward in a store of that size.
Instead of offering any service whatsoever, the three were busy in a light conversation about gentrification. The employee behind the desk told the other two that she hates to sound like an «uppity yuppie» but she lived in SF during the dot-​com boom and had hoped that gentrification would push the current population out of the Tenderloin. Hm. If you have to preference a statement with «I had to sound like [X] but…», it’s probably inappropriate conversation to have in front of customers when you’re at work.
I give Minimal two stars instead of one because they have neat stuff, though not necessarily what I was looking for. More small nick-​nacks (such as candles) than not but I’m more interested in their modern design items (such as the Tube Top and Brazo Table Lamps).

Ah, one of my favorite types of stores. Something for every occasion!

Let’s just suppose that you are a thrifty-​savvy, whip-​smart gal with new digs that you’re sharing with your fantastically sophisticated bestie. Of course you’re too fabulous and a tad too grown-​up (yeah, I said it!) to feather your nest like an Ikea store, top to bottom.
Whether giving, gettin’ or just re-​stocking, I recommend Minimal for their clever design, sexy sale prices and a bit of whimsy thrown into even the most practical and «necessary» items.
Now, clearly, Gentle Unilocalers, you know that I’m all kinds of practical and ridiculous, so Minimal is going to be a regular haunt for housewares that *can* be delightfully girly, along with kitchen towels that the menfolk are proud to sling across their shoulder or tuck into an apron.
Last weekend they were having a sale and the Cadet literally had to drag me out of the shop.
The store is laid out beautifully; I would recommend that if you’ve got small childrens or are accompanied by someone who behaves like one — this is not the venue to host a family reunion. There’s room without crowding, but it’s always nice to peruse such wares at a leisurely pace with personal space between patrons respected.
Minimal is fantastical — don’t be bitter if I beat you to all of the sale items!

While milling around Hayes Valley with a friend we poked our heads into Minimal. This is a great little shop to pick up house warming gifts as it’s filled with interesting knick knacks at different price points. For design freaks this is a great place to find beautiful kitchen décor.
As a mother of three I do my best not to waste my money on needless things (because I’m spending my extra dollars on piano and gymnastics lessons) but oh how I wished I could stuff my pockets full of gifts from Minimal. They even have lovely pieces of jewelry. But my favorite needless thing? A soda making kit with syrups and a seltzer bottle. Who needs to make their own soda? Who has the extra time these days? Oh yes, single childless folk who have hours to fill with homemade soda. Drats!
Unilocal 365 Challenge: #28/​365 (The Needless Thing)

With some time to shop, a San Francisco local suggested visiting the shops in Hayes Valley. We made our way there and started wandering about. There are definitely a lot of shops from fashion to furniture to cute little spots with a bit of everything. Minimal is one of those.
They mostly have home gadgets and accessories, the perfect little things to make you feel like you’ve got the coolest pad on the street. Everything feels like a one of a kind piece, but the prices did not seem unreasonable.
They also have a lot of items that would make good gifts like a flashlight shaped like a black cat (my birthday is in February) to a nice selection of jewelry. They also stock Soda Streams if you want to make soda at home! Overall, a little bit of this and little bit of that makes for a groovy spot to browse and possibly stumble across something you can’t live without or just the right thing for someone who is tough to buy for.

I’ve been to minimal numerous times, most recently to purchase my Soda Stream and get my replacement cartridges. I’m a bit bummed that they don’t have the Diet cranberr-​raspberry soda mix anymore, guess I need to shop around!
As for the staff, I’ve always had a good experience here, keep up the good work.

This is a great place that showcases a lot of cute home/​kitchen items. I’m (very slowly) furnishing a new apartment and I’ll wander in here on occasion to get ideas. So far I haven’t made any purchases, but the guy working there when I’ve gone in has been *so* helpful. He even gave me a list of other stores and websites to check out, which I have to give him major props for.
Some of the items there are a lot more than I’d want to spend, but they also have a lot of reasonably priced stuff. They have some really cute wooden and puzzle coasters and things like that. Either way, I have never felt weird or out of place to just look around here, check the prices, etc. and leave without buying anything.

Creative home décor items at pretty affordable prices. Loved the unique items here, including cheese spreaders, tea cups, wine openers and stoppers. Just really cute knick knacks that are not ridiculously priced. It’s not IKEA, for sure, but still better than «Design Within Reach» which is definitely NOT within reach unless you’re a millionaire (RIDIC)
There’s a Cherry Red Shawl from Designed in Stockholm that i covet…
Great place for creative gifts
(1) con– slow service… there seems to only be one person working there and there’s really no space for more than 2 people to be standing in line. It literally took my friend 10 mins to pay for her coasters when there were only 2 people before her. But, i guess everyone could be a little more patient on a sunny Saturday…