Ariana Grande fans were already lining up early Thursday outside a pop-up merchandise store in San Francisco’s Union Square, turning 71 Powell St. into a pre-show stop ahead of her sold-out Oakland run. The store opens at 10 a.m., but Rajzay Johnson was there as early as 1 a.m., waiting for a chance to buy tour gear before the singer returns to the stage.
The rush makes sense because Grande’s The Eternal Sunshine Tour begins Saturday at Oakland Arena, with two more shows next Tuesday and Wednesday. The 41-date tour is sold out, but the pop-up gives Bay Area fans a limited-time shot at tees, tanks, hoodies, accessories and other items priced from $15 for a keychain to $85 for a branded hoodie.
For Johnson, the wait was part devotion and part urgency. “Because I love her so much… She’s really the voice of our generation, so why not bask in her like this?” he said. He added that after this run, Grande may not go on a concert tour again for a long time, and “we have to be in the now.”
Mia D’Aquino sounded just as certain about why the line was forming. Grande’s “vocal range is so amazing,” she said, adding that she is also an “amazing songwriter” with lyrics she can relate to. That enthusiasm has been building around a show that some fans were not sure would ever come, after Grande’s last tour, the Sweetener World Tour, ended in 2019 and she spent recent years in films including Wicked and Wicked: For Good.
The pop-up store is set to stay open until June 10, the date of Grande’s final Oakland Arena show, which means the merchandise rush will likely keep pace with the concerts themselves. The unanswered question behind the first stop on a 41-date tour is the simplest one: why Oakland, and why now? For fans in the Bay Area, the answer arrived early at 71 Powell St., where the music is still offstage but the countdown is already on.
