California government workers in Sacramento have returned to in-person work at least two days a week. The California governor released an order in August outlining the work environment policies for state government employees. In Sacramento, the state government offices are located downtown next to various businesses and stores. Despite the influx of workers returning to working in person, the sales of downtown stores have stayed low. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a major part of stores’ customer base was public workers who would shop during lunch or after leaving the office. The Downtown Sacramento Partnership represents several stores in the downtown area and stated that the area was overly dependent on public sector employees to generate sales and revenue. The partnership said that sales might not be increasing as businesses expected because most workers only go into the office the two required days, instead of the full work week like in the past.
See "Downtown Sacramento businesses continue to experience low sales despite public sector employees returning to office", William Melhado, The Sacramento Bee, October 31, 2024