Veer & Wander in San Francisco: Bringing New Brands to the Bay

In 2013, Connie McGrath opened Veer & Wander. Here’s her story:

I was working as a stylist in the salon space that is now Veer & Wander. The owner of the salon I was working for decided to sell and get out of lease so I bought it. Then the storefront next door opened up. I decided to go for it and open the store of my dreams! I had always wanted to open an apothecary. I lived in Chicago for many years and loved to go to this old apothecary and browse through the shelves and buy German face cremes, beautiful Italian soaps and Swedish lozenges! I loved wandering through the rows of shelves and discovering something new!

I called my shop Veer & Wander because I want people to come in and discover something new and different!

I love seeing all the interesting mens grooming products and tools—the highest quality razors, combs, aftershave and all the shave brushes!

The salon has really helped support the store and vice versa. it’s a community experience—not just a haircut. We serve nice tea and wine to everyone, whether you are shopping or getting your hair done. We pride ourselves on customer service. This is what makes us special compared to other retail chain stores that are taking over San Francisco. We are very attentive and educated on everything we carry.

No hipster attitude here! It is super important to us that people feel comfortable to browse the shelves.

We love it when people are pleasantly surprised when they discover us: We are in an alley and you have to veer off the path!

Veer & Wander is always changing. I wanted to be that place that brings a brand to San Francisco.

We are constantly on the lookout for beauty and grooming brands that interest us and are unique and high quality. It is a smaller store and its really got to be good to be on the shelf!

I wanted to make sure the space appealed to both men and women and have an assortment of products that can be used by both.

We love to support brands that are thinking out of the box—thinking of health and environmentally safe. Our space is a very green business and it is important to me personally to sell and support products that are safe. Not everything in shop is 100% natural but all are non-toxic.

I want to continue making the space the go to place for all your grooming and beauty needs. You walk out looking and feeling great! A haircut is very powerful therapy along with a little retail therapy too!