One Sunday recently I took a day trip south of my home base to San Francisco on a work-play mission. After attending an early afternoon lecture on “Learning From Entrepreneurial Failure” I planned to attend an evening wedding. And in the middle? A three-hour shopping immersion seemed the perfect way to link the two experiences.

From the outside, San Francisco seems like an edgy techno-hippie city replete with smart people and tolerance for alternative lifestyles. From the inside, it is pretty much the same, with the added benefit of several square miles of high-density boutiques.

Not only is San Francisco the corporate base for mega-retailers such as Gap and Levi Strauss, it is also home to department stores such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s. Single-brand luxury stores abound, including Hermès, Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Loro Piana.