Paul Smith, writing as the Chronicle's financial editor, found business activity "slowly throbbing like a waning pulse to an almost lifeless standstill." Business leaders rushed plans for emergency operations, markets were dull. Elevator operators and janitors"unorganized and intimidated" was Smith's gratuitous comment- responded to the general strike call. Some businessmen munched canned sardines, hunks of cheese, and stale buns "on polished mahogany desks, over which fortunes in currency have passed and repassed," the Chronicle said. Many went without. An ILA committee urged liquor stores and bars to close for the duration of the strike. (A newspaper report said a Mission street beer tavern had boarded up its smashed windows and posted a sign saying "Done by mistake-union place.") The six hundred-strong Chinese Laundry Workers Union came out on strike. Non-organized teamsters and truck drivers in Marin County joined the walkout and were waiting to be organized. Employees of Liggett and Myers, a major cigarette distributor, sent a delegation to the Labor Temple looking for a union organizer.

Movie houses closed down, legitimate theaters and night clubs were dark. Radio stations broadcast without interruption, except where union musicians were required. The San Francisco Seals called off their customary night games in favor of daylight baseball. Crews halted work on both the San Francisco-Oakland and Golden Gate bridges, not yet spanning the Bay. At the Commercial Club "leading citizens," under the direction of the president of the Pacific National Bank, ran the dining room, their wives in the kitchen. The Joint Marine Strike Committee's bulletin listed what, because of the general strike, "you can't do: go to the movies, call a taxicab, get your trousers pressed, buy gasoline, eat in a hotel dining room, get a shave or haircut, buy fresh vegetables, have your automobile repaired, board a boat for Tahiti or even Los Angeles, move your household goods, get your shirt washed, go to a night club." Beyond the obvious services that directly and immediately affected consumers, much of the business and industrial life of the city slowed or came to a standstill. Factories and shops were shut down - often because their employees spontaneously joined the strike. Little moved except "by permission of the General Strike Committee." Some businesses continued operations, but customers were scarce.