BlockClubChi: Target Boycott Considered As Company Closes Stores In South Side Neighborhoods

From Block Club's Lee Edwards who covers stories in Chatham.The neighborhood is abuzz with the news that our local Target store is closing.

Black Chicagoans are threatening to boycott Target after the retailer decided to close two stores on the South Side.

A Target spokeswoman said the store at 8560 S. Cottage Grove and the Morgan Park location at 11840 S. Marshfield Ave. are two of the five stores nationwide picked to close because they’re not profitable.

This baffled shoppers and local elected officials, who said the stores were always bustling with customers.

...

Target spokeswoman Jacqueline Debuse said the primary factors leading to the closure of both stores are performance and profitability, but declined to release details on the stores’ financial performance. Both stores are slated to close Feb. 2.

“If the stores had been underperforming for several years I don’t understand why they wouldn’t look to the city for information, if not assistance, to do what we can to keep those stores afloat,” [Ald. Roderick] Sawyer said.

The backlash on social media to the closures was swift, with frustrated South Siders pointing out that the company is growing rapidly on the city’s mostly-white North Side.

...

Sawyer said he’s already made a few preliminary calls to developers and potential stores to gauge interest in filling the 126,000 square-foot space. He said he intends on working with city and community partners to find a viable tenant for the space in the coming weeks.

“For such a large retailer as Target it demonstrates a lack of a connection to the community and extreme insensitivity toward people’s feelings about their shopping experience,” he said. “I have friends that are religious Target shoppers and for them to do something like this it’s extremely disconcerting and I think extremely insensitive.”

Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) scheduled a press conference in the parking lot of the Target store in Chatham for Thursday morning. 

 
“Target should immediately postpone their closure date,” Rush said in a statement. “They cannot take our money around the holiday season and then pack up and leave.”

Worlee Glover of Concerned Citizens of Chatham was also quoted:

Glover said companies like Target leaving the community impacts young people and seniors the most. He said his late mother was able to visit Target’s pharmacy and grocery store via a local transit and return home, and teens are losing employment opportunities within the community.

“When companies like Target and Best Buy have moved out of my community I do my own silent boycott,” he said. “If my money is no good with you in my neighborhood, my money is no good with you outside of my neighborhood. I will find another source.”

I didn't see much about a boycott here, question is whether or not this will influence Target's decision for either of the two south side Chicago Target stores. Although many seem to be making their own boycott as Worlee does. Our money is no good to you, then why support you?