Saturday, November 24, 2018

Target 87th Black Friday protest #Cutthecard #NotAnotherCent

The West Chesterfield Community Association used their FB page to report on yesterday's Black Friday protest outside of Target's Chatham store. Most of the reports that involved Congressman Bobby Rush who made some noise after Target's announcement that they were closing two of their south side stores in Chatham & Morgan Park you may have also seen West Chesterfield's Michael LaFargue in the background in photographs. Anyway the protest against the closings are still making the news.
I want to share the Sun-Times article attached to the West Chesterfield post, however, I want to share Worlee Glover's thoughs from Concerned Citizens of Chatham on the future of the Target site once the store vacates the location they operated since 2002.


The question remains what would you like to see at that site. The store itself is just big enough for many retailers not just one large one.

Anyway let's talk about that Sun-Times article:
The protest Friday was led by U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) in response to the retailer’s refusal to change its decision to close in February two stores in Chatham and Morgan Park — closures the company says came after years of poor sales.

“Target completely disregarded our trust,” Rush said. “Target completely abandoned this community.”

Cook County Board President and Chicago mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle called the closures a “very public disinvestment in the African-American community. It’s very distressing, especially since they’re opening Targets elsewhere in the city.”

Rush and others — including another candidate for mayor, Gery Chico, the former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley — held signs saying, “#NotAnotherCent” with a line through the Target logo. “They don’t respect your dollars,” some shouted.

Michael LaFargue, a real estate broker and organizer from the South Side, said Target has been a “bad business neighbor” and blames Target for the poor financial performance at the two stores.

“They could’ve generated more revenue from targeted marketing and figured that out if they had advertised properly, promoted properly in the community and communicated properly in our community,” LaFargue said. “This is a disinvestment in one of the most stable communities on the South Side.”

Darlene Tribue, president of Park Manor Neighbors, was also disheartened to see the retail giant planned to leave without trying to work with the community to boost sales. She had been part of a collective of groups that helped bring the store to Chatham in 2002 and sat in on negotiations with company officials.

Even though Friday’s protest wasn’t as big as organizers planned, that shouldn’t detract from their message, she said.

“It’s about the freedom of speech and this is what it looks like,” Tribue said. “Nothing is in vain when you are freely expressing yourself.”
Finally WBBM-TV was out there with a report from the Chatham Target located at 8560 S. Cottage Grove. [VIDEO]


And finally the boycott of Target was covered by FOX Business [VIDEO]

In a short span we went from "hashtag" #Cutthecard to #NotAnotherCent. As we plan for a future without Target in some parts of the south side, is this boycott going to be effective in getting Target to change their decision?

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