Minneapolis Requiring Businesses Destroyed by Riots to Pay Property Taxes Before They Can Rebuild
“Most property owners must pay $35,000 to $100,000 to clear their sites of debris, with larger tracts — such as strip shopping centers — costing as much as $400,000, according to property owners. That doesn’t include the money those owners must pay to get their permits.”
The city of Minneapolis is requiring businesses destroyed by the recent riots to pre-pay their 2020 property taxes before they can even officially demolish and rebuild their businesses.
The city allowed these businesses to be destroyed, and now wants a ransom from the very people they victimized. When do the business owners start rioting, or at the very least, packing up and leaving?
This is so outrageous.
Jeffrey Meitrodt reports at the Star Tribune:
Landscape of rubble persists as Minneapolis demands taxes in exchange for permits
In Minneapolis, on a desolate lot where Don Blyly’s bookstore stood before being destroyed in the May riots, two men finish their cigarettes and then walk through a dangerous landscape filled with slippery debris and sharp objects. The city won’t let Blyly haul away his wreckage without a permit, and he can’t get a contractor to tell him how much it will cost to rebuild the store until that happens.
In St. Paul, where Jim Stage’s pharmacy burned down during the same disturbances, crews have already removed the bricks and scorched timbers. A steel fence keeps out trespassers. Stage expects construction of his new Lloyd’s Pharmacy to begin later this month.
The main reason for the different recoveries is simple: Minneapolis requires owners to prepay the second half of their 2020 property taxes in order to obtain a demolition permit. St. Paul does not.
“Minneapolis has not been particularly friendly toward business for some time,” said Blyly, who prepaid $8,847 in taxes last week but still hasn’t received his demolition permit. “They say they want to be helpful, but they certainly have not been.”
Just so we’re clear, this is not nickels and dimes. It’s not even a hundred or five-hundred dollars. It’s real money:
Most property owners must pay $35,000 to $100,000 to clear their sites of debris, with larger tracts — such as strip shopping centers — costing as much as $400,000, according to property owners. That doesn’t include the money those owners must pay to get their permits. On average, the owners of properties destroyed or significantly damaged owe $25,000 in taxes for the second half of 2020, which come due in October, according to a Star Tribune review of county property records.
The leaders of Minneapolis let this happen.
The destruction and looting on Minneapolis' Lake Street has left neighborhoods nearby in a pharmacy shortage, reports @JDLauritsen. | https://t.co/TSjwtoASY3 pic.twitter.com/1Xtpub49Qb
— WCCO – CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) June 4, 2020
Two dozen Minneapolis Target stores closed down due to BLM rioters.
How is the destruction of innocent businesses helping heal racial tension? pic.twitter.com/dNGiqUPQII
— Tosca Austen (@ToscaAusten) May 29, 2020
Minneapolis after a night of protests and riots. My heart aches ? pic.twitter.com/tIzfbGbcXF
— Doc Holliday (@Cosito1Horacio) August 9, 2020
This report from CBS News in Minnesota is from August 5th. Businesses were already thinking about leaving the city. How many more will leave now?
Dozens Of Businesses Consider Moving Out Of Downtown Minneapolis
Downtown Minneapolis is at risk of losing dozens of businesses.
Cruising through downtown Minneapolis is not what it once was. On some stretches the largest city in the state looks more like a ghost town.
“This is by far the biggest challenge that I’ve ever had in my 20 years of owning businesses downtown,” said Erik Forsberg, who owns Devil’s Advocate and two other downtown restaurants. They’ve been closed since COVID-19 started and crime multiplied.
A new survey by the Downtown Council shows 45 business owners say they are considering leaving downtown – citing the lack of people working or socializing downtown – and the idea that the police department could be dismantled.
Though they won’t say which businesses are considering pulling out of downtown, the council says one of the businesses employs 600 people.
That could mean a lot of empty spaces.
Every time you think things in Minneapolis couldn’t get worse, they do.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
When they voted for assholes to run their government and get a asshole government why the surprise?
The core problem is public policy which allows people to have children on the public’s dime. We need to insist that anyone receiving public aid has mandatory implantable birth control.
WE have a large group which collects welfare but does not actually raise children well. So we pay for the child with welfare, and then when they turn 18 they become breeders collecting welfare for their children, or they end up in the criminal justice system.
This is an unacceptable situation, and it is not sustainable.
I swear. Thinking about what happened there makes me nauseous.
If I were in charge I’d lock everyone I could find up even the owner of the truck that dropped off the brick pallets.
No one wanted to see what happened to Floyd happen, why does everyone need to be punished? They have no reasonable answer for that.
While the optics of the Floyd case were bad, the unvarnished truth is that he had severe health problems, he probably knew that, and still he made a decision to over exert himself by resisting arrest.
He death was his own fault, frankly the world is better off without him.
One thing blacks are good at is crafting BS stories, which they use as cover to blackmail the rest of society. This crap has gone on far too long. It just gets worse.
If you think the optics are bad now wait until the trial. During the trial I am certain that the defense attorneys are going to exhibit the Minneapolis police guidelines and possibly even play video of the socialized police training session which outlines ever single action that the officers arresting Floyd performed. The officers arresting George Floyd did so according to police procedure. These procedures were developed by the medical community and not the police. These very procedures that you watched in the video are also outlined in the police procedure manuals of other police departments across the nation. In some departments it is also standard procedure for the Ambulance EMTs to administer to the face down and handcuffed individual a shot of Ketamine.
How can a jury convict an officer who followed to the letter the policies of the police department as they were trained?
The mobs are going to go berserk with an acquittal and cities will be lootted and burned again.
There should not have been any charges against the police in this case. It is a huge waste of time and money.
Better to have them riot earlier, and put down the most violent. That would temper rioting and looting then, and serve as an example for others.
I support our police. I have had lost of interaction with police in my career, in the few cases where an officer was pissy, I kept in mind what he or she may have had to deal with before.
What “happened to” Floyd was that he OD’d on Fenatyl after passing a bogus $20, which may have been his method of raising cash to buy drugs. Then he picked a fight with the cop who was called to the scene. Floyd is 6’3 and a nightclub bouncer, that’s a serious fight. Such a body on fenatyl, you’d be a fool to let them get at you. So, the cop followed MN department procedure and held the guy down.
Boom, one of the army of ACLU/BLM guerrilla video agents recorded it, and provided some not all of the event to the media. The rest is … still happening.
I don’t care for police acting like punks, un-necessary shootings (like Mr Shaver) or gratuitous charges. This is not an example of that, any more than was the case of Michael Brown.
If anyone ever watches spy films, they set Floyd up. Sold him the bad dope and gave him the bad $.
I’d never say that seriously without some evidence, but at the same time there are a lot of things that I don’t believe to be spontaneous or coincidental.
Even if true, that’s probably because he was known for dealing dope and bad $$ and the po-po just got inside the loop. Floyd was a career criminal, he’d done a home invasion in which he stuffed a gun into a pregnant woman’s stomach to insure compliance.
After initial sympathy with the ‘hero’ of these Narrative events and each time later finding I’d taken the lure, my sympathy for criminals who roll the dice one too many ties has ended.
When Floyd passed the fake $20 he got a pack of cigarettes. After the store realized it was a fake bill, Floyd refused to return the cigarettes, the store called the police. The store had 258 police calls in the year preceding. Other businesses are shut down as a public nuisance with far fewer incidents. After leaving the store he deposited his drugs, both meth and fentanyl in his rear end and was acting erratically and saying he couldn’t breathe before he asked to go down on the ground. The police were incidental to his death; I assume he didn’t want to get caught with drugs on him due to his record.
How many are just going to walk away and leave Minne resembling Detroit?
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CADSMM_enUS869&sxsrf=ALeKk01GKyp436Vb4uIINcuMkXNpPyouRw:1597408365516&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=detroit,+riots+then+and+now&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwin_b_x2ZrrAhXPZc0KHXKMDusQsAR6BAgHEAE&biw=1366&bih=665
Whole streets of small businesses left Detroit, and while it was not one big riot, Flint, MI has large swaths of city streets where most of the houses are gone.
Minneapolis is dead, they just don’t know it yet.
Me for one.
“….. burned down during the same disturbances,..”
Disturbances? DISTURBANCES?
Disturbances sounds better than the usual “incidents” or “peaceful protests”.
But I agree that we should be very disturbed about how the government allowed these disturbances.
IMO, the local governments in many of these areas where looting, violence, arson and general anarchy was allowed to flourish are going to receive the needed lesson regarding the importance of property rights.
The cost benefit analysis for many businesses will result in their departure from hostile locations to communities that respect property rights, hard work and favor the law abiding tax payer over anarchists.
I believe this is what the cities want anyway. They want to clear the single-family residences and rental properties providing indoor parking, balconies, decks, pools and green spaces. It’s all about preparing the landscape for urban population density reliant on public transportation. They don’t care about the businesses because they believe they can recapture the costs through insurance which “everyone knows” means it doesn’t cost anybody anything.
It is another example of the Curley Effect:
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/glaeser/files/curley_effect_1.pdf
Ah….racial , cultural and social cleansing. Except what they are left with are versions of poorest Africa or Soviet Eastern Europe. Thanks for link.
Thanks for that link. Reading it now. Very blunt assessment and it explains all the crap we’re seeing in big Democrat cities.
Don’t forget that there is a huge asset transfer from those leaving to those staying, in that home values drop like a rock.
Stay or leave? It’s a cost-benefit decision.
Costs are dealing with a hostile and rapacious city administration; wretched public infrastructure and inadequate services (like the police who won’t be there); the difficulty in hiring contractors to come to your high-crime location for construction, electric utility, plumbing, etc; the price of insurance; the high normal (that is, non-riot related) loss rate from shoplifting, bad checks, vandalism, and employee pilfering; aggravation and high blood pressure; and etc.
The benefit is the enormous customer base when all your competitors have left town and you’re the only business catering to the denizens of this particular wasteland. Imagine being the only drugstore in a five-mile radius; pure pig heaven for a business.
Businessmen large and small make these calculations every day. No location is perfect, but no location need be unprofitable, either. It all depends on the specific numbers. A complication is that any situation can get worse, so the numbers in a case like Minneapolis have large uncertainties.
Not being a businessman makes things easier. I’d get out no matter what it pays.
I understand your analysis but, at this point, how can any of these business owners even get insurance? What insurer is going to underwrite a policy for a company in a city where these riots have just happened and where the city council plans to defund what is left of the police?
If they can buy insurance at all, it will exclude coverage for civil disturbance. Staying in any city with a large population of riff raff is not economically viable, including those which have not yet had riots. It is all about demographics.
How about Michigan Avenue in Chicago? So much damage, Macy’s is rumored to be pulling out of its iconic Water Tower location. 170k square feet.
Oops, guess the Minneapolis city council and mayor need to get their money from somewhere since Pres. Trump refused to declare Minneapolis a disaster area and send them the millions they were expecting to arrive after they allowed the rioting in their city. Too bad, so sad. Wonder how long it’s going to be before Minneapolis becomes another abandoned city like Detroit.
John Roberts or some Federal Judge in Hawaii will order the Trump administration to fork over the cash because racism.
And, Trump can pull an Andrew Jackson and tell the judge to enforce his decision.
And Pres. Trump can tell “the court” to fuck off and if they don’t like it then try and enforce their decision. They can’t and they know it.
As soon as they cheat and get Kamala elected, they will get our money
I rather suspect that shortly after that point the end of the rule of law will make such designations moot.
Subotai Bahadur
They don’t get that their authoritah is borrowed from conventions n institutions; conventions n institutions they’re blowing up.
Neither Cartman nor Kamala-Extract can personally service enough people into compliance to get their will enacted.
How do they think this is going to play out? I don’t get it.
It’s a funny thing: All of the officially Better People declare that the core meaning of Bad is Orange Man, including some who have genuine expertise and talent in their main pursuits.
Then later the same day, I read of Trump doing something which any honest person would want done yet expect today’s government to do the opposite of. Trump’s refusal of aid for cities that stoked provoked and permitted their own destruction is going to personally cost me $$, ‘cuz I’m going to click ‘Contribute” for Trump 2020.
It’s almost enough to forgive the cave in to Virus Bailout I, which was loaded with totally irrelevant D side crony payoffs and the $600 poison pill. My guess is that RINOs were all in and Trump took the path of lesser Resistance. Now weight in a few good Federal judges and and Sproiiing! the balance reads Trump.
Oh, i forgot, the career-ending tackle of international terrorist Solemaini is itself bigger than the padding in Bailout I. So was the correct takedown of Al-Baghdadi rather than the hero’s exit given to Osama. So was reducing our footprint there just enough to allow Syria, Turkey, Iran and Russia to get at each other instead of us.
Ka-Ching! Ka-Ching! Pull your chips Trump and cash in win after win.
I believe this is what is appropriately termed “adding insult to injury.” Businesses, the lifeblood of any community, and, of society, at-large, must pay out of pocket the susbstantial costs of the vile Dhimmi-crats’ manifest dereliction of civic/legal duty in failing to maintain law and order, and, in failing to preserve the peace.
Vote Dhimmi-crat, if you desire to turn all of America into Mogadishu, circa 1993.
It’s sad to see Minneapolis commit suicide.
No it’s not. It’s tough shit for voting for assholes.
Yes indeed, Mr. Woo. Every single solitary one of them, without exception, voted for this.
Hey, the bux for all that tribute that will be paid to the “only black lives madda” has to come from somewhere. You know all the “black studies” programs, anti-gun campaigns, walkin’ aroun’ money, etc. You didn’t the the clown council was going to take it out of THEIR salaries did you?
Anyone living in one of the riot cities, Seattle, Portland, Chicongo, Austin, etc. should get out now. It’s only going to get worse.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Cut your losses, get out of there. It’s not as if any trucks are going to come to help you restock your business anyhow.
The Metropolitan Council https://www.metrocouncil.org/ forces the suburban areas to share the expenses incurred by Minneapolis’ socialist government.
“When do the business owners start rioting, or at the very least, packing up and leaving?”
Those who are still capable of thinking will cut their losses and get out. Why pay all that dough for the privilege of being taxed and regulated into oblivion as “white supremacists”? If they feel the urge to be demonized and dehumanized they can get their fix by watching MSNBC. A lot cheaper that sacrificing your life savings, and they can always change the channel when they have had their fill.
For the rest: those that can pony up will do so and blame Trump for their losses. Those that can’t will still blame Trump for their losses. And in both cases the business owners will be labeled “white supremacists” by Minneapolis politicians, media, and BLM brownshirts.
Nope, if I owned a business that got burned out because the city let the animals run wild I would collect the insurance and move to a different state. The city could have the property for the back taxes. They could clear the charred remains of their failed policy.
Speaking of insurance. Many insurance policies for businesses have “escape clauses” that generally say the policy does not cover property losses for “acts of war” or “insurrection”, etc… Some maybe even “riot”. Has anyone heard of whether or not any insured has invoked such a clause here.
It’s a standard provision of standard insurance policies. War, riot, civil unrest are not covered.
If I were the owner of one of those businesses I would:
1) Demand an “economic development” package from the city / state covering my rebuilding costs and lost revenue in-between in return for an agreement to reopen;
2) As part of that, demand an immediate property tax revaluation given the diminished value of the property, now and in the future;
3) If the above is not forthcoming, abandon the property and leave. Let the City foreclose on its tax lien and it can clean up the rubble.
Then again, maybe I’d just do #3 — cut my losses and run.
The above ideas courtesy of (at least in spirit) Mr. John Galt.
Move the jobs and economic activity elsewhere and let the entire city rot.
Are you kidding? They’re demanding a prohibition on gentrification, thinking only they should be able to buy land in the area that was destroyed. I think a lot of the small businesses rented and are afraid the landlord will sell to a developer and they won’t be able to afford a higher rent; many went without business insurance, some who owned their building insured for current value rather than replacement value, many were closed down for Covid so were operating at a loss before the riots.
You get what you incentivize. It looks like Minneapolis wants to keep the look of a war zone.
They should get their taxes for the last year and next year waived since they clearly didn’t get the protection they’re paying for.
Good luck on that.
Decades ago I worked for a large, famous controls company based in Minneapolis (you guess the name – started with H) and remember going there for training classes. I recall how beautiful, yes, beautiful the downtown business core was. It was clean, safe, and walkable for dozens of blocks on the overstreet corridors. The strobe light on the soaring glass IDS tower could be sen from Iowa, for heaven’s sake.
The seediness could be seen starting in the eighties. Now this. Compared to my first trip there in 1978, it’s heartbreaking to see.
Let the city deteriorate. There’s a reason business owners are bailing. If they vote into office those “leaders” who encourage this, it’s the environment they can have.
Ya think Target has figured out where their problems are? Prob’ly not.
.
By at least one media account (business media https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/macys-exiting-water-tower-place), it does appear that Macy’s is bailing on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Likely to be many more if things don’t get under control. While the big retailers have the resources to hang on (at least until bankruptcy), there will be a lot of empty small business and restaurant storefronts.
More easy advertising for Trump… Q. What do all these scenes of devastation have in common? A. Democrats in power, demonization of the police, prosecutors who let criminals go free, failure to enforce the law.
Like Orwell’s 1984, Detroit should have been a lesson, not a primer.
The State Street store is THE iconic store, being the location of the original Marshall Field’s. If they pull out of State Street, that will be the nail in the coffin.
That’s where they had the famous Christmas tree for a long time, wasn’t it? The city deserves to lose it for not protecting it.
The State Street Marshall Field’s store was the iconic department store, along with many others on that street. By the mid-70’s, the Loop’s retail was dying and Michigan Avenue was beginning to boom. Michigan Avenue was seen as the future and Marshall Field’s decided to add a store there. I suspect that they intended to close State Street, but that never happened. When State Street came back to life, the Marshall Field’s store was the sole survivor. Then Field’s changed hands, passing through Dayton Hudson and becoming not much more than a glorified Target. Macy’s bought the remnants, committing the unforgivable sin of eliminating the Field’s name. Macy’s did make an effort to return the State Street store to some semblance of past glory.
But department stores are dying and what Covid hasn’t killed off, the looting will, particularly when the tourists and suburbanites don’t come back. Shootings are now commonplace in the Loop, carjackings happen daily. An elderly tourist (ok, visitor from out of town) was just run over (twice to make sure) by a mutt that was apparently trying to get in on the looting the other day.
Don’t forget that Dayton’s underwent the indignity of becoming Marshall Fields because it was better known and would sell at a higher price. The Macy’s at the Mall of America is the only actual Macy’s that was in Minneapolis.
Behold. The creation of a food desert.
Damn, way to kick people when they’re down Minneapolis! Think I’ll join the chorus of those who expect a lot of these businesses to simply leave for greener (and safer) pastures.
UPDATE: Minneapolis has backed down from its demand for pre-payment of property taxes: https://www.startribune.com/city-removes-tax-demand-that-was-blocking-rebuilding-of-riot-torn-minneapolis/572101822/
Good to hear. The first thing I would want is a reassessment. My building is gone and the land is worth a fraction of what it was before the riots so lets sharpen those pencils.
But they initially wanted it….defective reasoning on their part.
The globalists want to drive the good people out of the cities. Then they will fill the cities with federally funded Islamic migrants. Expect to have CAIR select the next city leaders in our major cities. The country is being overthrown.
They will be the hole in the doughnut in more ways than one. An emptiness surrounded by plenty.
.
Infiltration rather than invasion. More subtle, so it’s easier to cook that frog.
Sex and reproduction as a weapon to usher in the next dark age. Living like Muhammad the barbarian.
After 9-11, Cair was scrambling to remove incriminating stuff from the net.
I firmly believe I would be paying for MOVING expenses instead….IMO
That was the choice I made in the early seventies, packed up my business, left the city of Flint, never to return. Forty years later, with the exception of the Cultural Center area, Flint is one big ghetto, the difference only being in degree.
Not much left to move, judging by some of the pictures I’ve seen.
Simple enough; don’t pay the property taxes, don’t pay to get a permit, don’t pay to clear the land, and don’t pay to rebuild. Abandon the trashed property and leave the blight behind for the city to deal with. (Not legal advice, I don’t know if the city has any recourse if you do abandon the property, but I would not as a juror have any sympathy for the city whatsoever.) Furthermore, the city has already shown that it will allow rioters and looters to trash your property so why rebuild so they can do it again?
Use any insurance payment to rebuild elsewhere, move the jobs and economic activity outside the city (or even out of state if possible so taxes paid cannot be used to rebuild what the city allowed the rioters to destroy) and let the city rot. Everybody happy?
The trial is scheduled for March 21, 2021 and Ellison wants to have a joint trial, claiming it’s better for the juvenile witnesses. I think it’ll be a circus and not at all helpful for justice.
Compared to Minneapolis’ Molotov Tax, China’s bullet tax is downright amicable.
It is not the government that needs to learn. It is not the “city” that needs to learn. The voters must learn.
Isn’t life harder when you are stupid? The voters built this dysfunctional city government. They own it. And it has not hit bottom yet.
1 Peter 3:12
“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”
It is simple, cities have to have an economic reason to exist, most of today’s cities do not. Basing existence on welfare checks is not viable.
I wonder if we’ll see the big box stores begin to develop a ‘small model’ for deployment in suburban / outlying areas? Amazon has their lockers – order from the main site and pick it up at a locker near you. Sears has their “Home Town” stores – a fraction of the size of their mall and stand-alone stores.
In the 50’s and 60’s, my home town of 10,000 had a Sears store – a few products in the foyer – but mainly for taking orders at one of several point of sale stations, ready for pickup at the same store 1-2 weeks after ordering. The whole store couldn’t have been more than 1000 sq ft.
If I had to guess, the days of all-in-one super stores are coming to an end – most of them anyway. Amazon and Walmart will bury most of them. Target and the like will have to downsize and re-focus on their most competitive / profitable markets, re-deployed in smaller and safer communities.
I think business was already trending in that direction. Big brick-and-mortar stores have been struggling for a decade now, unable to compete with Amazon and its imitators.
Some will say it serves them right, since they had achieved their previous dominance at the expense of smaller, locally-owned stores.
Corky, I grew up in SW King Co., WA. The first ‘all-in-one’ type store I remember going up was Fred Meyer. It had at least 2 floors, the upper was mostly clothes. It seemed like every time I was on that floor, I was alone – and a clerk was dispatched under the guise of help, but probably to make sure I didn’t shop lift. From the mezzanine I could see most of the main floor and it appeared most of the people were in grocery. If I had to guess, 30% of their floor space (grocery) accounted for most of their business. Few people in sporting goods, housewares, etc. It has made me wonder how such a business model can sustain the ‘bloat’ just to eke out a little more profit? Does there come a point of diminishing returns – if grocery is just 30% floor space but accounts for 70% of sales? Seems like grocery subsidized the rest of the business – without which perhaps couldn’t even sustain itself?
After 40 years there, I remarried and moved to the rural midwest. Our town of 8000 was the county seat and leveraged a Walmart Super store out of a deal to locate a Walmart distribution center. When Walmart opened, half a dozen mom and pop businesses closed … fabric store, oil change, tire and service, optometrist, grocery, etc. Hard to see that happen – it changed the personality of the town. Moved to a smaller community after about 10 years there – just 1400 folks – 2 grocery stores – each about the size of an urban 7 Eleven store, one gas station, a pharmacy, couple bars and restaurants. Downright Norman Rockwell it was. Never happier to live anywhere.
Count me among them who think the big stores deserve what they’re getting. They destroy communities.
I live north of Seattle but grew up in western Illinois (Quad Cities). Lots of family living in small rural towns like the one you describe. Galva, Toulon, Aledo. I get nostalgic for it sometimes, especially in September/October when I used to drive down the Great River Road from Moline to Quincy and enjoy the autumn scenery.
Fred Meyer’s still around here in the PNW, and their stores still have the character you describe. Don’t know how much longer they’ll survive, given that they’re competing with Walmart for the same customer base.
We weren’t far from there, Corky. Princeton was home for awhile then Granville. My grandfather was born in Quincy; never made it there to do any family history stuff. When my wife was RIF’d she interviewed at Aledo (Rhubarb capital of the world!) but took the offer from Granville instead. I like the area a lot – those small towns are reminiscent of my home town (Slaughter 😉 WA) in the 50’s and 60’s. Living in ‘Cornville’ was sort of like going back in time for me. I figure we have 5-10 more years in Clallam co. before we’ll need to move nearer our family in IL. We love Galena, but probably wind up nearer Bloomington-Normal.
The business model of a mass merchandiser like Walmart is to maximize volume of sales. An individual sale may only make a few dollars of profit, or even just a few pennies, but multiplied by tens of thousands of sales in thousands of locations it adds up. Local government likes it, too: they get sales tax on every transaction.
But not all merchandise fits this business model. Luxury car makers seek to maximize the profit from each individual sale. I daresay you’ll never see a Ferrari for sale in your local Walmart. :O
Target has that too; the store near the University of MN is a few miles from HQ and is much smaller than others.
No better way to keep a city a shithole…
There has been a pattern of big stores dumping shit hole cities. And I agree that those stores can destroy decent communities. There are areas in Michigan where walmarts are half an hour or more away, that do not appear to be adversely affected. Still, demographics makes it clear that Michigan will become one large shit hole over time.
To top it off, if you don’t remove the debris the city will lien your property for the cost of removal (at full union rates of course) and steal it from you in a lien auction.
They should be able to sue for damages.
Two word solution: Close, leave.
It isn’t worth doing business there.
Nobody would actually want to live there anymore, would they?