tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post1503506010681804765..comments2023-10-31T08:24:52.483-05:00Comments on CHICAGO ARGUS: Starbuck's closes its way into racial squabble w/ Chicago-area closingGregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-52083114055595694802008-07-20T10:23:00.000-05:002008-07-20T10:23:00.000-05:00Thanks for a good reporting job with exceptional r...Thanks for a good reporting job with exceptional reasoning and a conclusion that hits too close to home.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-58582127470859329212008-07-17T09:31:00.000-05:002008-07-17T09:31:00.000-05:00I'm particularly aware of the retail disparity bet...I'm particularly aware of the retail disparity between the south suburbs and much of the rest of the Chicago area. I grew up in Glenwood and Homewood where the choices of retailers and restaurants paled in comparison with, say, Orland Park or Schaumburg, even though the median household income of those towns would have suggested that they ought to have been retail magnets (and certainly even more so when you add in affluent Flossmoor and Olympia Fields next door). Now, I'm living in Naperville, which is the complete opposite end of the spectrum in terms of retail and restaurants. Every major retailer fights for space in that town and you literally can't walk anywhere without running into multiple Starbucks - downtown Naperville has three stores within a block of each other, essentially every strip mall in town has one, and most Dominick's, Jewel, and Target stores in Naperville have a Starbucks cafe in them to boot.<BR/><BR/>I'm trained in law and finance while being pretty close to a pure libertarian in my political views, so I completely understand and support economic decisions by organizations to open locations that maximize their earning potential - overall, society benefits from profitable companies because jobs don't exist without them. That being said, there's a nagging perception about the south suburbs in general that they can't support upper middle class retailers and restaurants even though the income statistics would suggest otherwise. I can certainly see how the residents of Country Club Hills and the other suburbs located east of I-57 can interpret this to be some type of racial tint to these business decisions. I don't think that Starbucks or any other Fortune 500 companies are actually engaging in any type of overt racial discrimination, but they do probably provide a lot less leeway for locations that are outside of their "core" city and suburban markets (i.e. areas that instantly are perceived - which is the key word as opposed to "actual" - as homes to the well-to-do or yuppies).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-6967967277950977892008-07-17T06:18:00.000-05:002008-07-17T06:18:00.000-05:00Greg, can you shoot me an email? Unless you're blo...Greg, can you shoot me an email? Unless you're blogging from Nigeria where you've got a sick nephew (and desperately need my financial assistance), I think someone's gotten into your gmail account.<BR/><BR/>Alan H.Alanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09522199728675818341noreply@blogger.com