Walgreens didn’t abandon Chicago’s South Side. We let crime drive them out

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Ald. William Hall called it a crime that the retail chain was closing a location amid theft and safety concerns. (WFLD) Walgreens didn’t leave the South Side of Chicago because they hate Black people. They left because we made it impossible for them to stay. Just recently, another Walgreens shut down on Cottage Grove, and once again the public conversation turned in the wrong direction. People started blaming the company, blaming corporate greed, blaming everything except the conditions on the ground that made staying there untenable. But businesses do not keep stores open out of charity. They stay where people shop, where customers feel safe and where theft and disorder do not make daily operations a losing proposition. At that Cottage Grove Walgreens, the theft was off the charts. By local reports, the store lost more than a million dollars to thef