Inside the Decision to Close as Businesses Protest ICE
The list of businesses closing on Friday in response to the presence of ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) in the state continues to grow. This comes a week after community and faith leaders held a press conference calling on Minnesotans to not shop, work, or go to school on Jan. 23.
January is already a tough month for the retail industry because of the frigid weather in Minnesota. There’s also the notion people are recovering from the expenditures of the holiday season.
And over the past few weeks, store owners tell Twin Cities Business they’ve lost revenue compared to this time last year. Why? They say many consumers fear going out and getting detained by a federal agent. Further, as one restaurant owner tells TCB, there are many places being “forced to close” because their employees “don’t feel safe to come into work.”
“People who are living paycheck to paycheck, it’s a major decision,” says Adam Duininck, CEO and president of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. “I just wish there was a different action to support your local businesses Friday.”
How Business Owners Decided to Close Friday
When Alex Roberts, owner of Alma, spoke to other restaurant owners in the metro, he kept hearing the same thing: I feel nervous about closing, and I don’t feel like it’s best for my business.
That checks out because everyone Roberts said he talked to in the business world told him they had seen a decline in foot traffic this month. That goes for Alma too, as Roberts says his business’ revenue is down year-over-year at this point.
Being a part of the “economic blackout” is a decision Roberts didn’t take lightly, he says. When he met with his staff over the past week and asked them whether they wanted to work or go out and protest Friday, he heard “I need to work” more frequently.
“We’re not going to ask or judge if you want to come into work,” Roberts says. “If not enough people come in, I have to ask myself: ‘Do I close down or force people to work?’”
Some of Roberts’ businesses will close Friday, because there won’t be enough staff to run the restaurants. Others will be open. For the places closing, Roberts says they won’t replace employee wages.
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A bookstore in Minneapolis, who spoke on anonymity in fear of retaliation from ICE, says they’ll be closed Friday as well, but will offer employees the option come to work. “We don’t want to deny people their wages,” the owner says. “So, we also offer them sick time if they would prefer to go to a protest.”
The store spoke to other businesses about showing “the power of the local economy” and wanting to stand in solidarity. After hearing about the idea of the economic blackout, the owner says they knew they were going to join.
Over in the Linden Hills neighborhood in Minneapolis, Elizabeth Kitzenberg, owner of Picnic, has had many conversations the past week with her staff on how to manage closing Friday.
“We’ll lose money [being closed], but it’s not the same as losing our business or livelihood entirely,” she says.
Kitzenberg says people outside the business world don’t realize how disruptive ICE’s presence in Minnesota has been on the retail industry. “You’re also impacted when schools are closing and when people are pulled out of work.” She adds this will have a very long tail based on how long ICE stays in the metro.
Over the past week though, Minnesotans continue to purchase food from Picnic to donate to communities in need, according to Kitzenberg. Last Friday, the business says they had 10 carloads of food to donate.
Correlation to the Economic Disruption of 2020
A Minneapolis restaurant owner, who spoke on anonymity in fear of retaliation from ICE, tells TCB “by coming out there and saying we’re closing Friday does open us up to some risk, to be targeted. That’s scary. We did weigh that. But we also know that not standing in solitary with the community comes at times with risk, too.”
The restaurant had multiple internal discussions the past week, seeking input from the staff to reach their final decision. How nearby stores maneuvered staying open Friday or not also played a part in their choice.
The owner says they will pay their workers’ base salary after members of their team were concerned about not getting paid. “It’s the right thing to do. To support our team members out there participating in resistance or just caring for their own family.”
The anonymous Minneapolis restaurant’s revenue is down 25% so far this month compared to this time the year before. Since ICE ramped up “Operation Metro Surge,” the owner says “[customers] are not coming into the city from the suburbs. Or people are just staying home.”
It has the business in “survival mode,” the owner says. “The past few weeks have felt similar to what our business went through in 2020. I’m worried about what’s to come. If any of the escalation measures are actually followed, I think that has the potential to do great economic damage to our local economy here. Our local and small businesses.”
