Given that and the risk of another looter-fest, I'd leave town. F* 'em. Waaaaay too much history.
It would not surprise me if many of these stores closed for good. Stores of any kind in black areas tend to be a marginal proposition. Shoplifting and vandalism are through the roof, and that’s just the employees. Throw in the even more felonious customers, and it’s one headache after another. All of this to barely break even.
Most of these looted stores probably opened when their surrounding areas were lily-white. Whether insurance covered a significant portion of their losses or this was a total loss for the owners, the odds are that they will cut bait. In riot-torn LA, 50% of the Korean-owned stores shut down permanently, despite the English-challenged owners having few alternatives, in addition to being inured to all the crap they have to put up with, by operating in a black area.
Given that and the risk of another looter-fest, I'd leave town. F* 'em. Waaaaay too much history.
In the “south side” of my city, grocery chains just started to open stores in the last few years. It was risky, and always touch and go with the criminals in the area. But they stayed. So far.
Luckily, we didn’t have this kind of destruction here. But you can bet your bottom dollar that if we had, these grocery chains would close their stores in the area and never open back up.
“Most of these looted stores probably opened when their surrounding areas were lily-white. “
Yes they were ...60 plus years ago when we split just before the storm.