Walgreens is pulling out of Chicago’s South Side, home to some of the city’s most crime-ridden areas. The closure of a store in the city’s Chatham neighborhood, set for June 4, marks the seventh Walgreens location to shut down on the South Side in the past year.
Who’s to blame for this departure? Chicago Alderman William Hall, who represents Chatham as part of Ward 6, blames the company. Walgreens, he said, should be charged with “first-degree corporate abandonment” for creating a “medicine drought,” and he even accused it of committing a “pharmaceutical genocide.” (It’s particularly rich that Hall is now castigating Walgreens for closing, given that he hadn’t been happy about Walgreens opening, alleging it “ran out” small, local businesses.)
