Cleaning up after a CVS was set afire. Andrew Burton/Getty Images
In many cases, rioting is an outcry for social justice. But however powerful a message riots may send, they are bad for the local economy. Take the Baltimore riot. It is hurting local business.
According to Maryland governor Larry Hogan, about 200 small businesses were unable to open the day after the violence. Several owners of businesses in the Black community have abandoned their shops and stores,
The hardest hit were Korean-American small businesses as a result of the long-standing tensions between owners and the mostly Black residents.
While some businesses are still debating whether or not to reopen, CVS Health Corp. is already making plans to rebuild the burned-out pharmacy, spokeswoman Carolyn Castel wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.
If insurance doesn’t cover some of the damages, it is mostly likely some of the businesses will not rebuild like CVS plans to.
Then there is the lost revenue. “Even companies that can rebuild face challenges. When a business is closed for an extended period, customers seek alternatives and may not return, said Jeffrey Robinson, a professor of entrepreneurship at Rutgers University,” reports HuffPo.
Also, new businesses will think twice about investing in the community moving forward.
It can take decades for communities to rebuild and bounce back after a riot. In fact, cities hit by riots in the 1960s have taken decades to recover. Newark, NJ, Washington, D.C., and parts of Detroit are still rebuilding after looting in their cities.
So there’s the question of how long will it take for Baltimore to recover, if it ever will.
