American has been quite chaotic lately, following the murder of George Floyd, which happened on 5/25/2020. Many people took to the streets to demand swift justice for Mr. Floyd; protests that quickly turned violent and chaotic. Most of the protests were quite peaceful, some protesters in some cities took advantage of the tension (and the fact that most people wear masks these days) to rob businesses and destroy public property. No business was spared. Protesters robbed everything, from major retailers like Target to small incomes shops around their neighborhood. The high-end retailer stores, especially those located in wealthy neighborhoods took the biggest hit. These high-end retailers are now counting more losses this year as some of them were already struggling to keep the doors open due to the coronavirus pandemic which made them close shop for months. Here’s a list of some of the stores that took the biggest blow during the recent Black Lives Matter protests.
Round Two
A message was spray-painted high on the front window of the vintage and resale store, Round Two, that said “store empty. Nothing left.” Just a day after the looting took place, Sean Wotherspoon, the cofounder of Round Two stores in LA, shared a heartbreaking video of his empty stores on social media. Sean also mentioned on his IG page that his store in Virginia wasn’t spared. Sean also said that he was grateful the store wasn’t burned down.
Round Two store on #Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles has also been emptied out by looters ‼️ pic.twitter.com/GZCQg7IddL
— aGOODoutfit (@aGOODoutfit) May 31, 2020
Sneaker Politics
According to The Dallas Morning News, one of the biggest sneaker stores in Dallas, Sneaker Politics, was looted during the Black Lives Matter Protests. The looting was said to take place on May 29. Kellen Daniel, the store manager, expressed his anger and disappointment to the Dallas Morning News after he inspected what was left of the store. “It’s just sad that a few people will diminish what the protest is about,” Kellen said.
I spent some time with the folks at @Sneakerpolitics in #DeepEllum today. https://t.co/jsXBcBp4NC
— Charlie Scudder (@cscudder) May 30, 2020
Hot Topic
More looting was documented at the Hot Topic store in Long Beach last weekend. In a video that went viral, looters were spotted breaking into the store and leaving with the store’s merch. The police were not spotted anywhere near this store at the time of the looting. It is believed that these looters had nothing to do with the Black Lives Matter protests that were going on at the time.
Hot Topic store at The Pike Outlets in #LongBeach has been looted during another #BlackLivesMatter protest… pic.twitter.com/oYxdZyDtNg
— aGOODoutfit (@aGOODoutfit) June 1, 2020
RIF LA
The weekend was met with more vandalism as stores throughout the country continued to report looting and destruction of their property. Throughout the weekend, RIF LA updated its followers on what was going on through their social media. On May 31, RIF LA wrote a very positive tweet which said that God had a bigger plan and that this was bigger than the items robbed. That is why I was surprised when they tweeted on June 1 that they may not be able to reopen Rif LA (San Francisco). Their San Francisco store was badly damaged.
@rifla
SoleStage
This is yet another secondary market store that looters broke into on May 30. The store’s co-owner posted a video on Instagram that showed its followers the damage that was made by the people who stole from them. This store however promised that they will recover reopen. In another Instagram post, SoleStage showed love and support to the African-American community. “we stand with you. We ride with you. #SoleStage.” The store wrote on their IG referring to the African-American community.
SUPEME SOLESTAGE AND OLD FLIGHTCLUB STORE ROBBED @HYPEBEAST @CBSLA @NBCLA @KTLA pic.twitter.com/sg2YZj0a5O
— GETTING AROUND AKAMAI (@BotKing4) May 31, 2020
These are just some of the many retail stores that have been robbed during the recent Black Lives Matter protests.
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