A Chicago alderman is calling for “corporate” criminal charges against the pharmacy chain Walgreens for its plan to close a store on the city’s troubled South Side over concerns over retail theft and violence at the drugstore.
“We’re not here to beg Walgreens to stay,” Ward 6 Alderman Will Hall said at news conference, surrounded by local community members. “We are saying that their decision is the wrong decision my opinion. In my opinion, it should be considered a first-degree corporate crime. Because the amount of people that will be hurt by this, the amount of elders who will not have access to healthcare is evil.”
The Chatham store on Cottage Grove Ave said they will permanently shut their doors on June 4, 2026. The nearest Walgreens location is more than a mile away.
In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago-area-based pharmacy store chain cited theft and violent incidents as the primary factors behind its decision to close the store at this location.
More than two years ago, the drugstore’s hours were reduced from 24-hour service to closing at midnight.
“Despite a range of efforts, including previous operating adjustments, these ongoing safety challenges have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a secure environment for our team members and customers,” the statement said. “While this was not an easy decision, safety must remain our top priority.”
Neighbors joined Hall at the news conference on Monday, waving signs saying, “Senior Lives Matter,” and “No More Corporate Abandonment.”
Five Walgreens on the South Side permanently closed last year, with another three shutting down over the past 18 months, the outlet reported.
Theft is a problem everywhere, Hall claimed, and other stores have found ways to deal with it such as locking away their merchandise where customers then ask for employee assistance.
Chicago, particularly the South Side, has become ground zero for national outrage over its runaway violent crime, often taking the lives of innocent citizens in gang gunfire and drive-by shootings.
In 2026, there have already been more than 500 shootings and 134 homicides, an increase of roughly eight percent over last year’s rate, according to figures kept by the city of Chicago.
In one 2020 study, nearly eight out of ten Chicago violent crime victims across all ages were black males, while two thirds between the ages of 20 and 39 years old were black and 15 percent were Hispanic.
Lowell Cauffiel was the recipient of Columbia University’s prestigious Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for his series on racial conflict between convenience store owners and customers in Detroit in the 1980s. He’s the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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