For one Black-owned business in Chicago, looters hit harder than the pandemic
- Shatira Wilks' says her Edible Arrangements store in South Side Chicago's Jeffery Manor neighborhood was "just destroyed" by looters.
- Her computers, cash drawer, tools, and inventory of fruit and chocolate were all taken.
- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced the Together Now fund, aimed at helping small businesses recover. As a franchisee, though, Wilks is not eligible.
- Like other neighborhood businesses, Wilks says she's not sure she'll reopen. "To go in and feel like you have to rebuild … it has to make sense," she told Insider.
When Shatira Wilks laid eyes on her Edible Arrangements franchise she was filled with disbelief.
The shop, which she opened two years ago in South Side Chicago's Jeffery Manor neighborhood, had been ransacked while protesters marched through the city over the last weekend in May.
"When I pulled up and saw it, I couldn't believe it. I didn't know if I was going to cry," Wilks told Insider. "I had all kinds of anger. And, then, I was also pissed."
Anger quickly turned to worry as Wilks, who had heard of confrontations between looters and local business owners, wondered whether anyone was still inside.
She cautiously entered the store through a busted-out window, careful not to cut herself on the shards above her head.
No one was inside, but the shop was wrecked. 
Broken glass and pieces from cracked containers were strewn across the floor. A cooler once filled with elaborate fruit displays was emptied. Her computers, cash drawer, and tools — even her inventory of fruit and chocolate — were all gone.
"They just destroyed it … I mean it's crazy," Wilks told Insider.
She's not sure when it was hit, but neighboring business owners told her it might have been May 31 or the morning after.
Chicago police made over 1,200 arrests that weekend, WTTW reported, more than half of them relating to looting and destruction of property, according to Police Superintendent David Brown.
Wilks' shop is in the 95th and Jeffrey Shopping Center, the same strip mall where a Dollar Tree was gutted by fire on June 1.
Just about every business on the strip had been looted or vandalized.
A few, like Wilks', are Black-owned.
Two days after the fire, she boarded up her store. "I don't know if this [looting] is going to happen again," Wilks said, 'because they got away with it so easily."
Chicago has a history of racial strife, including the police-involved shooting deaths of Laquan McDonald, Rekia Boyd, Quintonio LeGrier, and Bettie Jones.
Wilks grew up in Roseland on the Far South Side, where Barack Obama got his start as a community organizer. She believes the protests in the wake of George Floyd's killing are "necessary."
Her issue, she says, is that now George Floyd's legacy is more tied up with looting and property damage than anything else.
"You're going to think about all of the stores that were destroyed before you think about the protests' purpose," Wilks said. "You're going to think about how so many businesses have closed and how so many people were devastated and hurt before you think about the protests."
While the East 95th Street corridor isn't a food or retail desert, businesses have been hesitant to move there because of the high crime rate.
After the volatile weekend, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot vehemently denied claims police were disproportionately deployed to protect wealthier downtown neighborhoods at the expense of the poorer South and West Sides.
The pandemic had already impacted many stores in the area. Some not classified as essential were closed for more than two months.
Wilks' Edible Arrangements franchise was actually deemed essential and remained open during the lockdown. She was able to receive customers from other locations that opted to close and actually saw a 10% boost in sales.
Other South Side shops will have a tougher time rebounding, if they do at all.
"A lot of people coming off of the pandemic just were not prepared" for another economic hit like the one caused by vandalism and looting, Wilks said.
Many businesses along major South Side thoroughfares remain boarded up.
"They were already contemplating closing," Wilks said. "Now there are a lot of owners who say they're not even going to reopen."
Lightfoot has vowed to help small businesses, including those in predominantly Black communities. On June 5, she launched the city-backed Together Now fund, with an initial $10 million investment.
Now up to $15 million, it's aimed at helping local businesses recover.
The city began taking applications on Saturday, and more than 2,500 businesses are expected to benefit, according to Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor of economic development.
To qualify, a business must have fewer than 100 employees at any one location.
Mayekar said his office is considering "the disproportionate impact of both COVID-19 and the damage of the weekend of May 29 and beyond on South and West Side businesses, and will be providing grants accordingly."
But as an operator of a chain franchise, Wilks isn't eligible.
She wonders whether, given the economic inequality that's long existed in Chicago, the grants will truly be accessible to Black-owned businesses on the South and West Sides.
"I'm not dependent on it if they do," she said. "If they don't, I wasn't expecting it anyway."
Alderman Greg Mitchell represents the 7th Ward, where the Edible Arrangements is located.
He's still waiting to get details about how the Together Now fund will be distributed, but says he's been meeting with the Chicago Aldermanic Black Caucus to draft recommendations that will "steer the administration into a direction that helps our communities financially."
A lot of the destruction on the South Side, Mitchell said, had nothing to do with the protests and everything to do with opportunists looking to loot and vandalize.
"I heard the mayor say that it was calculated, it was planned," he said. "And that they got away with it and then other people just joined in."
Mitchell says he saw vehicles with out-of-state plates at looted sites in his district.
He believes store owners' hesitancy to return will dissipate over time, as long as officials show they're serious about preventing more vandalism and responding better if it does happen.
Wilks said being the sole proprietor of a business with three employees has been a dream come true. Still, she's not sure if she'll reopen the store.
It'll remain closed for at least a few more weeks for repairs.
"I'm contemplating what the value is in keeping it open," she said. "To go in and feel like you have to rebuild … it has to make sense."