Chicago Alderman Wants Walgreens Charged With 'Corporate Abandonment' for Closing Store

Walgreens can't catch a break. Back in 2024, Walgreens announced that it was closing a fourth location in Boston in a high-crime area. Rep. Ayanna Pressley at the time called pharmacy closings "disruptive, life-threatening acts of racial and economic discrimination." In 2025 in San Francisco, a Walgreens store manager was convicted of assaulting a shoplifter who stole shampoo. Just this January, a Senate candidate running as a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation to unseat Ed Markey expressed his desire for the government to seize the top 100 corporations, including CVS and Walgreens, and make them public property.

"Six Walgreens have closed on [Chicago's] South Side during the past year," reports ABC 7 Eyewitness News. "One alderman calls it pharmaceutical genocide."

Pharmaceutical genocide. That alderman is William Hall, who wants Walgreens to face charges of "corporate abandonment" in light of another location closing on June 4 because of high levels of theft and violent incidents.

Chicago Alderman William Hall wants to see Walgreens face charges for closing (over a shoplifting crisis) pic.twitter.com/lZgZRvBdJ7
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 4, 2026

Maybe stop shoplifting, and the stores would stay open.

So the people who are not providing a safe environment for their citizens now wants to go after a business that has had enough of lawlessness. Unreal
— platospupil (@platospupil) May 4, 2026

How about charging the thugs who force businesses to “abandon” ghetto neighborhoods? They’re the ones harming your elders.
— Harold ☘️ (@Nikk1066) May 4, 2026

Oh look… it's another victim of their own policies.
— Nick Freitas (@NickJFreitas) May 4, 2026

Chicago Alderman William Hall wants to see Walgreens face charges for properly running their business.

Hall denies there is any crime problem in Chicago. The people in Chicago laugh at his insanity.
— Thomas_Paine_6771 (@ThomasPain_6771) May 4, 2026

Apparently, unbeknownst to Hall actions have consequences. He can’t comprehend what a for profit corporation is. Walgreens has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders, not to mention the safety of its employees. Hall’s constituents created this problem. Cry me a river.
— ATX MAN TX (@ATXMANATX) May 4, 2026

Where is "first degree abandonment" a law, exactly?

Businesses stay in business as long as they earn at least a minimal profit. When that becomes impossible, stores close, whether pissant local politicians approve or not.

The only laws involved here are the Laws of Economics.
— Bob Dog (@BobDog19006) May 4, 2026

Maybe he can convince Mayor Brandon Johnson to pull a Zohran Mamdani and open city-owned drugstores.

These idiots really don’t understand business. You can’t order businesses around. Cities break their covenants with businesses by failing to protect them from robberies and shoplifting and they wonder why businesses close.
— Thomas John (@ThomasJohn65936) May 4, 2026

If shoplifting were a crime in Chicago, these problems wouldn't even exist.
— EleventySigma CygnusAtratus (@eleventysigma) May 4, 2026

Some cities are even passing legislation not to prosecute shoplifting under a certain dollar amount, like $700.

Sometimes, people just like to hear themselves belch out words, even though they are ridiculous and stupid. William Hall is just such a man. Notice he doesn't say anything about the robbers and thugs that forced the Walgreens to close. Not only is he a moron, but he's a liar too.
— John Bulkeley (@bulkeley_john) May 4, 2026

You can't force a business to stay open … not yet, anyway. Let's see if he actually sues Walgreens for "corporate abandonment."

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