THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN WORKING AT A BIG BOX STORE IS NOT HAVING A BIG BOX STORE TO WORK AT.

Remember when residents of the poorer quarters of Chicago didn't want Wal-Mart setting up shop without living wage ordinances?  (That didn't work out so well.)

Now, just before the beginning of the Hectic Shopping Season, Target intends to close two stores in the poorer quarters of Chicago.  The stores will remain open until February.

It's all too much for Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell.

It’s bad enough that Target is closing stores in Chatham and Morgan Park, communities struggling to combat the ill effects of disinvestment.

But to add insult to injury, Target is opening two new stores on the North Side — one in Rogers Park next year and another in Logan Square in 2020.

This bone-headed decision reinforces the narrative that Chicago is two cities — one worth investing in and the other— well, let’s not even go there.

It appears, by the locations Ms Mitchell mentions, that the enclave of fifteen square miles of privilege I have alluded to previously is expanding to the north and west of Wrigleyville.  Perhaps the Chicago Transit Authority will make improvements to the Metropolitan West Side L, er, Blue Line, that serves Logan Square, as they have recently done on the Ravenswood.

In her lament about Target bailing out of the south and west side, though, she's identifying a business opportunity.

South Siders were excited when Target opened stores in the heart of the South Side.

Finally, they could choose to shop somewhere other than a Wal-Mart and a dollar store. More important, young people living in those neighborhoods could find employment.

But don’t think Target didn’t get anything out of the deal.

According to a recent Nielsen study of African-American spending, blacks have “outsized influence “ over spending on essential items such as personal soap and bath needs ($573 million), feminine hygiene products ($54 million) and men’s toiletries ($61 million).

“Black consumers account for a disproportionate amount of product sales in a number of fast-moving consumer goods categories,” Nielsen added, pointing out black consumers had $1.2 trillion in spending power.

In other words, black folks spend a lot of money on the kind of goods Target is selling.

So it is hard for me to swallow the explanation that these South Side stores were losing so much money they had to be shuttered to protect Target’s profitability.

Yes, it's common knowledge that a dollar store is a symptom of a neighborhood in decline.

It's less common knowledge that chain stores regularly rank and yank underachieving stores, which means that even a profitable South Side store might be at risk if, for whatever reasons, it's less profitable than the standard being set at other stores in the chain.

There's also a business opportunity here: the empty Target stores might be available for entrepreneurial-minded potential merchants of those "fast moving consumer goods."

In addition, there's a chance here for Chicago's politicians to stop throwing subsidies, including Tax Increment Financing fiddles, at businesses.  "Aldermen should move quickly to block Target from receiving any city subsidies that would help them develop the two new North Side stores."  Indeed.