Looting compromises Philadelphia businesses looking to reopen

Business owners are feeling helpless after rioters loot through their stores over the weekend

FOX 29's Kelly Rule talks to business owners in North Philadelphia who were preparing to reopen their doors but now are feeling helpless after looting and rioting over the weekend.

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia businesses are trying to pick up the pieces after being vandalized several times.

Since Saturday, looters have targeted and damaged several stores and left with lots of merchandise. Many enterprises are continuing to see the dangerous effects of these raids.

City Blue, a fashion retailer that’s had business in Philadelphia for over 30 years, is now experiencing the aftermath. Owner Brian Nadav said the shop has been hit multiple times, and is both decreasing productivity and impacting employees.

“Right now six locations are completely devastated, we have no inventory, our stores have to be built from the ground up,” he said.

Nadav’s father came to the U.S. as an immigrant, and started their family-owned business. After years of sales, the company faces this less than a week before Philly’s move into the ‘yellow zone’ that allows businesses to reopen for the first time in months.

“It’s people that live and work in this very community that are not going to have a job because we don’t have the means to provide that,” Nadav said.

In Kensington, Juniata Meats Food Market was also recently destroyed by looters. Tariq Meseeh, owner, was sure to board up the store windows on Monday morning.

“Right now we are very scared,” he said. “We didn’t pass through yet, the corona thing, we were struggling. We were trying to serve the community with the food and essentials and at the same time, this situation came up.”

Nadav says that his biggest concern is that he doesn’t want looters to distract from the work that peaceful protestors are doing.

“We don’t want the protestors for a real social justice movement that we truly believe in to be confused with the looters and with these opportunistics,” he said.

Many parts of Kensinton were still experiencing looting and crisis on Monday. Witness and property owner Farzad Ahmad expressed his thoughts on a video that looked like an organized raid.

“[They] work hard their whole life and look at what happened, in one day it’s all destroyed,” he said.

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