Reports: Rev. Jesse Jackson calls for Kroger boycott after Memphis store closings
Sarah Brookbank
Rev. Jesse Jackson has called for a boycott of Kroger stores while in Memphis marking the 50th year since the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., according to reports.
Two Kroger locations in the heart of Memphis closed in February sparking community pushback, according to The Commercial Appeal, a sister publication The Enquirer in Memphis.
According to WREG in Memphis, Jackson called for a boycott after concerns that pulling out of the area would create a food desert.
“If Kroger gonna leave us, we’re gonna leave Kroger. It’s boycott time,” Jackson said on WREG.
Kroger cited losses of nearly $4.8 million between the stores over the past three years and said it’s always “a difficult business decision” to close stores, The Commercial Appeal reported.
One of the stores was located in Orange Mound – the first community in the South where African-Americans built homes.
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Localmemphis.com posted a Facebook Live from the location of the former Orange Mound Kroger.
“Kroger wants to maintain the right to leave and then destroy competition,” said Jackson. “That's means for them to reduce us to a desert. It’s mean and evil and we intend to fight back.”
More:Places don't thrive without fresh food. Orange Mound doesn't plan to be one of them.
More:Activists hand out leaflets protesting Kroger's store-closing plans
After the announcement of the store closings, The Commercial Appeal reported that Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland shared shoppers' sentiments.
“I'm disappointed by Kroger's decision to close two stores in Memphis. But these neighborhoods are no less important than any other neighborhoods in our city, and citizens who live there absolutely deserve access to a quality grocery store,” Strickland said on Twitter.
"All we can say is the store is losing money and try to give it some time to recuperate and if it does not we have to make tough decisions to close the store,'' Kroger spokeswoman Teresa Dickerson said when the closing was announced.
On March 20, WMC Action News5 in Memphis reported in March that a study done by Memphis City Council found that at least one of the Kroger Stores was profitable.
Kroger representatives in the corporate office were not immediately available for comment.