Retail tends to have very low profit margins, maybe a couple percent. It's going to take a LONG time to earn back the losses, assuming they reopen at all. If your business is going to get looted every few years, there's no point opening at all.
Couple percent is a pretty good average if you're looking at large retailers (like walmart's overall sales) - those margins get even slimmer if you're talking about regional chains or high-volume stores (like how amazon often runs on sub-1% margins). Even a very liberal estimate of 5% isn't lucrative enough to take the risk of being in an "impoverished" area of town.
Retail tends to have very low profit margins, maybe a couple percent. It's going to take a LONG time to earn back the losses, assuming they reopen at all. If your business is going to get looted every few years, there's no point opening at all.
Couple percent is a pretty good average if you're looking at large retailers (like walmart's overall sales) - those margins get even slimmer if you're talking about regional chains or high-volume stores (like how amazon often runs on sub-1% margins). Even a very liberal estimate of 5% isn't lucrative enough to take the risk of being in an "impoverished" area of town.