Nov. 29--The new iPhones seemed tantalizingly within reach -- separated from the cold, rainy street only by the spotless glass facade of the North Michigan Avenue Apple store, and a line of protesters, determined to keep would-be shoppers out.
"I'm an American!" hollered a woman in a red raincoat as she made a doomed attempt to force her way through the scrum of protesters. "I just want to get in the store. ... I just want to shop!"
A phalanx of Apple employees looked out on the chaos from the warmth of the store. A handful of customers jabbed fingers at iPads, seemingly oblivious.
Similarly discordant scenes were repeated up and down Chicago's Magnificent Mile on Black Friday as hundreds of activists protesting the fatal shooting of Chicago teenager Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer attempted a Black Friday "blackout" and to bring a halt to commerce on the busiest shopping day of the year.
But like many shoppers inconvenienced by the protest, the seething woman outside the Apple store struggled to understand what McDonald's death and the 13-month delay to bring charges against the officer had to do with her. Like most of the aggrieved, she refused to give her full name, saying she lived downtown and identifying herself only as Marcia, 60.
She nodded as her companion, Jay Krishnamurthy, 54, said, "the whole South Side is on fire. Why don't they tackle the violence in their own communities?" She nodded again when he said of McDonald's killing, "Mistakes do happen."
Apple wasn't the only store affected by the clash. Protesters blocked the entrances to dozens of high-end stores, turning a handful of customers away by force and dissuading many more simply by their presence.
Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus, Tiffany Co., Saks Fifth Avenue, Victoria's Secret, Burberry, the Disney Store and Brooks Brothers were among those blocked for parts of the afternoon. Other stores and retail centers, including Water Tower Place, American Girl and Salvatore Ferragamo temporarily locked their doors to keep protesters out. And yet other stores were left free to go about their business, seemingly spared at random.
Retailers reluctant to discuss what effect the protests had on their bottom line declined to talk on the record, and determining the protest's impact was made harder by both a growing trend toward online holiday shopping and miserable November weather that likely kept some shoppers and protesters at home.
But one luxury store manager said the effects were "obviously bad for us" as the typical Black Friday scenes of sidewalks and stores packed to the rafters with shoppers fighting for bargains were replaced by sparsely occupied stores and protesters wandering along the middle of what became for much of the afternoon a pedestrianized North Michigan Avenue.
What few shoppers there were browsed clothes and gadgets to piped-in Muzak and Frank Sinatra Christmas songs while a few feet away outside, protesters chanted through bullhorns. In one exchange, two women who were seeking lunch got in a spirited argument about which was the entrance to the Ralph Lauren store and which was the entrance to the Ralph Lauren restaurant, with a protester telling them, "Ain't no shopping here today."
"I thought it was a joke," said West Loop resident Nilo Khan, 30, after she and other shoppers were turned away from Zara by protesters. "We're not trying to stop them from protesting, so why should they stop us from shopping?"
