Police and demonstrators in Chicago during the George Floyd protests.
By Ed Avis
Just when we were getting to the end of one crisis, another emerged. The protests related to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis flared up across the country just as businesses started to emerge from the Covid crisis.
While the protests have slowed business in many parts of the country, an APDSP survey shows that few reprographics firms were damaged by the more violent elements of the protests. The survey asked, “Was your business affected by any of the protests that have occurred in recent days?” Of the 23 people who responded to that question, 19 said the protests had no effect other than – in some cases – lost business because streets were closed.
One respondent to the survey said their shop windows were broken by protesters. Another wrote: “It was scary but fortunately didn’t really affect us in a meaningful way.” Another wrote: “One of our branch offices had a planned protest go down the street in front of our location. It is likely we may have lost some business during the several hours this was going on.” Neither of these respondents provided their names.
Mikel Monsen, an APDSP board member and director of print and scan solutions for Monsen Engineering in Salt Lake City, said the protests got within a few blocks of their office.
“One of our managers came in and loaded up the van with all of our Trimble (surveying) gear and took it home,” Monsen says. “If it was a smash-and-grab situation someone could easily take it. I don’t think they would know what they had, but they could take it.”
Fortunately, once the protests started escalating, they were contained to the area around the state capitol building and didn’t reach the Monsen office.
Christian Cummins, owner of Idaho Blueprint in Boise, had about the same experience.
“In our location we’re right across from City Hall, and about a block and half away is the state capitol,” Cummins explains. “There’s been a lot of protests at the capitol, but for the main part [they haven’t been violent]. On first night some kid shot off a gun in the air, and they got him. My wife showed me that last night someone grafittied the state house, but that’s the first thing I’ve heard.”
Chicago has been the scene of some violent looting, including in the downtown Loop area. Best Imaging Solutions is located in the Loop but didn't sustain any damage, owner Mark Luncsford says.
“Fortunately we were not street facing so we were spared the looting and vandalism,” Luncsford wrote in an email. “However nobody was working so basically we were shut down 100 percent except for things already in the hopper. Downtown was a ghost town Monday and Tuesday – even as compared to 2+ months of COVID. Today there is more activity but business is flat from previous days.”
The protests are ongoing in most parts of the country, so it’s possible reprographics shops could still sustain some damage. This is evidently the thought of one survey respondent who replied to the protest question this way: “Not yet, there’s one planned here later this week.”