COVID-19 mandates fail to make Chicago chocolatier bitter

[March 23, 2022]  Ann Miller | Illinois Policy Institute.

Jackie Jackson walked into an ice cream shop after losing her mother. It was comfort. She decided Chicago needed more of it.

She opened a Kilwins Ice Cream and Fudge franchise on Michigan Avenue, another in Hyde Park and was launching a Navy Pier location when the COVID-19 pandemic and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mandated shutdowns hit.

“When COVID first started, I was devastated because we just got into our Michigan Avenue store. The rent was like $14,000 a month. So, it was a disaster. I just saw my whole life just going down the drain.”

Jackson and the contentment she offered her customers were deemed “non-essential.” They had to close their doors. The back rent on the Michigan Avenue store alone hit $70,000 and the other bills kept coming.

Then, George Floyd was murdered. Riots in the summer of 2020 swept through her Michigan Avenue store.

“I dropped a pen on the floor, and I looked up and saw all my glass shatter. They took the iPad, the laptop; they even took stuff that doesn’t make sense. A couple of blocks away there was another African American [business] owner outside sweeping some glass and he was knocked unconscious. Never again would I try to protect anything; it’s just not worth my life,” Jackson said.

All the while, government-promised paycheck protection and loans for small businesses remained elusive.
 

“We kept being denied the PPP loan and we didn’t hear anything for a long time. We didn’t have any time. We had to pay our bills,” Jackson said. “We invested everything in opening our Navy Pier store and we couldn’t qualify for any types of loans or grants.”

Jackson and her partners persisted. They found a way to open the Navy Pier location, a decade-long effort they made a success despite the pandemic mandates.

But another setback awaited. In November 2021, 26 bullets pierced their Hyde Park location. No one was injured, but they closed the store.

“We had to take a timeout, because we never really dealt with the emotional effects of the looting in 2020,” Jackson said. “Mental health is important, and it was very important to me and my team members and my staff that we just took time to really take care of ourselves and closed the store temporarily.”

The pandemic waves and government mandates shuttered many businesses, causing nearly one in three hospitality and restaurant workers to lose their jobs. Only 72% of those jobs have returned – the worst rate in the Midwest and third worst in the nation.

Jackie Jackson
Photo provided

“But one thing about this pandemic, it pretty much was a reset button,” Jackson said. “We got a timeout. We had nothing else to do, so we started learning. We reinvented ourselves.”

Across Illinois, 84,200 leisure and hospitality jobs are still missing compared to before the pandemic. Chicago lost over 1,500 restaurants in the past two years.

Jackson and her team continue working to reverse those numbers.

They took over the Kilwins in Geneva, Illinois. That means they doubled their Kilwins locations during a pandemic.

That time spent researching showed Jackson an opportunity with drive-thru dining. They found an old bank in Chatham and received a grant from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund to bring in a West Coast chain, Fatburger, to Chicago’s South Side. They’re set to open in April.

Despite rising costs for products, supply chain snags and violent encounters at her stores, Jackson remains hopeful.

“We’ve decided that we’re not leaving Hyde Park. We can’t wait to come back with a brand-new store and really give that neighborhood what they deserve,” she said. “We can’t let this crime stop us.”

It would be easy to understand Jackson being a little bitter on this two-year anniversary of the pandemic lockdowns. Crime, failed promises of help and government restrictions fueled by a governor allowed to rule by executive order for two years have left many that way.

“Between the looting and loss of tourism in downtown, in 2020 we were down 75% in sales. Two years later, we’re down 55% in sales. But because the landlord is working with us on Michigan Avenue, we’re pressing forward.”

Jackson is too busy pressing forward to do “bitter.”

“So we no longer want to be viewed as the victim,” she said. “We want to be viewed as being very victorious.”

Ann Miller is the staff writer for the Illinois Policy Institute.