MIDDLETOWN RESIDENTS PETITION TO KEEP TARGET OPEN
Middletown residents have taken to social media pleading for Target Corp. officials to reconsider their decision to shutter the Target store in Middletown.
Company officials announced Jan. 10 their plan to close, by May 3, eight stores nationwide, including the shopping center in Middletown at 6775 Roosevelt Parkway.
Disappointed shoppers used Facebook and other websites to convince company officials to change their minds. Facebook groups ‘Keep Middletown Target’ and ‘Save Middletown Target’ have a combined nearly 5,000 members. Several of the groups’ members have urged others to call Target’s home offices in Minneapolis to appeal to officials there. One follower even suggested Middletown residents stop shopping at other stores to boost sales at the soon-to-be closed Target.
“We all may be small in comparison to a major company like Target … but fighting for this could make a big difference to a town many of us love very much,” Amie Earls wrote on the ‘Save Middletown Target’ Facebook page.
A petition on the website change.org is also asking corporate heads to keep the store open.
“We need to keep good business in Middletown, Ohio, open,” the petition reads.
As of Tuesday, 1,170 people had signed the online petition.
City, county and state officials and the local NAACP were discouraged Tuesday in their attempts to change Target’s decision to shutter the Trotwood store.
Derrick L. Foward, Dayton Unit NAACP president, as well as city, county and state officials participated in a conference call with Target Tuesday.
The big box retailer announced earlier this month that its Trotwood and Middletown locations are among eight stores around the country that will close this year.
Foward and others took issue with Target for not informing city leaders of declining revenue.
“It was very disturbing today in our conference call … to learn that the Target Corporation did not even consider reaching out to the city of Trotwood regarding their closing,” Foward said. “At the end of the day, it’s about the community. Corporate responsibility.”
Foward said the NAACP will monitor developments whether Target moves down the road to Clayton or Englewood.
City Manager Mike Lucking said Target received a 15-year tax abatement worth $1.2 million.
“That’s money that would normally go to the schools, go toward city services,” Lucking said. “That’s money they realize they benefited from … Basically at the end of their abatement, they’re moving out of town.”
Mayor Joyce Cameron said the Target representative said that the region’s economic climate was a factor in the decision.
“They did not share any details with us,” Cameron said. “It seems like Trotwood was the last to know.”
In a prepared statement, Target officials said the decision to close a store “is not made lightly,”
“Typically, a store is closed as a result of seeing several years of decreasing profitability,” according to an email from Stefanie Mohr, Target spokeswoman.
The closing will impact approximately 90 employees at the Trotwood store. Target officials said in a prepared statement that those employees are being offered positions at other locations. The last day of operation is slated to be May 3.
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