How much revenue did Minnesota businesses report losing during the Jan. 23 economic blackout?
Executive summary
Reporting after the Jan. 23 “economic blackout” does not produce a single, statewide dollar figure for revenue lost by Minnesota businesses; local outlets and national coverage instead record steep localized drops and the decision by hundreds of small businesses to forgo a day’s takings in solidarity [1] [2]. Some hospitality operators in Minneapolis described a 50–80% decline in revenue for the month amid the ICE surge, but available sources stop short of converting that into an aggregate loss tied solely to the Jan. 23 action [3].
1. What the numbers media outlets published actually say
Several outlets focused on relative declines rather than a summed dollar total: Bring Me The News cited reporting that Minneapolis hospitality businesses were seeing 50–80% declines in revenue this month, a figure presented as part of wider coverage of how the ICE surge and related community responses have depressed sales and foot traffic [3]. Major national coverage, such as The New York Times, emphasized that hundreds of locally owned businesses closed and willingly sacrificed a day’s revenue as a political statement, but did not aggregate those daily losses into a statewide monetary total [1].
2. Why there is no single statewide revenue-loss total in the reporting
The available reporting shows a patchwork of business decisions—some closed entirely for solidarity, others donated portions of sales, and many remained open—meaning consistent accounting was not possible from the start, which is why MPR, Fast Company and other local outlets framed the action in terms of participation and protest impact rather than summated dollars [2] [4] [5]. Labor economists quoted in coverage cautioned that a single-day boycott tends to depress daily sales but usually does not shift a company’s overall revenue trajectory in a measurable way without multi-day or sustained action, a point noted by a labor professor cited in Yahoo News [6].
3. The range of reported impacts on businesses, by sector and source
Local retail and hospitality accounts emphasize divergent experiences: long-struggling small retailers described closing as a solidarity sacrifice and noted year‑over‑year drops and reduced foot traffic in January (Twin Cities Business, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine) while Minneapolis hospitality venues told reporters they were seeing 50–80% revenue declines for the month—numbers presented as context for why owners felt compelled to join the blackout [7] [8] [3]. Opinion and trade pieces critiqued the tactic as potentially harmful to small businesses themselves, even while acknowledging donations and mutual-aid efforts by some establishments [9] [8].
4. Conflicting framings and the agendas behind them
Coverage varies by outlet and source: organizers framed the blackout as a moral and political imperative to pressure ICE and corporations cooperating with it, and labor leaders promoted the strike as leverage [10]. Opponents and some local commentators framed the move as performative or economically counterproductive for small businesses [9]. Government and DHS responses pushed back on the characterization of ICE actions in some reports, introducing a political counter-narrative to the economic complaints [11].
5. Bottom line: what can confidently be asserted from reporting
There is no vetted, published statewide dollar estimate in the supplied reporting that quantifies exactly how much revenue Minnesota businesses lost because of the Jan. 23 blackout; instead, reporting documents widespread closures, localized accounts of dramatic percentage declines in hospitality revenues this month (50–80% cited for Minneapolis hospitality), and differing assessments about whether a single day’s shutdown materially alters long-term revenue for most firms [1] [3] [6]. Any precise total dollar claim would require primary data collection or an economic estimate not present in these sources.