Mall of America stores are already closing in anticipation of a major Black Lives Matter protest

Roughly a dozen stores at the largest mall in the country — Minnesota's Mall of America — have already closed their gates in anticipation of a major Black Lives Matter protest, ABC News reports. While Wednesday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, Barnes and Noble and Starbucks are among the retailers who have chosen to cut their losses before the inevitable clashes with protesters begin.

The privately owned Mall of America has warned that any protesters who show up will be arrested; the mall also attempted, unsuccessfully, to file a restraining order against the entire Minneapolis chapter of Black Lives Matter.

Three organizers, including Kandace Montgomery, were in fact legally blocked from attending the event. "When you disrupt their flow of capital... they actually start paying attention. That's the only way that they'll hear us," Montgomery said. She still plans to show up for the demonstrations and says she expects at least 700 others to do the same.

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Wednesday's protest aims to bring attention to Jamar Clark, 24, a black Minneapolis man who was killed under unclear circumstances during an encounter with the police. Last December, a similar protest in the Mall of America over alleged police brutality in New York and Ferguson, Missouri prompted the mall's temporary closing; dozens were arrested.