Save the Free Market Warrior at Concord Mills

The past week has seen huge news stories being broadcast by the media in widely differing lights (healthcare reform, the Cambridge Police siutation) but coverage of the closing of the small kiosk known as the Free Market Warrior in the Concord Mills Mall in Concord, NC has been neglected by the mainstream national media, with the exception of the conservative Fox News.

In a letter to the Observer Forum, Jennifer Ibanez complained about items at the Free Market Warrior kiosk that, "support ideas such as racism, sexism and even slavery." Fast forward a couple of weeks and apparently as a result of this letter, the owner of the mall, Simon Properties Group, refused to renew the lease of the Free Market Warrior kiosk. According to the Free Market Warrior website, the items that were deemed offensive were in reference to anti-Obama sentiments and pro-life topics.

I have a couple of opinions on this that quite frankly land a bit on both sides of the backlash that has since erupted. Let's be clear, Simon Properties is a private company and as such is able to rent space to whomever it deems worthy and not to whomever it does not. I don't think that anyone with a cool head would debate that issue. Had Simon Properties gone to Loren Spivak (the proprietor of Free Market Warrior) and simply said that they were not renewing his lease, then I don't think that there would be quite as much of a firestorm as there is today. Instead, Simon informed Free Market Warrior that there were particular items that expressed opinions that were leaning to far to one side of the political spectrum. Simon opened this can of worms on themselves.

Simon Properties Group's owner is a big supporter and donor to both the DNC and the campaign of now-President Obama. This connection opens up the idea of favoritism and prejudice against those who have opinions that differ from the administration's. If they didn't expect to get a fight and backlash, they were seriously short-sighted. In the current political climate, when our local and national legislators are being taken to task for not bringing the types of "change" that they promised, Simon should have stepped back and taken a deep breath.

Instead, the have unleashed protests outside of and impending boycotts of Concord Mills and ts retailer. Already all of the local television stations in Charlotte have covered the initial protest outside of Concord Mills on July 26. At least one of these local station's reports have been picked up by a cable news outlet (Brian Blakely's reporting on WCCB was shown on Fox News this morning) and the story has been covered by the entertaining and always conversation-starting Glenn Beck.

Obviously whether its a private enterprise or not, when you tell someone that they can't sell his wares that include some that they don't agree with you are going to get people who are up in arms. Either side of the aisle, we all have the right to free speech. So if you don't want to fight a First Amendment argument don't start it because there are plenty of people that will pick up the flag when the front soldier is tired.

In this particular case, this kiosk was located (by no accident I am sure) outside the Bass Pro Shops location at Concord Mills. The target audience for Bass Pro Shops and the NASCAR SpeedPark (another big anchor at Concord Mills) is largely conservative and I am sure that the purveyors of the Free Market Warrior brought in products that would appeal to their audience. That's pretty much the idea in retailing, "Give the customer a product that they will BUY."

Yes, I am a conservative but I feel quite confident that if a kiosk that featured bumper stickers that said "Impeach Bush" had been the one closed down for the same reasoning, I would be just as pissed off. It all boils down to how you handle it. And I truly believe that Simon knew what they were doing and they chose to take on this fight.

There will be protests and boycotts (I for one have already contacted both Simon Properties Group and Bass Pro Shops and informed them of my decision to no longer shop at their locations) and that's the right of all of the rest of us who are upset and will not have our First Amendment rights taken away with so many other of the liberties that are being debated about and taken away every day.

For their part, the anchor stores such as Bass Pro Shops are not commenting on the controversy and the City of Concord has no public stance other than SPG is a private corporation that can rent to or not rent to anyone that they wish.

I for one for hope that there is enough backlash and commotion that Free Market Warrior is either able to open again in Concord Mills or is offered a lease in another local shopping center. I continue to believe that one voice can make a difference (as was evident last week with Sue Myrick's signing of the Pledge to Read the Bill) and when all of our voices join together, we can very surely make a "change."