The Secret Behind N.C's Low Quality, Cheap Superstores

The state that I love dearly and have called home for most of my life is currently under extreme reconstruction, literally. Politics in North Carolina can be a slippery slope and honestly I can not name one politician that I trust to make sound decisions that are in the best interests of the people that they supposedly serve. No political party in the United States is truly favored over the other and each election informed voters are pretty much choosing between the lesser of two evils. The majority of North Carolinians are straddling the line between poverty and barely grasping at middle class status, yet these are the people most affected by policy and laws that have been rushed through the current state legislation. 

Art Pope, of Variety
Wholesalers

To go into detail of the horrific and almost Jim Crow like laws that are being enacted in N.C would be too daunting and may make me bust a blood vessel. Surely the press that our state legislature has received from The New York Times, The Washington Post, L.A. Times and countless other medias has given you some insight into the battle that we are fighting for all of our children, teachers, elderly, our gay population, and anyone not making hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. 

Many of these people find themselves on strict budgets, forcing them to shop at low end stores such as Roses, Maxway, and countless others that provide items that are low quality or just outright rejects from the companies that make them. Did you know that Art Pope, whose company Variety Wholesalers owns Roses and Maxway, is also the deputy budget director for the state under Governor Pat McCrory? The levels of conflict of interest of having Pope oversee the state budget that has slashed funding to education, unemployment benefits, and assistance to the poor are all types of wrong. NAACP's Reverend Barber has done his best to expose the ills of what these policies are designed to do. In essence, when you are struggling to make ends meet you buy cheaper items and guess what? In North Carolina, many of these low quality, cheap superstores are owned by Art Pope's company. 

N.C NAACP Pres.
Rev. William Barber

This is not a knock at free enterprise but it is necessary that the rules of commerce and free enterprise are on a level playing field and not designed by the powers that be to keep the disadvantaged from achieving the same success. I challenge all North Carolinians to check your dollars and spend them as wisely as possible. Refuse to support those who do not support you by purchasing from small and minority owned businesses as much as possible. Hell, is it too inconceivable for us to pool our resources and provide for our own needs? Read labels, research business owners and shops, and choose to spend your hard earned money at places that provide the most good to the communities in which you live. Tell your families and friends to do the same as much as they can. It is past time for us to build our own businesses and communities by funneling our money into the right places. This may fall on deaf ears but as of yesterday, I pledge to support only those that support me.