2010-11-03 Let's go shopping with Art Pope

2010-11-03 \Bob Geary\Samiha Khanna\Lisa Sorg\D.L. Anderson Independent Weekly \Art Pope\nepotism\US Republican Party\US/NC\boycotts are extortion http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/lets-go-shopping-with-art-pope/Content?oid=1770426 Let's go shopping with Art Pope Let's go shopping with Art Pope  Art Pope, the Raleigh businessman whose millions helped pay for the thoroughly negative anti-everything campaign waged by the Republican Party in North Carolina this year, says it's "almost extortion" how the Democratic Party wants its supporters to boycott his stores.

On a WPTF radio talk show Friday, Pope explained his free-market, anti-government philosophy, which does allow for charity to the needy, he said. But the poor shouldn't count on their neighbors to provide for them, Pope argued. In fact, he said, he takes the old saying one step further: You can give a man a fish, but it's better if you teach him how to fish, and better still if the man can buy a boat, catch a lot of fish and provide for his family.

Pope, of course, did not have to look to the government for his job. He looked to his daddy, the late John William Pope, who in 1949 was put in charge of five family-owned dime stores in eastern North Carolina. John William Pope turned that modest grubstake into a retailing empire spanning 14 southeastern states. He hired Art as a vice president. Now Art's the CEO!

Today, according to the Variety Wholesalers Inc. website, the Pope family's company owns more than 400 stores. The biggest, at 30,000 square feet and up, are its 112 Roses stores. The 148 Maxway stores are medium-sized. Another 159 stores, generally smaller than 10,000 square feet, operate under numerous brands, including Super Dollar, Super 10 and Pope's. Collectively, they make up "one of the largest privately owned retail companies in the U.S." Article points out that Pope's business model depends heavily on the lower-income people who are most harmed by his political positions. (The obvious conclusion is that he takes those positions in the hope of converting more of the middle class into lower-income people who will then have to shop at his stores.)

&ldquo;Art Pope, the Raleigh businessman whose millions helped pay for the thoroughly negative anti-everything campaign waged by the Republican Party in North Carolina this year, says it's "almost extortion" how the Democratic Party wants its supporters to boycott his stores.&rdquo;   