After a shooting in Charleston left nine black churchgoers dead, many national retailers have dropped items featuring the Confederate flag from their shelves and online stores. But one local store that sells the controversial symbol is seeing a spike in sales.
Heather Campbell didn’t set out to purchase a lot of Confederate flags on Wednesday at a military and collectibles shop in her neighborhood, but that’s exactly what she did. She says she bought about 25 of the white stars on a blue saltire at the shop in Inglewood, California. “I wanted to buy a few, and I thought I would make my point that it’s not right to take the flag down,” she said.
Heritage and History: Inside the Confederate Flags Store
Confederate Flags Store has been so great that some of the few remaining manufacturers of the rebel emblem are now running out of stock, a trend that began last week. Pete Van de Putte, the owner of Dixie Flag Manufacturing in San Antonio, says his sales have been soaring, with a couple of days worth of orders taking the place of what might be sold over a few months.
The National Park Service also vowed Thursday to remove Confederate flag merchandise from its gift shops, although it will allow books and DVDs with the rebel flag on their covers as long as they have educational value. The decision came after the massacre of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston sparked a debate over the Confederate flag’s role in the Civil War and its association with slavery.