Conservative Kiosk Owner Hopes for a New Lease

From Fox News:

A man who sells conservative merchandise at a kiosk in a North Carolina mall says he hopes he'll be able to keep pushing "Impeach Obama" bumper stickers after his lease expires on Friday.

Loren Spivack says his kiosk, Free Market Warrior, is being nudged out of the Concord Mills mall in Concord, N.C., because of political reasons. He's scheduled to meet with mall officials Tuesday afternoon, when he might learn the fate of his eight-foot-long kiosk. A press conference at a nearby hotel is slated for 3 p.m., he told FOXNews.com

The hottest sellers at the kiosk, which has been in the mall for roughly three months, are items that are critical of President Obama, Spivack said. They include a “Work Harder, Obama Needs the Money” bumper sticker and a T-shirt that lists the top 12 things Obama has been doing as the economy crashes.

Among the other merchandise sold at the kiosk and on its associated Web site are GOP elephant bobblehead dolls, a Republican president jigsaw puzzle and baby bibs that say, “My parents chose life. Thanks Mom and Dad!”

Asked if he felt targeted by mall officials due to those items, Spivack replied, “There’s no question. There’s no issue other than the material we’re selling.”

The brouhaha began, he says, when someone wrote a letter to the editor in the Charlotte Observer criticizing his business for promoting racism and sexism.

“This apparently got the attention of the national management,” Spivack told FOXNews.com. “They came down with a decision that we had to leave and that our lease would not be renewed when it expired.”

Spivack said he met briefly with mall manager Roy Soporowski on Sunday, the same day about 100 people rallied in front of the mall to support him and his right to the sell politically-charged merchandise.

“We didn’t come to any conclusions, but we agreed to speak again [Monday],” Spivack said. “We’d obviously like to stay, that would be very positive.”

Soporowski did not respond to several interview requests on Monday. A spokeswoman for Simon Property Group, which owns the mall, declined to comment.

Spivack declined to say how much he pays to rent the kiosk, citing a condition of his contract. And while the future of his business is currently in jeopardy, the controversy has had a noticeable benefit.

“Sales have definitely picked up,” he said. “Simon Malls clearly did me an unintentional favor.”