So I guess he showed them?
After more than 20 years in business, Prime Time Sports Owner Stephen Martin says he can't afford his monthly lease anymore at Chapel Hills Mall. https://t.co/eBPIQR2fvT
— Kym Clark (@Kymon5) February 13, 2019
“I didn’t give in to big Nike and big dollars. I didn’t give in. I did it my way,” he told News5.
“That part of the military respect that’s in me just cannot be sacrificed or compromised, as I believe Brandon Marshall and Colin Kaepernick both did. I don’t like losing a business over it, but I rather be able to live with myself,” he added.
This is Colorado Springs – home of Focus on Family and probably the most conservative area of the state. Go figure. Between this and the bakery guy, so much winning going on here.
We are getting ready to meet Baby’s prospective new family. I talked with her at length last night and they’d all be lucky to have each other if it works out.
Open thread
Another Scott
Excellent Baby news. You’ve done well. Fingers crossed for everyone!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ramalama
And… Colin Kaepernick won. Period.
HypersphericalCow
This is some kind of insurance scam, right? Nobody can be so stupid as to actually destroy their own business to prove a weird political point, right?
germy
Prime Time Sports: When “economic anxiety” becomes real economic anxiety.
germy
@HypersphericalCow:
Well, they’re willing to destroy their own country to prove a weird political point, so…
Amir Khalid
Nike would have been more than happy to supply Stephen Martin as much of their gear as he could sell. But Martin decided he’d rather go out of business than sell product from a key supplier that supports Colin Kaepernick. Martin got what he wished for. I’m surprised, though, that he lasted twenty-plus years as a small sporting goods retailer before this.
Nicole
@HypersphericalCow:
I invite you to review balloon-juice commenter Davis X Machina’s immortal quote about the American body politic.
A Ghost To Most
Buh bye. Wyoming is north, Utah is west, Kansas is east. Pick one.
Amir Khalid
Don’t forget to notify Baby’s new human that the Juicitariat feeds on happy pet pictures and will demand to see them.
oldster
Pretty much anytime someone quotes those particular Frank Sinatra lyrics, you know he’s an asshole.
“I did it my way” is the theme song of Men’s Rights advocates shooting their own children to get back at their ex-wives.
It’s the sound-track that every loser plays in his head in order to make him think he’s the hero of the movie.
In other words, the perfect song for a Trump-loving racist who tanks his own business to own the libs.
James E Powell
If I failed in business, I’d surely grab onto a narrative that made me out to be a martyr. And I’d be very happy that the local news would trumpet my martyr narrative.
Suzanne
@Ramalama: I hope that Kaepernick himself sees it that way (basically getting paid without performing a really risky job)….but I’m sure he’d have preferred to play.
I hope having a functioning body and brain in his later years is a comfort to him as he rolls around on his piles of coin.
And I hope he rolls around on his piles of coin, a la Uncle Scrooge McDuck.
SFAW
That’s lovely, but Kaepernick’s protest had nothing to do with the military, you fucking moron. I’d try to explain it to you, but you’re obviously too fucking stupid to be able to understand the explanation.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way to China, where I have no doubt there’s a lot of “military respect.”
I still think Obama making an Oval Office speech telling people NOT to drink anti-freeze, because it’s toxic, would have solved a lot of this country’s problems.
Olivia
Going bankrupt and totally owning the libs!
jacy
Chapel Hills Mall was where the snotty kids hung out. The cool kids hung out at the Citadel. (And the Springs is less conservative that you would think…lot of witches there. And Old Colorado City has lots of crunchy granola types.) Course when I left it all went downhill… if
Suzanne
@Olivia: I know that I totally feel owned. He sure showed me. I am wracked with self-loathing because….oh wait. I don’t give a shit.
Kristine
Best wishes for Baby!
WereBear
(My George Peppard voice) I love it when a rescue plan comes together!
cain
@jacy:
I never got to go to Colorado Springs.. despite staying in Denver for 8 months.
TriassicSands
Good luck, Baby. You deserve a loving home. And huge thanks to TaMara for being there for you.
WereBear
He’s in COLORADO SPRINGS. He had every reason to assume it would be a winning move.
Keith P.
I guess his fellow conservatives never came to his aid in his crusade. Them’s the breaks.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@HypersphericalCow: Go talk to a real wingnut, as in old ranting white guy. They are that crazy. The one I know is a FDA worker and is only alive because of his US goverment worker’s insurance and he wants the FDA shut down.
Gex
Lee Atwater said he built the modern Republican party with white people who would gladly hurt themselves trying to hurt black people more. The evidence bears this out.
schrodingers_cat
@HypersphericalCow: My guess as well. And now he is milking sympathy from RWNJs.
Brachiator
@jacy:
Still, I am sorry that the people who worked at the shoe store lost their jobs.
A Ghost To Most
@cain:
The ONLY reason I go to CO Springs is to visit my off-road fabrication specialist at Armorology. And Garden of the Gods.
FlyingToaster
@WereBear:
Kinda.
Anyone in retail knows that there are two groups you cannot afford to cheese off: moms, and teenagers. Probably 75-80% of shopping is still done by women, and the rest is teens, or parents on behalf of kids.
A retailer who doesn’t carry a brand, for whatever reason, loses the customers for that brand. It doesn’t matter what their propaganda is, it matters that when the mom of Kid X goes into the store, the item Kid X desires is not on the shelf and won’t be in next Tuesday. So mom walks right back out, empty-handed, and goes to the retailer that is carrying that item.
He assumed that the conservative nature of his area would overcome the desire for a particular product line. He was wrong. Bye, Felicia.
Kirk Spencer
@jacy: Yes and no. I mean yes, there are/were a lot of wiccans. And Old Colorado City and that weird mix of liberal and conservative called Colorado College.
But the city itself? Even when I lived there (graduated Harrison in 78, lived there off and on for another couple of decades) the uber-conservative cracks were showing. And by the late 1990s, well, Focus on the Family influence and the AF Academy’s Christian Dominance issues were well past open secret stage. It’s worth recalling that one of the strongholds of the KKK’s almost-successful takeover of the state of Colorado (1920s, I know, but history is the base on which we stand wherever we move) was the Springs.
The pockets of (surprisingly powerful) liberalism are still pockets.
smintheus
Colorado Springs gave us Brandon Carlo, which partly makes up for everything else connected with Colorado Springs.
On a related note, I was surprised today to learn that “Hockey Day in America” is neither a federal nor a state holiday. I feel like I’ve been severely misled by NBC.
JR
@HypersphericalCow: mall retail is dying so this sure sounds like a guy who is cashing out somehow
delk
Was that customer wearing a Members Only jacket?
Brachiator
@FlyingToaster:
Yep. Angry right wing men were making a lot of noise over the kneeling controversy, but they were not the people the store owner should have cared about.
smintheus
@Brachiator: The angry right wing men making all the noise aren’t able to kneel and can only envy those who are still spry enough to do so.
Suzanne
@Brachiator: Not to mention, Nike knows their core customer is young, urban, into style and influencers, and with a much-higher-than-average percentage of African-Americans. Angry old white dudes from the rural south and west are not a sought-after customer base for that brand. In fact, alienating those people likely strengthened Nike’s brand position and identity.
White dudes are just having the hardest time realizing that they are not sought-after, esteemed, or considered cool.
NotMax
Hate don’t pay the rent.
Jinchi
“bakery guy”?
What happened to the bakery guy?
Brachiator
@smintheus:
Ha! Great point.
@Suzanne:
Yep. And yet, I doubt that right wing media is smart enough to learn anything from this.
CaseyL
@schrodingers_cat: Wonder if he’ll put up a GoFundMe. Previous RWNJ business owners have done so, and raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Beats workin’ for a livin’.
ETA: Yeah – the homophobic bakery did that.
Major Major Major Major
Hahaha, fuck him.
debbie
I’m hoping he’ll go into business with that Christian wedding cake maker, and they sink into impoverished ignominy.
NotMax
This case is a prime example of the phenomenon (which can affect all or any parts of the spectrum) ofchoosing to live inside a discrete bubble of information, which leads to the assumption that what is heard/seen/read/viewed/encountered within the bubble is either majoritarian or a universal given.
It’s beyond mere parochialism, it is willful blindness to, ignorance about and pat dismissal of anything which does not support preconceived notions.
Black Onion
Not Ready For Prime Time player.
JanieM
Hey, this guy did just what CK said: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” He does, and he did.
Kent
Dumbfuck. I know LOTS of angry old white men. My extended family is full of them. Guess what? The last time your average old white man bought a shirt or jacket was 5 years ago from the sale table at Costco. They do NOT shop at malls and they do not buy expensive Nike branded shit. Their closets are full of 20 year old clothes that “still have some life left in them”
Brachiator
@NotMax:
This seems to be intensifying in the Age of Trump. And we not only have willful blindness, but the active clinging to outright lies and politically skewed fantasies.
And it’s not just the US. BREXIT supporters in the UK are another angry, ignorant horde.
Kent
@CaseyL:
Yes, but those GoFundMe campaigns were to give a chance for wingers to defend against boycott campaigns from the left. This guy wasn’t boycotted or anything. No one on the left gave a shit about him. He just ran his business into the ground on spite. Not quite the same thing.
Cermet
As a soldier – fail. Soldiers fight for our right to protest; as a business person. They are to be as a-political as possible so as not to impose their beliefs upon customer – fail. Overall, still feel sorry but his right winger (read chicken harks) base doesn’t give a shit about him as a soldier or for his principles – all he did was drive away his real customer. Well, he has his principles …lol.
NotMax
@Kent
Might one suggest an edit?
trollhattan
@Kent:
Hey, stop snooping in my closets!
Now git offa mah lawn.
Brachiator
Since this is an open thread, maybe it puts Martin’s folly into a larger context to note that Payless shoes is closing 2,100 stores Sunday and 18,000 people will lose their jobs. Many of these stores are in lower income neighborhoods, so their local economies will take quite a hit.
Mr Stagger Lee
The Denver Broncos logo was designed by Nike, I bet the average sports fan was shocked why he couldn’t buy Broncos merch there. Genius move there smart guy.
CarolDuhart2
@Black Onion: Or Prime Delivery.
Suzanne
@Brachiator: So Tyler Cowen has written—and I agree wholeheartedly—that American politics right now is about elevating the relative social status of some groups, which has the effect of lowering it in others. Finding out that a major brand with tastemaking power like Nike not only does not agree with you but actively does not want you as a customer because cool people don’t want to be even visually associated with you is a big flashing sign that you do not have the social status that you want.
WereBear
@FlyingToaster: I agree, and we are also dealing with not the brightest of bulbs, I assume.
J R in WV
Did you see the work product of the homophobic bakery?
It looked like the cakes were decorated by a second grader who didn’t take his addera11 — totally amateurish concept, poorly executed.
No wonder he went bankrupt at all, not competent to decorate a cake at all. Made me wonder how they taste, also too.
Never heard of this sports store, only been to Colorado Springs along the western side to Garden of the Gods or passed it on I-25 or a little further to the east in Horsey countryside. There are nice liberal blue cities not far away, why would I spent any money in a blood red fascist town?
If Colin K still wants to play, he should take whatever throwing job comes around that seems fun to play, whether Canadian football, like Flutie did, or arena ball of some sort, or as a late season backup, even. Money is no longer the object for him, thankfully!
He’s nearly universally admired for standing up for what he believes, and against fascism. Can you believe that 4 years ago I had to look up how to spell “fascism” and “fascist” several times until I got it nailed correctly? Amazeballs !!
debbie
@J R in WV:
I agree. It is libelous of him to even refer to himself as an artist. As a B.F.A., I am outraged.
SenyorDave
I worked in commercial insurance for 25 years. There is no insurance product available that would protect against losses because you are “doing badly” in your business. There can’t be such a product because of moral risk and adverse selection. The store owner is not running a scam against the insurance companies. If you go out of business due to a fire your commercial fire policy will cover you (assuming you have the eight type of policy), but if you go out of business because you are an idiot you are on your own.
Brachiator
@J R in WV:
I know exactly what you mean. Strange how our perspective has shifted since Trump became president.
Cermet
@Kent: Hey, I resemble that remark!
AThornton
@Suzanne:
American politics has always been about “elevating the relative social status of some groups.” Jim Crow laws were enacted to elevate the social status of crackers, for example. Now a days the crackers are finding it difficult to accept that elevation is being removed.
Eric U.
dropping Nike really didnt’ have to take much off the top of his sales before it made the store untenable. Our mall is going to be empty soon, which surprises me a little. However the college kids that would buy there need to borrow a car to get there and it probably isn’t worth it to them. They have Amazon prime accounts. I know our kids never go there. I might have been the last family member there 2 years ago when Sears was having a sale on tool chests.
Suzanne
@AThornton: Agree. Social status has always been a thing. His point is more about how Trumpy people right now aren’t genuinely looking to government for good policy that would make their living situation better. They’re not really expecting good governance to make a difference in their lives, bring back jobs, raise wages, create a social safety net. They’re looking to fuck over people they resent, like minorities, immigrants, and people who went to college.
So….fuck those people six ways from Sunday.
Brachiator
@Eric U.:
I remember when kids would go to the mall just to have a place to hang out. Is there a contemporary equivalent?
I see kids, adults, even families hanging out at a local McDonald’s. Some seniors regularly meet to play cards.
Frankensteinbeck
@Suzanne:
Liberals want to help people. Conservatives want to choose who suffers.
Aleta
I assume he also ignored Clinton’s commitment to small businesses and supported the candidate famous for cheating them. And he’s in a dying mall. Now its Sears is closing. He loses business to Dick’s (which went against the NRA a year ago).
Art of the Deal.
So (thinking ahead) he decided to sell all his Nike at 1/2 off.
I’m going to say Fox News helped ruin him.
He cancelled the signing, made public announcements about himself taking a stand; and it was controversial. But he’s blaming Nike’s ad campaign (of 2018 I think). The headlines in his coverage focus on Nike too.
Brachiator
@Suzanne:
Some of them think that taking away benefits from “the wrong people” will leave more for the “right people.” Trump has really tapped into and perpetuates a politics of resentment. It also reflects his own damaged psyche and his need to see the world in terms of people who supposedly have taken advantage of America and who must be punished.
Suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: I want to help people have good living situations, healthcare, jobs, etc. But I do not want to help Trumpy people regain their sense of lost esteem, or what they consider “respect”. IDGAF about that.
Ramalama
@Suzanne: Me too – I hope Kaepernick himself sees it that way, but am guessing it’s a bittersweet victory.
debbie
@Suzanne:
They won’t. The universe won’t allow that: You get back what you put out. What goes around comes around.
Persistent Illusion
@jacy: As a crunchy granola Westsider, thanks for sticking up for poor old COS. I’ve been here for 25 years and the change in the political climate has been deeply encouraging. Not all yahoos here.
Mathguy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yeah, I know a guy exactly like that in the Department of Agriculture. He loves him some government bennies and pay, but government’s evil!
Persistent Illusion
@A Ghost To Most: Well, then you are missing out on a growing local arts scene, some really good restaurants and an increasingly progressive City Council. Please don’t judge COS by the damage Perkins and the other fundies managed to inflict. It’s a better place than that in most parts of town. The area around Chapel Hills Mall and out east does truly suck, admittedly.
jimmiraybob
Conservative slapped down by invisible hand of the free market? Boo to the hoo. I feel bad for the employees. Maybe they can cross over to Nike friendly outlets.
Earlier this year I intentionally sought out two stores that sold Nike so that I could buy three pairs of Nike tennis shoes. Both of those store appeared to be doing well.
burnspbesq
If you look at Nike’s most iconic brand ambassadors, not a single one is a white male. Jordan, Tiger, Ken Griffey Jr., Bo Jackson, Mia Hamm, Lyle Thompson, Alberto Salazar. White boys can’t get enough of the stuff. Go figure.
Pogonip
@Kent: *chortle*. I also have a lot of 20-year-old clothes that look new. The secret is line drying and hanging them correctly (no wire hangers! Joan Crawford was right!). And if you are female, making your own pants. Women’s off-the-rack pants always contain spandex these days, and once it’s stretched, it’s stretched.
Ben Cisco
If you’re dumb enough, pain is the only way you learn. And sometimes even that isn’t enough. Seems like that will be the case here.
JR
@burnspbesq: Your list is missing two biggies: Serena Williams and Lebron James.
But if you’re on the tennis kick, this guy was pretty iconic. But yes, your general point stands.
The Lodger
@Persistent Illusion: Don’t forget Manitou Springs, tourist trap that it is (or was 40 years ago when I went through there).
Mike G
His store was probably failing anyway, and he thought he’d score some of that sweet reich-wing bigot donation cash by grandstanding, like the cake baker.
Sab
@Brachiator: Plus their shoes fit weird feet (which I have) at a not exorbitant price. LOTS of people will be hurt by this. Most shoe stores stock a tiny range of sizes, and only two widths. Everyone else had nowwhere to go but Payless. Now they are gone.
BSR
@Kirk Spencer:
Lived there for almost five years in the early 2000s. We moved there from very liberal Sonoma County, CA and it was like landing in a tub of ice water! We did manage to reside in the Old North End neighborhood near Colorado College where most of the faculty lives….if there’s a liberal part of town, it’s there. As my neighbor across the alley said once, “Well yeah…we’re conservative. But in this neighborhood, we’re at least THINKING conservatives.” He knew the rest of the city was crazy. We used to tell people who asked that if they were military (and liked that) or super-religious, they’d feel right at home. Everyone else, not so much… When in the Springs we used to go to Chapel Hills Mall when we HAD to go to a mall. My daughter had an ice-skating birthday party there. Citadel Mall always struck me as depressingly empty and gray — even back then. I can’t imagine what it looks like now…if it’s still standing.
Have been (mostly) in Denver since 2006 and it suits us much more. It’s not Boulder-level liberal, but leans left enough that I feel much more at home.
Henry Clay famously said, “I’d rather be right than president.” This bozo won’t have biographies written about him like Clay. Probably because he isn’t right about anything…