Confederate flag controversy stunts sales in OC

The effort to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds is holding strong. Now, local stores are moving towards taking it down as well, or at least from their store fronts. 

Shawnise Frei, the store manager at LA Piercing in Ocean City tells 47 ABC Confederate Flag paraphernalia can be found in shops all along the board walk.

She says the recent controversy surrounding the flag has affected the sales of their merchandise; so much so that they’ve moved them to the back of their store because of customer complaints. 

Frei continues, “They don’t like it at all, but when it was in the front it wasn’t selling it was just a negative because the people weren’t coming in and we put it in the back, some people look at it but it’s not even selling at all now.”

Frei says if sales don’t pick up, it’s possible the merchandise could be removed all together.