Small businesses discuss effects of House Bill 2

Flyleaf Books held a roundtable discussion Thursday regarding House Bill 2 and its effects on small businesses in North Carolina.

Tim Gaudette, outreach manager for Small Business Majority, came to Chapel Hill to present a variety of statistics and options that reflect how small businesses are reacting to the bill.

According to a poll conducted by Small Business Majority, entrepreneurs strongly believe small business owners should not be able to deny services to LGBT individuals.

Owner and General Manager of Flyleaf Books Jamie Fiocco said this event fell in line with many other things she’s done while advocating for equal rights.

“Part of our mission as an independent bookstore is to provide space and the opportunity to talk about issues that are important to the community,” she said.

Fiocco said she has not noticed a decrease in sales at Flyleaf because of House Bill 2, but instead she said she has had special orders from people specifically because they wanted to support a North Carolina bookstore.

A large portion of Fiocco’s recent work has been speaking with publishers to prevent author signing events from being canceled.

“We’ve successfully been able to add a component to (the author’s) appearance where they are able to make their appearance a platform to speak out against HB2,” she said. “Luckily we haven’t had any cancellations.”

Chapel Hill Town Council Member Michael Parker said it is important to understand the impacts of this bill on small businesses in order to address the issue.

"...At least from a local perspective, people (need to) understand that the views expressed by the state legislature have nothing to do with Chapel Hill’s points of view,” he said. “I think it’s also important for folks to realize that as they think about pulling visitors that we have communities like Chapel Hill, like Carrboro, like Raleigh who are not backing this.”

Parker said pulling business away from areas that are pushing for the repeal of House Bill 2 can be counterproductive.

Cameron’s gift and jewelry shop co-owner Wendy Smith attended the roundtable and spoke about how her store has always supported the LGBT community.

“We do it because it’s what’s in our heart and because it’s good business and we feel like this law is bad business,” Smith said.

Smith put a sign in Cameron’s, voicing the store’s support for the LGBT community and inviting the everyone into the store. Smith said a member of Small Business Majority heard about the sign and reached out to them about the roundtable event.

“The first week we had a lot of people coming in and thanking us for our sign,” she said. “As a business owner, I spend a lot of time and effort and resources thinking about how to make everyone comfortable and not singling out anyone,” Fiocco said.

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