Daily fines won’t stop Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis from flying a huge Old Glory high and proud.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened. We’ve been dealing with this for years. And we have these flags around the country, and they’ve been part of my fabric since I was a little kid,” Lemonis said on “The Bottom Line” Monday.
“We dealt with it in Statesville; Morgan Hill, California; Onalaska, Wisconsin; and now Greenville, North Carolina. And I think this is a perfect example… of local and city and state municipalities putting regulations on businesses that don’t advance the business. They just create more noise and unnecessary distractions.”
If you’ve driven by one of 250 of Camping World’s RV dealerships, the massive and prominent American flags flying on their properties are hard to miss. But when Camping World’s Greenville location put theirs up in October, according to the New York Post, problems began with local zoning officials.
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Camping World’s flag is allegedly 15 times the allowed size and its 130-foot flagpole is too large, as well. Since Friday, the company has racked up penalties amounting to about $1,150.
In response to Fox News Digital, the city of Greenville clarified that an addendum to the sizing regulation was in the works, and will permit Camping World to continue flying its flag. Greenville’s public information officer further clarified that the city council recognized the community “division” the conflict created, and unanimously voted on Jan. 25 to “initiate a text amendment to allow a 3,200-square-foot flag to be flown with one flag and a maximum flag pole height of 130 feet with various other restrictions.”
The amendment will be presented to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in February before final approval from Greenville’s city council in March.
“I do it because I believe in it. I’m an immigrant in this country. This country gave me an opportunity to earn a living and to employ 13,000 people. I just choose to have a big flag because I’ve had one since I was a little kid,” the CEO explained regarding his decision to keep the flag up.
“And I know that’s my way of expressing to the veterans and our customer base how much we believe in it,” he added.
He argued that the city’s crackdown on his patriotism actually hurts business and represents “a small example of why things [get] more expensive.”
“The business of selling campers is to enjoy the outside,” Lemonis pointed out. “When you regulate business to the point where they have to add layers of expense, and they need to still maintain profitability, you have essentially created inflation to regulation.”
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