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The retail shop opened in 2020 and sold goods made by locally owned businesses.
A shop in Downtown Raleigh has left its space in a prominent location.
Black Friday Market, which sold merchandise made by local Black-owned businesses, is closed. The retail store at 23 W. Hargett St. has been cleared of merchandise, leaving the storefront at the corner of Salisbury Street mostly empty.
Owner Johnny Hackett Jr. confirmed the closure to the Triangle Business Journal on Monday. Black Friday Market’s website has also been shut down.
The business opened its downtown storefront in December 2020. Prior to Black Friday Market, the space housed Apex Outfitter & Board Co. That business was heavily damaged in May 2020 amid violence during the George Floyd protests and never reopened.
The Downtown Raleigh Alliance helped connect Hackett with landlord Empire Properties and a deal for reduced rent. Hackett paid $3,000 per month for three months to run the store out of the space in a trial period, according to a 2022 story in The New York Times. After the trial period was deemed a success, Hackett agreed to a lease paying $4,500 per month.
“You just need to roll a little bit with a tenant you think is solid and in the long run is good for the community,” Greg Hatem, owner of Empire Properties, told The New York Times.
This fall, Hackett evaluated whether to renew his lease for another three years. The store’s performance this year led him to decide not to renew the lease.
Originally, Black Friday Market allowed the businesses that sold products in the store to keep 100 percent of the sales. This summer, Hackett changed the model to allow Black Friday Market to keep 30 to 40 percent of the sales — but that wasn’t enough, he told TBJ in an email.
“Traffic was a legitimate factor in my decision to close, however that could be overcome; the business model for Black Friday Market and its (lack of) sustainability was the deciding factor that could not be ignored,” Hackett said.
Hatem confirmed to the Triangle Business Journal on Monday that Hackett’s lease was up and he decided not to renew. Another potential retail tenant is looking at the space, Hatem said.
Hackett, a 2021 40 under 40 Award winner, also founded The Black Dollar Corp. and The Factory.
The Factory, a co-working and studio space located in Downtown Raleigh, was open for less than a year when it closed at the beginning of 2023. Hackett told Axios Raleigh that the closure happened because he had exhausted the grant funding he used to open the space and was unable to secure additional grant funding.
The space’s landlord, David Meeker, had already given the business rent breaks in previous months, Axios Raleigh reported.
The Black Dollar Corp. is an online directory of Black-owned businesses in North Carolina.
Hackett recently launched a new website called Alley-Oop Business, which serves as an online directory for small businesses across the United States.
Last week, another Downtown Raleigh store announced plans to close. The Raleigh location of The Zen Succulent will close this month, while its Downtown Durham location will remain open.
Other retail closures in Downtown Raleigh this year include House of Swank and The Burrow.
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