Anne Hartley’s brick home in Ebony, Virginia overlooks windswept fields, a Methodist church, a general store, and the intersection of two country roads, and features paintings by Edward Hopper and faded Southern postcards. An idyllic environment reminiscent of
Now the situation is threatened by plans to build a “dollar general” that could be found in any small town in America, Hartley said.
Hartley, a descendant of Ebony’s founding family, said the discount store to be built next to her home would be a local favorite, with people drawn to the brand’s signature yellow signage and aisles filled with cheap food. He said it would cause traffic problems. and household essentials.
Beyond the store itself, Hartley and many others associated with Ebony believe the store will also open the door for further development that undermines the character of the small rural community of about 230 people. The name of their website and campaign cry against Dollar General is “Protect Ebony Nation”.
“We don’t want over-commercialization to destroy the health of our community,” Hartley said.
Jerry Jones also has strong feelings for Dollar General. He, too, grew up in Ebony and was Hartley’s classmate at the local public school for several years. He ran a grocery store around Southern Virginia and then a gas station selling Ebony freshly baked biscuits and fried Barony Burgers.
Now mostly retired, Jones owns the land on which Dollar General was to be built. He said the store would provide county residents with a convenient and affordable place to shop while also generating much-needed tax revenue.
“There’s still a need to strike a balance between people who have better things and people who live on a paycheck basis,” Jones said. “For me, Dollar General is exactly that.”
The conflict in Ebony, which has been going on for more than three years, is about planning and zoning, but it also touches on deeper issues simmering in many parts of rural America, such as disputes over cell phone towers and snowmobile routes. ing. What does ‘country’ mean to different people in small communities?
Dollar General wins most places. Across the United States, the company is actively working to reach thousands of remote and impoverished neighborhoods with stores criticized for offering unhealthy food and underpaid workers, in addition to low prices. there is
These one-dollar shop proposals have sparked conflict, with opposition increasingly occurring in small towns and cities in trouble. The company has been accused by think tanks of hurting small businesses and by the Biden administration for the dilapidated condition of its stores.
But most of the proposed dollar shops are being built. One in three stores opening in the U.S. in 2022 was a $1 store.
Opponents of Ebony’s dollar general plan are trying to buck this trend.
About 90 miles south of Richmond, Ebony sits on the edge of Lake Gaston and is a haven for important tax villas. Ebony, part of Brunswick County and once a center of tobacco growing, has a median household income of about $49,600, well above the statewide median of $80,600. is below More than half of the county’s population is black.
The five-member Brunswick County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve a zoning change to allow for the construction of stores.
Supervisors who voted to approve the store declined to comment, citing lawsuits filed by Hartley and other opponents challenging the decision.
Dollar General said in a statement that thousands of its stores offer fresh food and offer “safe working conditions” and “competitive wages.”
“We regularly hear requests, especially from local communities, to bring Dollar General back to their hometowns,” the company added. “We know Dollar General will be welcomed by many Ebony residents and hope to contribute to that community.”
Many of the shop’s opponents are grateful for Ebony’s past and want it preserved. And some of the relatively newcomers to the community resonate with their point. Mohamed Abuemara moved from New York to Southern Virginia to run a convenience store and has run the Ebony General Store for nine years.
He said his shop, where locals can socialize and buy hot food, plays an important role in rural communities.
A 100-yen shop would be a big hit to business, he said. “Jerry is a friend of mine,” Abu Emara said of Jones. “I’m not mad at him. But if he still owned his store, I wouldn’t have let the Dollar General come here.”
sense of place.
Ms. Hartley continues to meticulously preserve her family and Ebony history. Her family has owned land in the area for generations, and her great-grandfather named the area in her late 1800s after a black horse called Ebony.
The family also ran a local business. In her 1960s when Ms. Hartley grew up in Ebony, her father ran a butcher shop, a barber shop, and a factory behind the mill. Hartley has been helping out in her parents’ shop since she was still a child, and she remembers her father working long hours from early in the morning until late at night. “It was the center of our family life,” she said of small-town retail.
Hartley attended the University of North Carolina where he majored in mathematics and then worked as a computer programmer. This was a rare position for a woman from the 1970s to her 80s, and a source of pride for her.
She now owns a family home in Ebony, where the walls and side tables are adorned with generations of family photos.
Hartley’s main residence is about 90 miles south in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but he regularly visits the Ebony home.
Hartley said he intends to protect the rural crossroads from mass retailers for the benefit of communities and the local economy looking to revitalize tourism.
Her lawsuit alleges that the county violated its own master plan that stressed the importance of the area’s scenic landscape. The county said in court documents that the plan is merely intended to guide development.
Dozens of locals and people with ebony roots rallied against the development as part of the Ebony Conservation Group. They raised donations to support the legal battle and lobbied the state to make the community part of the National Register of Historic Places.
Elizabeth Nash Horne, whose parents and grandparents are buried in a cemetery next to the store’s planned site, said the Ebony chain was “absolutely unnecessary”. Just a few miles from Ebony, she already has her three existing 100 yen shops.
Some say they recognize that the county needs tax revenue. “But are we going to sell our souls for something?” said Bobby Conner, who grew up in Ebony and now works in Brunswick County tourism.
The main route into Ebony from the Interstate is Route 903, a two-lane road lined with signs advertising real estate that eventually leads to fields and pine forests.
State Highway 903 comes to the intersection of Ebony. There is a gas station on one side of the road and the Ebony General Store on the other. The Ebony General Store is dimly lit with canned vegetables and bottles of soda mixed with the smell of fried catfish. hot hot dog.
Ebony and other historic-looking intersections are becoming increasingly rare in the South, said Sid Katz, a homebuilder with a property development on Lake Gaston.
“I use the term country elegance,” Katz said in describing Ebony.
Katz said it’s important to the community because big-city customers building lake homes are spending money on local businesses. But what they’re looking for is the rustic charm found at the long-established Ebony General store, not another Dollar General, he said.
“I am pure country.”
Mr. Jones said he too is committed to Ebony’s best interests and aims to bring Dollar General to the community.
Mr. Jones’ father and grandfather purchased land in Ebony in the 1950s and much of his family still lives there. Some of them are Mr. Hartley’s neighbors.
Jones didn’t go to college, but worked for A.&P. and ran several stores in Virginia.
In the 1990s Jones built a gas station and convenience store across from the Ebony General Store.
He sold his shop in 2005 and now lives in a nearby town but regularly farms his land in Ebony. Jones said he did not understand how having a third company at a busy intersection would destroy Ebony’s rural character.
“Who are the characters they really want to save?” he said. “I’m still going to get in my tractor and go outside. Nothing will change. I don’t have to drive far to get a cold drink or pop tarts.”
Jones’ aunt Betty Rhett lives across the street from where the store will be built. She thinks 100 yen shops will bring new excitement to Ebony.
“I’m a pure redneck,” said Rhett one afternoon, sitting across from Jones in the living room. An antique doll resting on a swing suspended from the ceiling.
Mr. Jones dismissed criticism of the dollar store’s cluttered aisles and outdoor trash cans, as well as underpaid workers. He pointed out that the minimum wage in Virginia is $12 an hour.
“I never even got to $10 an hour,” said Mr. Lett, who retired in 2007 after 40 years working in factories and distribution centers. “She has to go back to work,” she joked.
Seanton Taylor, who stopped by the Ebony General Store one afternoon to fill up with gas, said he would shop there even if a dollar store opened.
Taylor lives in a family farm home three miles from the proposed Dollar General site. This farm was originally inhabited by her great-grandparents who were farmers.
“I’m open-minded to new things, especially in the countryside,” said Taylor, who works in a nursing home and writes poetry. “You have to embrace whatever is new.”
Earlier this year, Hartley asked the Virginia Supreme Court to hear the case, saying that the question of how the county interprets its comprehensive plan “will affect all of Virginia for years to come.” give,” he insisted. She is confident her group will win in the end.
Meanwhile, Hartley contacted Jones with an offer. Hartley said that supporters of his group would pay the same amount that the Dollar General developer would pay Jones for the property. Hartley says it’s about $88,000. Jones said.
Mr Jones declined. He says that his ideas and what the conservation group thinks about what to do with the land are “absolutely inconsistent.”
