Area merchants see no rush for Confederate items

South Carolina retailers and tattoo shops say sales of Confederate-themed memorabilia have been mostly normal since Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday called for removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds.

An informal polling of shops in the Columbia area found primarily business as usual, with few patrons calling for new tattoos of the Confederate flag or for new Confederate-themed merchandise.

South Carolina has been the epicenter of a national firestorm about the flag, after a white, 21-year-old Columbia-area man, Dylann Roof, was charged with nine counts of murder in the June 17 slayings of nine black parishioners during Bible study in a historic Charleston church. Roof posted photographs of himself with Confederate flags.

Nationally, at least eight major retailers have halted the sale of Confederate flags since Haley’s announcement. Much of the national consumption of flag merchandise was online. Amazon’s sales of flags skyrocketed by nearly 9,000 percent in a 24-hour period Tuesday after the online giant announced it no longer would sell such merchandise on the heels of Haley’s call.

“We are not seeing any increase in sales,” said Janet Pagan, Flying J general services manager of the Fairfield Road store in Columbia. The store sells Confederate T-shirts, she said.

At Knotty Headz Tattoo Factory on Decker Boulevard, the artist, who did not give his name, said he had done three Confederate-related tattoos since Haley’s speech. Other local shops reported seeing no uptick in business.

At Sickle and Moon Tattoo in Five Points, Jeremy Lewis said there had been no calls for anything Confederate-related. “We’re pretty well known for not supporting anything racist,” Lewis said.

One of the Upstate’s most prolific former peddlers of Confederate merchandise, The Red Neck Shop, is out of business, Laurens city and county officials said Wednesday.

This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 10:51 PM.