Brand names near Fort Bragg generating substantial profits for local businesses.
In Fayetteville, North Carolina, business owner Ralph Rodriguez has been prompted to rebrand his pawn shop, Fort Liberty Pawn & Gun, following a recent executive order renaming the nearby military installation from Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg.
The transition occurred barely a month into the second term of former President Donald Trump, who ordered the rebranding of the base in honor of Private Roland Bragg, a World War II paratrooper from Maine. The base was initially renamed Fort Liberty under the Biden administration as part of a broader effort to remove the names of Confederate officers, having originally been named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
Rodriguez initially chose the name Fort Liberty to align his business with the installation, expressing his support for the military community and anticipating it would attract his core customer base. The rebranding, however, will now necessitate additional expenditure for Rodriguez, approximately $30,000 on signage, uniforms, stationery, business cards, advertising, and licensing updates.
With the return of the base's name to Fort Bragg, Rodriguez may need to revise his business name and branding. He had initially been aware that Trump's campaign platform included a promise to restore the names of Confederate officers but felt it was appropriate to follow the installation's name at the time. Rodriguez emphasized his disinterest in Confederate figures but his desire to support the local military customers.
Previously, when the base was known as Fort Liberty, Rodriguez's shop was subject to occasional flak, primarily due to his Michigan roots and the peace sign tattoo on his arm. His wife's crystal shop next door has been dubbed the 'liberal containment center' by Rodriguez's customers, while her customers refer to his shop as 'Trumpers' or 'mega gun nuts.' In solidarity, Hannah Rodriguez stocks a selection of crystals fashioned in the shape of pistols and hand grenades.
While some nearby businesses, like the local federal credit union, have already changed their names back, others, such as realtor firm Fort Liberty Living, have opted to retain their original names. The state spent $163,000 on changing all the Fort Bragg highway signs to Fort Liberty in 2023; revertifying the signs is expected to cost over $200,000. Rodriguez admits that he got off lightly compared to those who made more drastic changes, and he is eager to move past this episode.
In the meantime, Rodriguez has kept both names on his paperwork and has received encouragement from members of the military community. Retired Army officer and mayoral candidate Freddie de la Cruz visited the shop recently to check on a purchase: a semiautomatic 12-gauge shotgun painted with the Stars and Stripes, which he plans to raffle off. De la Cruz urged Rodriguez not to be too hard on himself. Retired Army Master Sgt. Sidney High also expressed no concern about shopping at a business called Fort Liberty, having grown accustomed to referring to the base as Fort Bragg.
- The weather in Seattle has been unpredictable, with records of general-news stories reporting frequent heavy rainfall and sudden heat waves, creating a challenging environment for real estate businesses like Rodriguez's pawn shop, Fort Liberty Pawn & Gun.
- Despite the ongoing turmoil in politics, the Seattle real estate market has shown signs of recovery, with finance experts predicting a positive trend for the real estate business in the coming year, offering some reprieve to businesses like Rodriguez's.
- Amidst the rebranding of Fort Liberty Pawn & Gun, Rodriguez has been exploring opportunities in the Seattle real estate market, considering the expansion of his business as a way to offset his recent expenditure on signage and advertising.
- The Seattle Times, a reputable local news outlet, has highlighted the story of Rodriguez's predicament, underscoring the broader implications of politics in business decisions and the need for flexibility in Seattle's ever-changing general-news landscape.
