It looks like the game is going into overtime. The football analogy is playing out in Greenville, North Carolina. As we’ve reported, Camping World has hoisted an American flag over its North Carolina dealership. Not uncommon, but in this case, unlawful, as the flag far exceeds what local ordinances allow. The back-and-forth between the city’s council and Camping World has become uglier. Now it’s city sues Camping World.
Company defiant, so city sues Camping World
After repeated attempts to get Camping World to comply with the city’s code regarding both flag size and flag pole height limitations, the city council took a more forward step. On Monday the council voted 4–2 to authorize the City to file suit against Camping World. This after Camping World’s CEO adamantly insists the flag will never come down.
The city first warned Camping World that the flag was a violation back in October of 2024. Camping World didn’t appeal. The city started fining the big company for each day the flag stayed up. So far, the city has received a fraction of the fines due. The council feels the suit is its last resort to get Marcus Lemonis and Camping World to comply. It earlier considered—and rejected—a Camping World request to change the city’s code to allow the flag to stand.
“No placating a known bully”
When the vote was taken to either allow or deny Camping World’s request for a code change, at least one city council member was obviously dead-opposed. Councilwoman Portia Willis made the motion for denial. She flew her own feelings like a flag when she told the council, “Instead of placating a known bully and allowing them to exploit our city for profit and national media attention, it is my conviction that we should be standing firm and united and that we are smarter than those tactics that divide us.
“The issue has never been about the American flag,” Willis went on. “If it were, I believe Camping World would abide by the flag code and its standards.”
When the city sues Camping World, will the court docket read, “City Council versus Known Bully”?
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Camping world is a corporate machine that cares nothing for its patrons and the actual product that they sell. They purchase a local RV retailer in New England. They kept the staff from the old company. Then they sent the corporate hacks down to service to instruct then in the fine art of upselling and up servicing. I heard it. He told the Service writers to get in the camper and “inspect it”. Kept saying, find issues. Horrible. Although this issue is about a flag and a city ordinance, I truly believe that camping world is usually it as free media and doesn’t really care about the actual issue.
CW took over a dealer near us. At first they stayed at the original location.
They bought land in rural neighborhood just to store their stock.
All of a sudden they built it up to a full blown dealership. Zoning was R1-C1. Technically not allowing large business.
Some how they got away with it.
They also kept the staff for while, then brought in their own people to manage it.
As Rick said, they then trained the staff to follow their rules. If you didn’t go along, you were let go.
I feel sorry for the people living close to this place. Big increase is traffic and lights on all night.
PS: it’s not even near a main road.
I hope Marcus gets what he deserves in Greenville.
Council woman Portia Willis is 100% correct. He doesn’t care about the flag. If he did he would know that using the flag for advertising purposes is against the code. Trying to bully a city government is equally unpatriotic. He is clearly all about the publicity. I hope Lemonis loses big.
Camping World did this in a wonderful town I lived in as well. Georgetown, KY is a very patriotic town, yet Camping World drug them through the dirt.
Thank you for the updated information, Russ and Tina! I wonder where Greenville’s legal fees end? Lawyers may donate their time, particularly if they are RVers. Ultimately, I wonder if Greenville revokes their business license? I do think, at the least, the city should remove the flagpole and supervise Camping World’s reinstallation. Have a great day and safe travels!
This is just another example of what used to be called false patriotism. I show the flag so you can’t criticize me or my company. I will use the flag to make my political point and you can’t criticize me or my company for doing so. If you do, you risk being called unpatriotic. It’s a game that businesses and individuals play to gain some sort of advantage, used by politicians, especially those that do things like hug a flag (we’ve all seen it). Usually used by bullies and crooks.