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A striking plea written by Wentworth & Fenn baker and owner Sam Ward for business support in Camp North End went viral on Instagram over the weekend in Charlotte.
“We’re dying,” stated the bakery’s post, which was removed after accumulating hundreds of comments simultaneously supporting, disagreeing and empathizing with Ward’s sentiment: “If things don’t turn around, we’re done.”
The announcement brought to the surface dissent from co-tenants and neighbors who believe in the future of Camp North End, who aren’t dying and are thriving, Seemingly Overzealous co-owner Garrett Tichy told CharlotteFive.
Ward’s post incited a community conversation, both within and beyond Camp North End, about how small food businesses survive in Charlotte.
“I hate that I upset [the tenants] … I love and respect them … I feel it was heavily misconstrued,” Ward told CharlotteFive. “I meant we are dying as small businesses across the board. Not just at Camp. It’s a Charlotte-wide issue.”
Is this a Camp North End phenomenon?
While Ward said the intention behind the post was to “support local businesses,” the message was also one of an “I’ve had it” mentality.
Award-winning restaurant Leah & Louise departed Camp North End earlier this year — a notable loss. And Ward said she previously challenged Camp North End leadership regarding issues around slow business during its construction and in the early days of the pandemic. Frustrations about defensiveness from leadership and record-low sales were the last straw, she said.
Location-related frustrations also aren’t new to Ward, who, earlier this year, permanently closed the second location of Wentworth & Fenn in uptown Charlotte due to similar concerns about vacant space and delayed renovations.
But this time, Ward doesn’t want to leave Camp North End. She wants to stay — and she wants “Camp North End to thrive,” she said.
She called the anticipation of foot traffic from upcoming Kinship apartments around Camp North End a “waiting game.”
Small businesses are struggling
Another Camp North End tenant, the owner of Latin food stall La Caseta , shares in the concern for fellow business owners. “For Camp … if there’s not a lot going on events-wise, we do take a hit,” Dalton Espaillat of Raydal Hospitality told CharlotteFive.
He acknowledged this summer has been slow, citing rainy weather and events that draw customers to opposite ends of the sprawling campus. Raydal is also the owner of the recently closed food stall Saru Ramen .
“I feel for the other businesses … We’ve been one of the most successful restaurants there,” he said about La Caseta. “If I’m struggling, there are probably other places that have to be exponentially struggling.”
‘I don’t think this has anything to do with Camp’
However, at nearby shop Seemingly Overzealous, Tichy said that while “Sam’s a good friend and … I think her baked goods are some of the best in Charlotte… I disagree wholeheartedly with [her] message and her post… I don’t think this has anything to do with Camp.”
Chandler Wrenn, who co-owns Hex Coffee Roasters and was one of the very first tenants at Camp North End, told us “the developers at Camp North End have given people opportunities that they frankly wouldn’t get anywhere else in Charlotte.”
Collaborative marketing, lower rent and events like Mistletoe Market that bring over 7,000 people to the 76-acre campus have all been significant business boosts.
Camp North End hosts a free summer movie screening series , Broken Crayon art workshops, a Thursday night farmers market , Friday night live music , along with other seasonal classes, pop-ups and themed gatherings that are distinctly Camp North End. The free, public parking is a valuable and increasingly rare feature, Tichy said. The space proved a huge success when it had the Immersive Van Gogh experience , but now that Blumenthal Arts has pivoted to having its own immersive studio in its own building near the stadium, that could potentially hurt Camp North End’s art traffic.
This is the type of foundational support Camp North End built into its structure. As the former owner of the Hygge coworking space, Tichy remembers Camp North End as abandoned pre-pandemic. Now, he describes it as “lively and colorful.”
While folks like Wrenn and Tichy suggest the support has been beneficial, Ward found that “one Saturday can’t sustain your business model.”
Damon Hemmerdinger, co-president of ATCO Properties — which oversees Camp North End — didn’t specifically address the criticism, but spoke generally in a news release: “Our team constantly works alongside [community of business owners] to offer support and expertise, encourage new and repeat visitors through a wide variety of events, and nurture connections within the campfam across industries and professions.”
The problem of the seasons
While Wrenn notes the harsh reality of slow summers, he also stands firmly in the belief that slow business is not specifically Camp North End issue.
Wrenn also owns Stable Hand in South End , where despite having more foot traffic, the rent is higher and slowness is still a concern.
“Summers are hard in Charlotte … my 2 worst months of the year every year are June and July … I’ve been doing this for 8 years.”
Chef Sam Hart of restaurant Counter- posted a photo on Monday afternoon with the caption stating: “Summer has been brutal to the hospitality and F&B industry … If we don’t support local small restaurants/bakeries/cafes/shops it is a generational and multi-layered destruction of our food system … If they go down, those farms and distributors go down too.”
Tichy cited marketing tactics along with rain and weather — especially in an open-area like Camp North End — as the influential factors that thwart or encourage business. He said Seemingly Overzealous is “not dying. We are having really good success here,” with plans to open up a second shop, in fact.
He believes that Ward’s post — and the negative comments it generated about Camp North End safety and other concerns — directly affects other businesses. Wrenn shared that 95% of Camp North End tenants in the group’s Slack channel shared frustration at being looped into this narrative.
“When you cast a definitive poor light on the property, that hurts me … It’s not my narrative,” Tichy said.
Both Tichy and Wrenn openly acknowledge they want to be busier. “We live in a world where (if) we are not yelling constantly, we are going to be forgotten,” Tichy added.
In some ways, Ward’s controversial post may have been that yelling.
“I’d rather go down screaming than not say anything at all … More women need to stand up and be loud and be proud,” she told C5. “Being told by men that I need to calm myself. No, I won’t … If I’m making people uncomfortable, then so be it.”
How to support local — even without spending money
Despite the backlash on Instagram and Reddit , what Ward initially wanted was support for Wentworth & Fenn and neighboring businesses.
Ward said supporting local businesses can be free, too, such as leaving a review or a post on Instagram. “Sharing what events or specials are happening not just at Wentworth & Fenn, but my neighbors like Hex, Grow, or Good Postage,” she said.
She encouraged her followers and told CharlotteFive to visit other small bakers like Vicente Bistro and the Batchmaker . Whether it’s bakers, chefs, farmers or coffee roasters, people should offer their support because it “really means a lot,” she said.
Many neighboring businesses such as the new Halal Street Food shared Instagram stories of Wentworth & Fenn’s baked goods as a means of support.
Challenge now, reward later
But at the end of the day, customers need to buy.
The way Wrenn sees it, signing on to Camp North End with cheaper rent than, say, South End, was signing on to step-by-step, organic growth that takes time. Wrenn has chosen to grow alongside Camp North End, building his coffee roastery into a full-fledged cafe, kitchen and natural wine bar.
Facing challenges like a slow summer for business head-on is part of resolutely building and believing in the “long term culture” of this city, as opposed to just “participating in culture,” he said. “That challenge is so much more worth it,” Wrenn said.
A rising tide
Tichy described the relationships amongst the tenants and between the Camp North End team as symbiotic. “They’re the best neighbors ever,” Tichy said of his fellow business owners.
“I feel like we’re all in this together… that is one really beautiful thing about Charlotte… there are so many small businesses here, it’s just wild that some of them are going down hard,” Ward said.
When Camp North End hurts, everyone hurts, and the opposite is true, as well.
“We’re kind of a rising tide situation,” Wrenn said.
“Nothing about this work is easy or inevitable,” Hemmerdinger said. “It takes a tremendous team and roster of businesses to build a signature destination for the city of Charlotte over many years.”
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