MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Raleigh business is trying to heal after both crime and weather hit them over the past week.
“It’s just opportunistic people taking advantage of a situation,” said Michael Wilson, Raleigh Community Market Co-Owner.
Wilson and his wife’s family opened the doors at the Raleigh Community Market one year ago July 1st. Now, instead of celebrating an anniversary, it is trying to reopen.
Severe weather last week knocked out lights at the store, and for more than 120,000 other MLGW customers on Sunday.
“The Raleigh, Bartlett area was probably hit the worst,” said Wilson.
Following the power loss, the store could not open for business over the following week.
“We tried to open up Monday, no power, Tuesday comes around, once again we didn’t have any power,” said Wilson.
When the Memphian tried coming in the following Wednesday, the situation went from bad to worse.
“I received a notification on the phone saying that the motion detector picked up on motion in the store,” said Wilson, “That’s when I pulled up and saw that the window was busted out, saw everything was just ransacked.”
Wilson said the store lost thousands of dollars, including food, tobacco products and a cash register.
Instead of starting their second year with a school supply drive for the community Wilson and his wife grew up in, they are having to rebuild from the ground up.
“We really want to serve our people the best we can, and that’s why it’s so disheartening,” said Wilson.
Disheartened but not defeated. Wilson is aiming to open the Raleigh Community Market again on Wednesday, hoping his community will have the family’s back, just like they have tried to do for them over the past year.
“We do appreciate anything that the community is willing to do to assist us in keeping this thing running, so that we can continue servicing Raleigh,” said Wilson.
If you would like to help out the Raleigh Community Market, you can donate through their GoFundMe page or at their BBQ fundraiser at 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. Monday July 3 at 2830 Old Austin Peay Hwy.