Two days before Friday’s reopening of Great Outdoor Provision Company’s Chapel Hill location, the store was bustling with employees hanging jackets and stocking outdoor gear on shelves, and Sade’s “Smooth Operator” blared from a set of speakers. Chuck Millsaps, a co-owner of the company and its minister of culture, was in high spirits.
“This is the fun part, rebuilding together,” he said. “We started in Carrboro, so Chapel Hill is very special to us … and not only do we want to be back, we’re seeing this as an opportunity, a chance to rebuild the store.”
Great Outdoor Provision has nine locations across North Carolina and Virginia, which Millsaps noted typically have “creaky wooden floors.” But at the Chapel Hill location, they decided to replace the wood with concrete. The store had operated at Eastgate Plaza for more than two decades. Millsaps estimated that flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal caused roughly $1 million in damages…