SHOP
It TAKES a VILLAGE A family business that started in a dorm room builds decades of customer loyalty by SHELBI POLK photography by EAMON QUEENEY
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tepping through the front doors of Mill Outlet Village would be overwhelming, if it weren’t for the prominently posted map and helpful staff. The journey begins in the small foyer, decorated with the history of the store. There’s a large portrait of the company’s founder, Lynn Bazemore, alongside an ancient sewing machine and yellowing newspaper clips tracing more than 70 years of dealing in fabric and foam. “When people first walk through that front door, a lot of them are taken aback,” says veteran employee Linda Robinson. The cavernous space beyond the arch is divided into “neighborhoods” based on product: virtual forests of fabrics, library shelves of ribbons and tassels, a floor-to-ceiling selec-
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tion of foam and outdoor carpets and plenty more. “So if you have a project to do, this is the place to come,” says upholstery manager Sue Tartaglia. Tartaglia, who has been working at the store for 12 years, says she regularly runs across husbands who have lost track of their wives somewhere among the different sections. Lynn Bazemore didn’t wait until he had a degree to become an entrepreneur. He sold socks out of his dorm room at East Carolina University and mill ends out of his truck. In 1958, Bazemore opened his first store on Capital Boulevard. The ‘Village’ part of Mill Outlet Village emerged from Bazemore’s second store: In 1965, Lynn moved the business to a new location and continued to expand. There, he grew by setting up
