RALEIGH, N.C. — Johnny Hackett, owner of Black Friday Market in downtown Raleigh, will be the first to tell you the past year has been tough.

“It's been a real toll on me. And I've worked nonstop for, you know, probably about five or six years now. So like really for me, it's like getting into a good place mentally where, you know, I'm not absorbing so much of this," Hackett said. 

What You Need To Know

  •  Johnny Hackett owns Black Friday Market in downtown Raleigh

  •  He also created Black Dollar NC

  •  The Factory, a co-working space, closed earlier this year

Black Friday Market opened in December 2020. Hackett is also the founder of Black Dollar NC, a map of Black-owned businesses, and opened the co-working space The Factory in 2022. It, however, closed its door earlier this year. 

Like many small business owners, Hackett has faced a pandemic, navigated the ups and down of the economy and tried to regroup when community partnerships didn't come to fruition. 

"I think that those decisions in thinking that we would get support from other community partners and other folks who have essentially uplifted us and held us to this high standard over the last couple of years, you know, this symbol of Black owned business in the city of Raleigh," he said. "Maybe I drank a little too much of the Kool-Aid and thinking that they were going to come to the table and help us. And that help never came in. That's okay you know, because, again, when you talking about getting help for a bailout, maybe that's just a something folks may not be willing to do."

Hackett is grateful for the support he and his team have gotten for Black Friday Market.

"We've got great real estate partners with Empire Properties. They've been in our corner from day one and really respect what we're doing. We could not do this work without Empire. And so, you know, having them in our corner and wanting us to be here for the long term has been a real benefit for us. And we will be here and we'll continue to work every day, you know, to right the ship, if you will," Hackett said.

Despite the challenges, Hackett says he’s proud of the reputation the business has and wants to keep the doors open to the community as long as possible. 

“I care about the work. It would be easy to quit," Hackett explained. "But you know, I'm so passionate about it.”