Tabor City tribune., 1963-03-13
Tabor City Receives Double
Dividend As Leder-Poffer
Department Store 0pens

ANY town gains a lot when
a big, new business opens.
But Tabor City is getting O
double dividend March Ia when
the modern, new complete
Leder-Potter Department Store
opens in the r. c. Soles and
William Shelley properties on
Railroad st.
For Tabor City not only is
gaining economically 90 new
Jobs plus an assortment of
other economic gains) but II
is gaining a civic-minded BUSH
nessman in the person of ]. p.
Potter.
John Potter, as he is COM
monty known. has made his
civic self felt throughout this
general area for a good many
years.
Until l94l he was a partner
in the Bullock-Potter store in
Chadbourn but sold his interest
in this business when he
was called into military
service.
When he was DISCHARGED
from service, he eyed the Twin
City Community and found, as
he knew he would. that it was
the most promising economic
ally of any and decided to open
business at Loris.
A lot next to the service
station at Loris's stoplight at
he intersection of Main st.
Hwy. TOD was bought and he
built fine store. This was at
a time when there was nothing
between that store and the
State Theater.
After six years of that op-
Grafton, he consolidated with
Leder Brothers in what was
the first partnership store in
that chain, the new store being
known as the Leder Potter
Department Store. All other
stores at that time were Leder
Brothers Stores.
Leder Brothers and John
Potter are now going into their
10th year of close and mutual
ly beneficial association.
In the intervening years q
second partnership store -
Horton-Leder in Concord, N. c.
= has come into the chain but
the Tabor City Leder Potter
Department Store is the first
expansion of a partnership op-
Grafton within the chain. But
even now an eagle eye is being
Kept open for fruitful oppor-
tunity for further expansion.
Well before the scheduled
opening of the new Leder-
Potter Department Store i'm
Tabor City, John Potter be-
came a member of the Tabor
City Merchants Association and
applied for membership i'm the
Tabor City Credit Bureau.
Thus he follows a pattern of
civic, fraternal and religious
life he set at Loris where he
is a member of the First Bap-
tist church and a member of
the Board of Deacons. a men,
Der of the Loris Merchants
Association, the American Leg
ion and the Lions Club. He is
a member of Omar Temple. the
Milo Shrine Club, the
Masonic Lodge and a Sunday
School teacher at his church.
He and Mrs. Potter are the
parents of two fine children,
Linda, Is; and Johnny, IA.
John Potter, at 46, is a pro-
gressive merchant, possessed
of foresight and vision and q
can capable of seizing oppor-
tunity full grasp. Through the
years he has shown a special
interest In young people and
has been particularly coopera-
tive with the Distributive Ed
ucation program. under which
high school students learn
first-hand how to work In and
operate such q business as q
department store, earning
while learning. And while he
In no way intends to turn his
back on Loris just because of
the big. new operation In Tabor
CITY. he plans to enter as ef-
fectively into the civic life of
Tabor City as he has that of
Loris and make Tabor City feel
II has benefited doubiy In the
opening Of the new store, gain
ing economically and gaining
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