The owner of kiosk that sells conservative merchandise in a North Carolina mall won't get to continue pushing "Impeach Obama" bumper stickers after his lease expires Friday.
The Concord Mills mall decided not to renew its contract with Loren Spivack, who fought to stay in business in the shopping center.
Spivack says his kiosk, Free Market Warrior, is being nudged out for purely political reasons.
After meeting with officials from the Concord, N.C., mall Tuesday afternoon, the two sides could not reach an agreement to keep the 8-foot-long kiosk where it was.
"Mr. Spivack has not agreed to remove the objectionable merchandise and will be moving out of Concord Mills at the end of his lease," a statement from the mall said.
Spivack told FOXNews.com that mall officials specifically asked that three bumper stickers and a T-shirt believed to be linking President Obama with terrorism be removed from the kiosk, including one that read, "Obama Wins and They Celebrate in Iran, Do You Get It?"
Four employees at the kiosk will lose their jobs at the end of business on Friday, Spivack said, but he'll continue selling the merchandise online.
"It was a very difficult decision," Spivack told FOXNews.com. "I really don't want to [leave the mall], but I was even less comfortable having this corporation essentially dictate which criticisms could be made."
The hottest sellers at the kiosk, which has been in the mall for roughly three months, are items that are critical of President Obama, Spivack said.
They include a “Work Harder, Obama Needs the Money” bumper sticker and a T-shirt that lists the top 12 things Obama has been doing as the economy crashes.
Among the other merchandise sold at the kiosk and on its associated Web site are GOP elephant bobblehead dolls, a Republican president jigsaw puzzle and baby bibs that say, “My parents chose life. Thanks Mom and Dad!”
Asked if he felt targeted by mall officials due to those items, Spivack replied, “There’s no question. There’s no issue other than the material we’re selling.”
The brouhaha began, he said before his request was denied, when someone wrote a letter to the editor in the Charlotte Observer criticizing his business for promoting racism and sexism.
“This apparently got the attention of the national management,” Spivack told FOXNews.com. “They came down with a decision that we had to leave and that our lease would not be renewed when it expired.”
Spivack said he met briefly with mall manager Roy Soporowski on Sunday, the same day about 100 people rallied in front of the mall to support him and his right to the sell politically-charged merchandise.
“We didn’t come to any conclusions, but we agreed to speak again [Monday],” Spivack said. “We’d obviously like to stay, that would be very positive.”
Soporowski did not respond to several interview requests on Monday. A spokeswoman for Simon Property Group, which owns the mall, declined to be interviewed for this report.
Spivack wouldn't say how much he pays to rent the kiosk, citing a condition of his contract. And while the future of his business is currently in jeopardy, the controversy has had a noticeable benefit.
“Sales have definitely picked up,” he said. “Simon Malls clearly did me an unintentional favor.”
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox