Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Tabor City is a town in Columbus County, North Carolina, United States. It was named after Mount Tabor Baptist Church (now Tabor City Baptist Church), which itself is named after the biblical Mount Tabor. Originally named Mt. Tabor, the town adopted its current name after postal authorities confused it with Tarboro, North Carolina. Notoriously known as Razor City in the mid-20th century, it has been called the "Yam Capital of the World. " Each October, the North Carolina Yam Festival is held, celebrating the sweet potato with crafts, train rides, arts and vendors. Now a rural area, it has suffered economic difficulties in recent years, with the loss of the tobacco cash crop and high unemployment. A new state prison, the Tabor Correctional Institution, opened in 2007, and once fully-populated, will house 1,500 inmates. TCI is located two miles northwest from the center of Tabor City. The town also contains Lake Tabor, a 500-acre recreational lake. The Tabor City Tribune was a weekly newspaper established by W. Horace Carter in 1946. Along with the Whiteville News Reporter, the Tribune was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its editorials against the Ku Klux Klan. The Pulitzer Prize citation stated that the newspapers were awarded the prize "for their successful campaign against the Ku Klux Klan, waged on their own doorstep at the risk of economic loss and personal danger, culminating in the conviction of over one hundred Klansmen and an end to terrorism in their communities. " The newspapers were the first weeklies to win a Pulitzer Prize. The name of the Tabor City Tribune was changed to the Tabor-Loris Tribune in 1996. The small W. Horace Carter Newspaper Museum in Tabor City at the Tabor-Loris Tribune offices has exhibits on Carter's life and work. Tabor City is home to South Columbus High School. Prior to South Columbus High School was Tabor City High School, which closed in 1992. The former Tabor City High School facility now houses Tabor City Elementary School.