Furious at Dorian? Rage room in NC offers $20 hurricane deal to smash stuff
Hurricane Florence cost North Carolina billions when it flooded beach towns and swept away livestock in September 2018.
Now, with Dorian sitting on the same coastline’s doorstep, one business is offering an outlet for the pent-up aggression residents have been stockpiling alongside water and gasoline over the last year — a so-called rage room.
Time to Rage is a newly-minted small business in Wilmington offering customers an outlet for all the anger and aggression that plagues every-day life — and a little something extra during hurricane season.
“Maybe the gym is closed. I’m open, come on over, smash some stuff. Then pack a bag, put your five cases of water in the car and roll on out,” Travis Suber, the owner, founder and primary rager at Time to Rage, told McClatchy news group.
Suber posted a video to Instagram on Tuesday advertising a “$20 Hurricane Special” in which he artfully smashes old china plates aptly named after old foes Matthew and Florence with a baseball bat.
For the grand finale, Suber flings a colorfully-described Dorian at a cement wall where red targets and the word “smash” have been spray painted.
Hurricanes, he said, cause a lot of angst.
“Here in Wilmington people are losing their minds, whether rightfully so or not,” he said. “That’s not a judgment, that is really what’s going on.”
There’s a lot of “residual trauma” from Florence, he said, and many residents are still recovering.
“The Weather Channel is weather porn right now, just feeding into all this,” Suber said.
Time to Rage, sitting in an old auto body garage in the center of Wilmington, may be the perfect antidote.
The business has been in the works since last year, when he saw the Real Housewives of Dallas visit a rage room for a divorce party.
“I thought it was an incredible idea,” he said.
Suber said he was looking for an out from the corporate world and quit his job with a telecommunications firm to open Time to Rage, a concept that seemed universally applicable to him.
“People have a lot of different frustrations in life,” he said, listing everything from a college student struggling with exams to an exasperated parent stepping on a “oblong Lego” for the fourth night in a row.
People sometimes need to be in their own space for a little while, Suber said, and Time to Rage opens that door. Its motto, after all, is “Cheaper than therapy, healthier than liquor.”
For 10 minutes and $35, customers can rage to the music of their choice with 10 plates and 4 bottles or glasses. Suber also offers add-ons like a cell phone, television or printer for anywhere from $5 to $25 extra.
Someone even smashed a Keurig once.
“Those things are incredibly tough,” Suber said. “I now have a newfound respect for the K-cup industry and the Keurig in particular.”
He said he gets the items primarily from donations but also from nonprofits like Habitat.
There’s been six bookings since Time to Rage opened its doors Aug. 30, and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, Suber said.
The rage room and its primary rager are also staying put during Dorian, meaning bookings are available all week.
Suber said he’s convinced they can make it through a category 2 or 3 hurricane, saying the business sits on the hospital electrical grid .
“But if we run out of Sun Drop,” he said. “Then yes, we’re going to have to leave immediately.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2019 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Furious at Dorian? Rage room in NC offers $20 hurricane deal to smash stuff."
