For shoppers who want to step back in time but also access unique merchandise trends, the family of Mast General Stores answers the call for today to meet yesterday. Now a 10-store enterprise that also includes the sister store Rivercross Made in USA, the original Valle Crucis, North Carolina, Mast General Store opened in 1883, with customers doing business in the building for an amazing 140 years.
Storyteller Sheri Moretz, who is part of the company’s employee stock ownership plan, has worked for the business for over 29 years. She says the nostalgia of general stores is appreciated by shoppers of all ages seeking a fun, unique shopping experience.
Moretz says that the first owner, Henry Taylor, in the 1880s built what is now referred to in the original store as the Middle Room. As new products and increasing traffic changed what was needed to meet customers’ needs, he added new rooms to the store.
In 1897, William Wellington Mast (W.W. Mast) bought a partial interest in the store. It was known for a time as the Taylor and Mast Store. In or around 1913, Mast purchased the remaining shares in the store, and it was operated by the Mast family until the early 1970s. It was sold to a professor at Appalachian State University and a doctor from Atlanta. They had ideas for keeping the store open and bringing in new customers. Sadly, in the winter of 1977, they decided to close for the season with a plan to re-open in the spring of 1978 that was never realized, she says.
John and Faye Cooper had visited the store before it closed and found it intriguing. Faye Cooper famously remarked, “We knew someone should save it. We just didn’t know it would be us.” The couple purchased the store in late 1979 and moved their young family to Valle Crucis from Florida in 1980. The store reopened on June 6, 1980, and the Cooper family lived on the second and third stories of the building for the first four years of its ownership. The Cooper’s daughter Lisa Cooper is now the president of this family and employee-owned company.
Moretz says in the beginning, the Cooper’s added merchandise and opened new rooms of the store as they could, stocking items that would have been found in an old-time general store but would still be useful today. Many people drove the roughly eight miles from nearby Boone to “step back in time.” In 1982, they opened a close-by Mast Store Annex, with expanded clothing offerings and eventually an outdoor department.
In 1988, the Mast Store in Boone, North Carolina, opened in an old department store building from the 1920s. The company would continue to take over old department stores in other new locations, she says.
“The Coopers have owned it for 43 years and are proud to call themselves caretakers of the store,” Moretz says. “In looking at the history of general stores, it is truly a feat that the Mast Store is still in existence. When the economy changed in the mountains – moving from a more agrarian life to one that was more manufacturing oriented – it meant that the workers at the shoe plant and other factories that were set up in nearby Boone would pick up the things they needed in town before coming home for the day.” She says this shift was primarily what led to the store’s brief closure in the late 1970s. From the Coopers’ standpoint, they can attribute their longevity to listening to customers and creative and smart buying, she says.
Moretz says other stores can learn from the business and its success strategy of having a good mix of products. “The Mast Store has something for everyone from 2 to 102 with products ranging from cast iron cookware, rocking chairs and country gourmet foods to classic fashions, hundreds of favorite candies, technical outdoor gear and outerwear. It’s important to have a core inventory – something people can rely on and expect – and let just a part of your overall inventory respond to trends,” she says.
Customer service is an important part of the mix, too, she says, and that means really listening to the customer and asking questions to help find the right product for their end use whether it’s a thru hike on the Appalachian Trail or a wedding gift for a co-worker. “Oh and being an ambassador for your hometown. It’s about people having an experience that is memorable,” she says.
Moretz says the company will open another store, but that the owners haven’t found the right town or the right building just yet. “Typically, we have about four or five years between openings of new locations to allow us to get to know our newest ‘family member’ before welcoming another. The Mast General Store likes to be referred to as a family of stores instead of a chain because while many of the products will be the same, there are items that are unique to each individual town and each building has its own personality,” she says.General stores once dotted the American landscape and were community centers. The original Mast store still has the Valle Crucis Post Office. In addition to picking up mail, long-ago shoppers would buy things they couldn’t make themselves, and learn about a community’s news and events. The shopping experience may have changed for today’s customers, but Moretz says the company is committed to giving back to its communities by supporting local non-profits in the areas of conservation and preservation, basic human needs and initiatives such as mentoring, education and the arts. A community couldn’t ask for more from a local business with its roots in the past, its feet planted firmly in the present and its eyes on the future.
