Abstract:
At one time general stores functioned as a community's hub. Townspeople gathered there to buy supplies and talk about anything in the town. These store have mostly disappeared from the landscape, being replaced by mass marketing and big-box retailers. Milling describes some that carry on the old general store tradition. They are Buchanan's Store Manson), Fred's General Mercantile (Beech Mountain), Ronnie's Country Store (Winston-Salem), N.C. Clampitt Hardware (Bryson City), Z.A.K.'S of Mallardtown USA (Trenton), and the Senior's Country Store (Welcome).