Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023 - 72

These two images from the Roanoke, Virginia, store, provide a strong view
of the variety inside Mast General Stores, which feature everything from
hiking gear to cast iron skillets and plenty in between, along with easy-fill
green buckets to take advantage of the vast candy array.
ville location, knows this firsthand.
Fuseler started working for the retailer
about nine years ago. At the time, he was
studying to be a physical therapist. In
need of a part-time job, he took a weekend
gig at the Mast General Store in his
hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
" Honestly, I wasn't interested in doing
retail for a career-ever, " Fuseler
admits. But almost instantly, he was
smitten with the company's ethos of
" kindness and positivity. " Unlike the
big-box stores he had worked for in the
past, Mast General Store prioritized the
employee experience.
" This place is different, " says Fuseler,
who soon left behind physical therapy
for a full-time job at Mast General Store.
In 2018, he assumed his current position
at the Waynesville location. " The
company culture here is amazing, " he
swoons.
And that's not by accident. Since
opening the flagship location in 1980,
the Coopers have tried their best to create
a positive workplace environment. In
the early days, for instance, Lisa remem72
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bers her mom cooking the Valle Crucis
employees a hearty lunch: a bowl of
soup, a fresh sandwich, perhaps a cup of
strong coffee.
Looking to give workers far more than
a hot lunch, Mast General Store officially
became an employee-owned company
in 1995. There are now approximately
250 employee owners. The business also
offers a range of other benefits not typically
offered in the retail industry, from
health insurance to bereavement pay to
paid volunteer time.
" My parents wanted to help employees
understand that we can all make a
difference in the value of the company, "
says Lisa. " By working together, we can
thrive. "
Savoring the Experience
Today, Mast General Store is certainly
thriving.
Since the 1980s, the Coopers have
transformed a shuttered provisions shop
in the High Country of North Carolina
into an Appalachian icon. Now, Mast
General Store visitors come from all
nooks and crannies of the world to buy
licorice by the pound, marvel at droll toys
and gear up for backcountry hiking trips.
But more than the eclectic products,
folks come for the experience: the sweet
drone of a bluegrass-tinted Americana
music mix, the buttery bouquet of fresh
popcorn and the neighborly chit-chat
amid heaps of long johns and biscuit
cutters.
As travel writer Charles Kuralt wrote
in his 1986 column in the Chicago Tribune:
" This store, with its creaking, hundred-year-old
pine floorboards and its
cluttered aisles and its garrulous patrons,
in no hurry to get on with whatever it
is they should be doing this morning, is
figuratively, and more or less geographically,
the heart and soul of the South. "
This store is also the heart and soul of
the Cooper family.
" It took me some time to understand
what my parents were trying to accomplish, "
Lisa admits, reflecting on those
early days as a cantankerous pre-teen.
" But, " she says, " the business spirit grew
on me. I fell in love. "
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Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023
