Fred’s General Mercantile: Everything you need to know

If you’re looking for a reason to visit the area, Autumn at Oz happens annually in September at Beech Mountain Resort.

It’s the largest Wizard of Oz festival and is incredibly popular, so tickets go fast. If you can’t get there, you can visit virtually with our Land of Oz review.

Fred’s General Mercantile History

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Fred’s General Mercantile (501 Beech Mountain Pkwy, Beech Mountain, NC) was opened by Fred and Margie Pfohl in 1979 and has been only operated by their family (and employees) since then.

It has hardly closed a day since then, including remaining open — without power — in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, an unprecedented storm for the area.

Two fun facts:

One, the building was designed by Charlotte-based Jack Pentes, who also designed the Land of Oz and part of the Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, NC.

And two, at 5,056 feet above sea level, Beech Mountain is the the highest town east of the Rocky Mountains and Fred’s General Mercantile, at 5,049 feet above sea level, is the highest-elevation general store in the United States.

They started the store with the intention of it being a grocery store when the couple noticed the price of canned goods locally was just too much money. So they decided to open a more reasonable store for locals, filled with hardware items and lots of grocery items.

Originally, the couple lived upstairs above the store with everything for sale on the main level. The store expanded to encompass the upstairs level now, but this might be why the store still has some spaces upstairs outfitted to look like rooms.

When it expanded, the store attracted tourists by carrying skiing and snowboarding items, which makes perfect sense since it’s on a mountain.

The Store

Beech Mountain, at its core, is a tourist destination. I mean, Google says the current population is a mere 658, which is less than half of the people that live in my small HOA community.

Most people are in the area for Beech Mountain Resort, a local ski resort. So, you would expect that Fred’s General Mercantile would sell items geared towards travelers. However, I feel like most of the items (well, maybe not most, but many) of the items are geared towards residents.

For example, there is a huge section of hardware, like nails and metal fasteners. I don’t ski enough to know if those are items you may need on your ski vacation, but I’m pretty sure they’re not.

There’s also a lot of food for sale. And yeah, many vacationers need food for their Airbnb‘s or vacation rentals, but there’s a Food Lion in Banner Elk, the next town over, where visitors will probably go instead.

But, that’s down a windy mountain road. I drove the path from Fred’s to Food Lion and honestly, if all I needed was some bottled water, I would drive down that road — especially in winter. I’m driving to Fred’s and paying whatever he’s charging.

If I was running the store, I would fill that section with more souvenir type dry goods, like locally made snack foods, then canned soup. More discretionary spending than essentials.

But maybe there’s a reason why Fred’s has been in business since 1979 and I have not even been in existence in this world for that long.

What I think the store does really well, though, is the souvenir and gifts sections.

There’s a faux kitchen that’s filled with really cute kitchen items, like spatulas, towels, and other kitchen knickknacks. These are things that you might not expect to buy on vacation, but when they’re staged in a really cute kitchen, it helps you imagine the stuff in your own kitchen — and that’s how it ends up in your cart.

There’s another room that’s set to look like a home library or a study with shelves filled with books.

Now, again, vacationers aren’t necessarily looking in general stores for books. If they want something to read, they’ll usually download it onto their Kindle or look for an actual bookstore.

But, when you see this room at Fred’s filled with books, you can imagine sitting in the ski lodge with a glass of wine and one of those stories and it’s more likely that you’ll look at the titles and leave with one.

As with many general stores, Fred’s General Mercantile also has a large selection of Christmas items.

Fred’s has this staged really well too.

There’s a room with a very cozy fireplace that has a large artificial Christmas tree adorned with a ton of Christmas ornaments.

Not all of them are Beech Mountain or skiing themed. Usually, people pick up Christmas ornaments at souvenirs of places that they visited throughout the year, but if you see a cute ornament that sits really well on a tree, even if it isn’t location specific, it’s really hard to turn it down.

This is sort of why I feel like this store is more for locals than visitors. It seems like the store is trying to attract either people who live in the area or who visit the area annually and know it’s there. It’s not like Mast General Store, which is within driving distance of Fred’s, which caters more towards visitors and vacationers, who want to cruise the aisles and bring home a souvenir.

There’s a really nice grassy area in the back too, which is the home of many of Fred’s events: Crafts on the Green, Oktoberfest, or Fred’s annual Low Country Boil.

Fred’s Backside Deli

If you’re hungry when you’re in Beech Mountain, there aren’t that many options for meals, so Fred’s Backside Deli fills such a need for the community.

You walk downstairs, through Fred’s general store, to get to a full service kitchen serving items like cheeseburgers and soup, plus beer and wine.

There are a few tables inside, but, if the weather is nice, definitely sit outside.

There are metal tables with umbrellas on the back patio that run alongside a manmade pond (I want to say koi pond, but the only thing we noticed swimming in it were fallen leaves). There’s a really nice tree line back there as well and it’s so calm and peaceful.

It’s a great space to catch up with friends and enjoy the outdoors.

Fred’s General Mercantile: Frequently Asked Questions

Things To Do Near Fred’s General Mercantile:

Fred’s General Mercantile is a short drive from the Wilderness Run Alpine Coaster in Banner Elk, NC. That’s a self-propelled, single rider roller coaster that goes through the Sugar Mountain area.

You can pay for either a single ride or a package of three. My cousin and I did one ride because we figured if you’ve done it once, you’ve done it. But, it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had and I highly recommend you go — and go three times.

More General Stores In North Carolina:

If you’re heading to Fred’s General Mercantile because you love country stores, we reviewed a couple others you might like.

There’s Dunrovin Country Store in Vass, NC, which is in a building that’s over a century old. It was home to an exotic animal sanctuary until 2024.

And, much closer to Fred’s is Mast General Store. The original location in Valle Crucis has been operating since 1883.