Northwest Trading Post — Local services in Jefferson

So disappointing. My husband and I have been visiting this little store for the past 20 years. I absolutely loved it. He liked it too. Which says a lot.

We drove round trip 60 miles out of the way to visit this little store. We walked to the bathrooms first. They were locked. Okay. No big deal. We arrived about 20 minutes till 4. One nice lady carrying in the rocking chairs said they were closing a little early today at 4 but come on in. As soon as we stepped in the door I'm sure my face fell. Where was the little store I loved so much? It was less than 1/2 filled from the last time we were there. The local hand-made jewelry was gone. Southern Gates jewelry was gone. Local hand-made dishes and pitchers were gone. We walked over to the other side of the store. There used to be 3 or so isles of items to look at. All gone.

I asked another lady if someone else had taken over the store, as most of the things were gone. She said the lady that owned it retired. And they didn't care for the items she sold. I don't know if "they" is the parkway or new owners. She told if I wanted household items I could buy those on Amazon.

They used to have unique skillets, dishes, dish towels, utensils, Willow Tree figures, odd and ends. Just tons of little things to browse. Now all they have is the Blue Ridge Mountain t-shirts, sweat shirts, hoodies, hats, Kavu bags, stuffed bears. The same tourist junk you can buy at 999 other stores in Blowing Rock and Boone.

Needless to say, after 20 years, today was our last visit. It is a sad day.

I guess some people may like stopping in but I'm sure it won't be the people who knew what the store used to be like. I'm sure there will not be repeat visitors that drive 60 miles just to visit.

Oh, and remember if they don't have what your looking for they will be happy to...

The five stars are for what this place used to be. I grew up not too far from the Trading Post and my family frequently visited it when I was growing up. It was nearly always busy and it was packed with local crafts, jewelry, t-shirts, caps, and other clothing, books on the parkway and NC mountains, and great chilled apple cider made locally. A local artist who painted scenes of the NC and Tennessee mountains sold his paintings on weekends on the lawn next to the trading post, and I bought several of them over the years.

Sadly, the trading post starting declining about a decade ago as it went through a series of concession owners, none of whom seemed to care as much about the store as the previous owners. In 2023 the trading post closed completely as the owners lost their contract, and the building is now empty. Hopefully someone will sign a contract with the National Park Service and the trading post will reopen and be restored to what it was - for decades it was a popular place along the parkway to stop, do some shopping for local arts and crafts, and get some rest. The five stars are for what it used to be, and may be...

Another good stop for the restroom and snacks. They didn't have a large selection of food, but their sandwiches were reasonably priced. We had the chicken salad, and just a heads up... Those were the sweetest grapes I've ever eaten... So the sandwich itself was quite sweet. Also, I don't know if there was anything in the sandwich that wasn't listed on the menu or if the knife that was used led to cross-contamination, but I did end up with a mild allergic reaction after eating it, even though I'm not allergic to any of the listed ingredients. So if you're highly allergic to any of the ingredients in the other menu items, I recommend you avoid buying anything off the menu at all. Unfortunately, that means you will be...