Share
Since the mid-1950s, Frazier's Grocery, a small country store on Lawyers Road near the Mecklenburg-Union line, has offered customers most everything they need – to eat, to garden, to make repairs and even to go wet a hook.
The 1,200-square-foot gray building doesn't have a name outside, just an old, round Pure gas sign and street number 14328.
One of a dying breed of country stores in fast-growing southern Mecklenburg and western Union, Frazier's is going strong and crammed inside with inventory.
“I buy snacks, beer, soda, whatever I need,” says Carson Roark, who stopped by one morning last week to buy Gatorade and milk. He says he comes in at least once a day. “These are good people, and I'd rather give them my money than somebody else.”
Customers can also buy live worms and crickets, fishing poles, hooks and fishing line. They can find most any kind of nail, screw or bolt in the hardware annex, alongside masonry hammers, saw blades, drill bits, radiator hoses, battery cables, spark plugs and more. On the store's far side: almanacs, garden hoses, fertilizer, heirloom seeds and stepping stones.
“I tell people that if they have the time to look for it, they'll probably find it somewhere in here,” said co-owner Brenda Dills.
The garden center outside is being readied for fall plants, including spinach, cabbage, bok choy, eight varieties of lettuce, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts and much more. They also offer a line of unusual herbs.
Dills and her mother, Virginia Frazier, started all the plants in their greenhouse, just down the road.
Bill and Irene Matheson, who live near Wal-Mart on Albemarle Road, came to the store Monday in search of Blue Lake Bush beans to plant. They had already visited four stores without success.
“I've already dug rows and fertilized, so I'm ready to plant. This seems to be the only place anywhere around that has what we need,” Irene Matheson said.
The couple left with a half-pound of beans in a brown paper bag.
The store was built in the mid 1950s by Doll Rushing, who also had a 100-acre working farm on the site. Much of his family still lives nearby.
It's currently named after Brenda Dills' parents and is run by Dills and her husband, Kay.
Despite rapid development in nearby Mint Hill and Stallings, the Dills family has kept the Mom-and-Pop operation in business for the past 28 years.
Their business has weathered many changes. I-485 now crosses near the store, and an interchange was constructed nearby.
Stevens Mill shopping center – with Harris Teeter, a Gate gas station, McDonald's and CVS – was built just a mile down the road.
Two years ago, the state finally started cleanup on some old gas tanks that had been buried at the store since the 1960s. Dills decided to have the operating gas tanks removed at that time as well, which ended her gas sales.
But despite all these changes, the store has not only survived, it's thrived, thanks to her can-do attitude.
“You just adjust accordingly,” Dills said. “When Harris Teeter opened, our business was down a few months, but then it came back. It always comes back. You just have to give it time. When we took our gas out, business slowed down a little bit but then corrected itself. We just sell different things.”
When the North Carolina Education Lottery was approved, Dills started selling tickets. Last Sept. 24, a customer won $375,152 in the Carolina Cash 5 game on a lottery ticket sold at the store. Since then, Frazier's has been in the top 8 percent in the region in that game, Dills says.
Brice Ardrey travels out Lawyers Road each Monday morning and always stops in to buy some tickets.
“I just like the country store atmosphere. I won $500 at another store one time, but I figure if I just keep playing, it's only a matter of time till I win here.”
Two years ago, Dills and her son, Jeffrey, took classes so they could sell N.C. hunting and fishing licenses. They sell boat licenses as well. Dills says the income from the lottery and the licenses more than compensates for lack of gas sales.
“The only thing we don't have now is the constant ‘beep beep beep' from the gas pumps,” said Dills.
Dills says she looks forward to coming to work; every day is different and there's always something interesting going on.
“We have fun here. That's the reason we stay open. You can be miserable if you want to be, or you can adjust and enjoy every day. That's what we do here at Frazier's,” Dills said.
Frazier's Grocery is located at 14328 Lawyer's Road and is open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. It's closed on Sundays.
Contact Melinda at mynews@charlotteobserver.com.
