Beloved convenience store in downtown Huntersville closes its doors

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — A community staple in downtown Huntersville is closing its doors for good. The town bought Cashion’s Quik Stop at the corner of Gilead and Old Statesville roads and plans to tear it down.

The one-stop shop has been in the community for decades — for 63 years, to be exact. For nearly 30 of those years, Kathy Tolley stood behind the counter, greeting and serving the shop’s long-time customers.

On Friday, Tolley said her final greetings.

“I’m going to miss the people that come in here multiple times a day,” she said. “In fact, I could cry.”

Last month, Huntersville town commissioners unanimously voted to buy the gas station for $2.3 million. Mayor Christy Clark said the board has reached an agreement with the owner, and she said the purchase is part of the massive changes coming to the intersection.

“As part of building the town hall, we have to have a turn lane there,” Clark said. “We need the extra land that the Cashion’s had in order to build that turn lane.”

While Tolley understands all things must come to an end, she said the purchase is bittersweet.

“I’m very pleased with it, but I’m very sad, too, because an iconic place is going to be gone in the blink of an eye,” Tolley said.

“Where are people going to come get their drinks and snacks?”

Tolley took Channel 9′s Almiya White down memory lane.

“At one time, this was the only grocery store in Huntersville,” she said. “They actually cut meat back there. And so then it just became a convenience store.”

Mayor Clark said she knows what the shop means to people in the community and will keep that top of mind as they consider what will be built along the soon-to-be-widened road.

“We hope to have something wonderful take its place that will, you know, make our downtown even a more special place,” she said.

While Tolley clocked out for the last time, she said her heart would remain clocked in at Cashion’s Quik Stop.

“Hope I’ve done justice to the company. I really do, because they’ve been good to me,” she said.

Mayor Clark said the town is in the due diligence phase. If all goes well with that, they plan to close in September.

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