Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

 

Highway Robbery: A Front Row Seat to King Street for 35 Years

Story by Sam Calhoun

Everybody knows Bill.

Nestled in a shotgun-style boutique in the heart of King Street, Bill Parish has watched the High Country world go by for 35 (almost 36) years. If you live in or have visited the High Country, chances are that Parish has welcomed you with a smile and hospitable words.

“I try to say hi to everyone,” he added.

Along with his wife Patricia, Bill has owned the self-described “little college kid boutique” called Highway Robbery since 1971, selling “a little bit of everything,” such as clothing, jewelry, antiques and all kinds of accessories, including hats, bags, gloves—you name it.

He is the new generation of a mountain man—with a trademark furry mustache, engaging personality, freethinking opinions, a love for humanity and an obsession with antiques.

“I’ve almost got more antiques displayed than I’ve got inventoried!” said Parish, 59, whose store resembles an old country store stocked with old-time advertisements and retro clothes.

“I’m addicted to antique advertising and country store stuff. It’s just terrible. But it’s a bad addiction, so don’t get into it. It’s just terrible. You yell at your kids about a $20 pair of tennis shoes and then you go out and spend $500 on an antique sign. I always try to say to the kids, ‘look, those shoes aren’t going to go up in value and that sign may someday be worth $5,000.’ That’s how dad does it!”

Oh, and he’s a father too—and also a grandfather.

After 32 years of marriage, Bill and Patricia are still happily together and have two children: Jeremy, 27, and Vanessa, 25. Both of the kids were born in the High Country and both attended ASU—Vanessa majored in criminology and Jeremy majored in hospitality management. Jeremy is a long-time cook at Woodlands; Vanessa got married and now is the proud mother of two boys: Alex, 18 months, and Aiden, 5 months.

But it all started at Highway Robbery.

Bill came to Boone from Sarasota, Fla., in 1969 and worked for Creative Crafts in the building that now houses Wahoo Adventures. He fell in love with one of his coworkers over a Christmas dinner. That coworker was Patricia.

“It’s one of those terrible things they tell you never to do; you should never date the help,” he added laughing.

In 1971, Bill decided to buy the building that since 1923 had been occupied by McGuire’s Beauty Salon, and open Highway Robbery. Patricia, in addition to helping out in the store, runs Stoney Creek Realty on Highway 105.

With her help, Bill has maintained a successful business in a town where, he admits, it is hard to make a living, catering to a clientele ranging from 80-year-old women to 14-year-old kids. And how?

“What I’ve always tried to do with my business is give people a reasonable product at a reasonable price and show them that you appreciate their business—and you’ll have business. And we’ve also tried to always go with the premise that we wouldn’t sell anything in the store that we wouldn’t buy ourselves. You’ve got to show people that you appreciate their business. I try to say hi to everybody that comes in the store,” said Bill.

He prides himself on buying cheap so he can sell cheap.

“For the college kids, the cheaper the better,” he said.

And Bill has no problem appealing to the college kids as well as the tourists.

“The kids are definitely our cake—without a doubt—and that’s who we’re geared toward at Highway Robbery. And needless to say, I’m not saying I don’t care anything about tourism, but we’re here for the college kids. And tourism is just how thick the icing is on that cake,” he said.

“When we moved here in 1971, we were split between businesses geared toward locals and businesses geared toward college kids,” he continued. “I think it’s been good for Patsy and I because in the last 5 or 6 years, the main streets have come to be won over by college businesses. I see good things happening to downtown Boone. Downtown Boone has definitely evolved—things get better and better.”

But as much as Bill thinks Boone has evolved, his store has almost stayed the same.

“The same stuff we sold in 1971, we still sell today,” said Bill, who sits behind his antique counter surrounded by hippie-style dresses and shirts, silver jewelry with precious stones, handmade bags and hats, tapestries and antiques. And he’s not scared to be categorized as a hippie-style enclave.

“I think we are kind of a hippie kind of school in the respect that we’re more geared toward outdoor kinds of things and it only makes sense that if you have kids that like to kayak or rock climb and stuff, they’re going to be a little more sensitive to Mother Earth, and I think we get a little more of that kind than, let’s say, Chapel Hill does. At least that’s my prognosis.”

To serve those college kids and all the tourists and locals in between, Bill regularly travels to trade shows outside of the region to purchase products that are unique. Instead of staying close by and purchasing in Charlotte or Atlanta, he travels to New York to keep his inventory fresh.

“The way little stores make it anymore—needless to say we can’t compete with Wal-Mart—we have to rely on itty-bitty companies,” he explained. “That’s what keeps the little guys alive now—constantly going with new little companies that are just getting started. That’s the key to a small business anymore—that and overhead. Low overhead.”

“I’m not a millionaire, but how we made it through the years is that I’m here 6 days per week, so if you have your $30 day, you haven’t lost too much, and when you have your $2,000 day, you’ve made a bunch. It’s funny, because you talk to most people in Boone and they say we’re the weirdest little place to do business in the world. It’s like, if gas is cheap, if it doesn’t rain, if we’ve got snow, if the kids got money, because we’re not a big populous, so it’s not like being in Charlotte where two million people can come in your store, you know. We’re so dependant on what’s happening around us.”

And speaking about what’s happening around downtown Boone, Bill has an opinion about one missing link in the local economy.

“It’s too bad we don’t have liquor by the drink,” he said. “And I’m not even a big drinker. It would certainly help the area. And I think it’s so crazy when people take religious stances on the topic. If the whole state was dry, that’d be one thing, but when you can go to Blowing Rock and Banner Elk, they’re all getting the revenue and we’ve still got the killers on the highway. What do we gain by it? You might as well let us have liquor by the drink in Boone and let us get the revenue.”

But liquor or not, Highway Robbery is here to stay in Boone.

“We have no plans on closing Highway Robbery,” said Bill, who, with his wife, owns a beach house in St. Augustine, Fla., as well as their treasure—a 22-acre farm in Bethel. “I plan on living and dying at that farm.”

On April 4, 2007, Bill will turn 60 years old and will consider a semi-retirement.

“I’m going to go ahead and take early retirement because it’s just kind of crazy not to,” he said. “I mean, how long is Social Security going to last? So I better get what I can while I can. And then Patsy and I would like to spend our winters in Florida. But this is all hope.”

The tentative plan is to find a successor for the Highway Robbery throne so Bill and Patricia can handle the business in the summer and take off in the winter. The lucky winner could be their daughter, Vanessa; it could be a current employee; or it could be “Mad Dog Alex,” their eldest (18 month old) grandson.

Whatever happens, Bill’s jolly rapport will be a fixture in the downtown Boone landscape for many years to come. And chances are, when you walk past Highway Robbery in the near future, you’ll be greeted with a trademark Bill smile—jumping out from underneath his trademark mustache—and engaged in a lighthearted conversation about the state of the High Country.

“That’s the neat thing about living in Boone,” he reflected. “I still think that Boone’s a tough place to make a living, but it’s just such a great place to bring up children and stuff. Do you want to spend your whole life worried about money than what the quality of life is like? If I weren’t making a dime, I’d stay in Boone. If I was breaking even, I’d stay, just because of the way people are and the way our lifestyle is. I’m the kind of guy, I go to Charlotte and I’m never going back again. If I have to wait two times through a stoplight, I’ve had it and I’m so depressed. I’m always so glad I live in Boone.”

We’re glad too, Bill.     

Highway Robbery is located at 607 West King Street and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call Highway Robbery at 828-264-7604