Company Initiatives
The Mast Store Mission
Mast General Store builds partnerships with non-profit organizations that promote conservation, preservation, basic human needs, education, and the arts within our communities. As we support and work alongside our local partners, the Mast Store honors our commitment to improve the quality of life for residents and enhance the vitality and values of a shared Main Street.
Mast Store President Lisa Cooper often says, “We sell good stuff to do good stuff.” We believe that caring for our neighbors, maintaining the historic features of our downtowns, and protecting the natural landscapes in our backyards brings out the best in ourselves and in the places we call home.
Mast Store’s Ongoing Partnership Initiatives:
Land Trust Day • Be a Sweetheart • Food for Kids • Friends Day • Second Cut • Fuel Canister Recycling • Share the WarmthLand Trust Day
The first Saturday of June, Mast Store celebrates Land Trust Day with each store donating 20% of the day’s sales to a local land trust partner. Also known as conservancies, land trusts are non-profit organizations that work with landowners and other associations to safeguard our land heritage, create shared open spaces, protect wetlands, waterways, and wildlife habitats, and provide recreational opportunities everyone can enjoy.
Be a Sweetheart
For more than two decades on the weekend of or before Valentine’s Day, Mast Store donates $1 for every pound of bulk candy sold to a partnering food security agency. With their large network of resources, our local partners can use a single dollar to provide neighbors experiencing food insecurity with three or more meals.
Food for Kids
The Mast Store and Merrell team up each October on Food for Kids. Over a two-week campaign, Merrell donates $15 to child-focused programs at local food security agencies for each pair of its footwear purchased at any Mast Store location or Mast Store Online. This collaborative effort has taken place for more than 15 years.
Friends Day
Friends Day recognizes local organizations in each Mast Store hometown that activate volunteers around vital assets to improve our quality of life, boost local business, and preserve the sites and landscapes that make our communities unique. On the second Saturday of September, each Mast Store donates 10% of its Friends Day sales to a partnering agency.
Second Cut
In 2023, Mast Store joined the Smartwool Second Cut Project to keep socks, an especially difficult product to recycle, out of landfills and reduce the 17 million tons of textile waste each year in the United States. Guests can deposit clean, used socks into a Smartwool Second Cut recycling bin at any Mast Store location. The used socks are then transported to Material Return, a North Carolina-based company, that repurposes them and other post-consumer textiles into new products like beanies, dog beds, fiber fillers, and insulation. To date, the Mast Store has collected more than 325 pounds of socks through the Smartwool Second Cut Project.
Fuel Canister Recycling
If you’ve ever wondered what to do with your camp stove’s empty isobutane fuel canister, the answer is, “Bring it to the Mast Store to be recycled!” First, puncture the canister at home with a church key or hammer and nail, then take it to the Outdoor Department of your local Mast Store. We collect and recycle empty canisters to prevent them from ending up in a landfill.
Share the Warmth
Share the Warmth is a two-decade collaboration between the Mast Store and Columbia Sportswear that provides winter coats to school-age children in the mountains of Western North Carolina. During November, Share the Warmth collection bins are set up in each Mast Store location so that guests can donate their clean, gently-used winter coats, jackets, sleeping bags, or blankets, which are distributed to neighbors in need by local partners in their own communities.