I drive up Glenwood several times per week, and I’ve never seen a car in the parking lot of the Alpine Ski Center. Despite that, the store is always open, year-round, even in the 95-degree heat of the summer. How can this be? What is going on here?

I admit, I’ve never been inside the store, but I recently visited their website. They appear to have locations in NC, SC, and TN. Perhaps they make enough money through online orders from their website to keep the physical locations afloat. I could understand if they were an online-only business, but I simply don’t know how a physical brick and mortar store can make enough money to survive.

Perhaps more is going on here. What that is, I don’t know. I have always joked that the ski center is a front for something else. That probably isn’t true, but I find it very hard to believe that a ski center in Raleigh is a profitable business.