9 Things North Carolinians Do That Transplants Just Can’t Figure Out

An out-of-state moving truck pulls up in Cary, and the neighbors already have a name ready for whoever steps out.

Nobody explains the joke to them.

These are the things North Carolinians do that take transplants by surprise.

1. Clearing the Bread Aisle for Snow

A winter storm watch barely needs to touch the forecast before North Carolina’s bread, milk, and egg shelves go empty.

One recent watch across central North Carolina pushed Gov. Josh Stein to declare a state of emergency before a single flake landed, and shoppers had already cleared the carts out front.

A northern transplant who spent 30 winters shoveling two feet of snow up north can’t understand emptying a store over a dusting that might not even stick.

North Carolina’s road crews handle occasional ice, not routine snowstorms.

A light coating shuts down hills that never see a plow, and the roads can’t handle more than that.

So, North Carolinians stock their pantry first and ask questions later.

2. Detouring to the ABC Store

A bottle of bourbon in North Carolina doesn’t sit anywhere near the wine and beer at the grocery store.

That’s an Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) store’s job, and it’s not optional.

North Carolina is one of the states that keeps liquor sales under direct government control, selling spirits only through local ABC stores instead of licensing that out to regular retailers.

A transplant from a state where the grocery store sells everything under one roof stands in the liquor aisle looking for a spirit that simply isn’t there.

That’s the wrong store.

North Carolinians just know which strip mall hides the ABC store, and they plan the liquor run separately from the rest of the shopping list without a second thought.

3. Restocking the Cheerwine

A burgundy-colored soda most visitors have never tasted sits in North Carolina fridges as a staple, not a novelty.

Cheerwine started in Salisbury in 1917, when founder L.D. Peeler stretched his supply during a sugar shortage by blending in wild cherry flavoring, and the Peeler family still runs the company today, the oldest family-run soda maker in the country.

Show a transplant a can, and they’ll guess cherry cola or ask if it’s a knockoff.

Neither guess lands right.

North Carolinians treat an empty case of it at the store as a genuine inconvenience, and they’ll drive to a second store rather than go without.

4. Ordering by Nickname at Bojangles

A Bojangles order rolls off a North Carolinian’s tongue like their own name.

The chain opened its first location in Charlotte in 1977, a walk-up spot with no seating, and it grew into the fried chicken and biscuit chain locals judge every newcomer by.

A transplant orders a chicken sandwich and gets a confused look back.

That’s the wrong menu.

North Carolinians know the Cajun Filet Biscuit, the seasoned fries, and the sweet tea by heart, and they’ll defend the chain against every fast-food alternative a newcomer suggests instead.

5. Picking a Side

One question decides whether a North Carolina friendship gets off the ground: Duke or Carolina?

The Duke-Carolina basketball rivalry, played between Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, stretches back to 1920, and it’s grown into one of the most heated rivalries in college sports, even though the two campuses sit about eight miles apart.

A transplant tries to stay neutral, and nobody at the table says a word.

Neutral isn’t an option.

Many North Carolinians never set foot on either campus, and they still own a hat, a mug, and a strong opinion about the other school’s coach.

6. Naming Every Race Shop

Stock car racing (NASCAR) teams cluster so thick around Charlotte that locals give race shop directions the way other people give directions to a grocery store.

Hendrick Motorsports runs its operation minutes from Charlotte Motor Speedway, and nearby Mooresville alone is home to more than 60 NASCAR teams and racing businesses, an area locals call Race City.

A transplant asks why anyone would tour an auto shop on a Saturday.

Fair question, but you're asking the wrong crowd.

North Carolinians grew up a short drive from where the cars get built, and the museum and gift shop built into Hendrick's own campus do steady business all year.

7. Defending First in Flight

North Carolina's license plates carry the words First in Flight, honoring the 1903 flight the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, while Ohio's plates counter with Birthplace of Aviation, for the state where the brothers built the plane.

A new arrival from Dayton brings up their state's claim exactly once.

After that, they let it go.

North Carolinians settle the argument fast and without malice because the plane flew where it flew, and that's the whole case.

8. Laughing at Cary's Nickname

The town of Cary carries a nickname North Carolinians never bother explaining to newcomers.

Locals started calling it the Containment Area for Relocated Yankees back in the 1970s and 1980s, when jobs at Research Triangle Park drew a wave of new residents from outside the South into the town.

A recent transplant to Cary hears the joke and isn't sure whether to laugh.

It's fine to laugh.

North Carolinians mean it with more affection than bite at this point, and many transplants who've been in Cary a decade now say the acronym themselves.

9. Planning Around Market Week

Twice a year, the Piedmont Triad rearranges itself around a furniture show most of the country has never heard of.

The High Point Market draws between 70,000 and 80,000 buyers twice a year, packing every hotel room from High Point to Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

A transplant tries to book a room in High Point that week and finds nothing available for fifty miles.

Should have checked the calendar first.