His next business venture, was the purchase of the Wilkesboro Hotel building, where he opened a larger store and with the help of his new bride operated the Smithey Hotel and began expanding his business to dry goods. He borrowed $3,800 to purchase the hotel and according to legend, this is the only money Nike Smithey ever borrowed.

Frequently going north, Mr. Smithey would buy out stocks and bring back with him or ship this merchandise and sell to the people at bargain prices. The slogan remained on the Wilkesboro store building, Smithey's, The Great Bargain Givers until the store was restored in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1982.

The first Smithey's store was in the Smithey Hotel building. He later expanded and bought a store in North Wilkesboro in 1928, and then started building chain sotres in this northwest section of the state, in Tennessee and Virginia, which totaled seventeen at the time of his death on October 3, 1953.

When he started to expand his business, he would rent a building in a town, and if in two or three years he made some money, he would buy a lot and build a store building. He was his own contractor, sketching the size of the building on paper with a pencil. He would supervise the construction of the buildings and would do a lot of the work himself.