The lucky winner who won the $344.6 million jackpot in Saturday Powerball drawing bought the winning ticket at a Hope Mills grocery store in Cumberland County.

The retailer selling the winning ticket was Carlie C’s IGA located at 3501 North Main St. in Hope Mills. The store is eligible to receive a $50,000 retailer incentive award for selling a winning jackpot ticket. A lottery official and a store representative will be at the store today at 3 p.m. to answer questions about the lucky win.

The owner of the ticket has not yet come forward. The winner has 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim the prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. The win is the largest jackpot ever won in North Carolina involving a single ticket and is the 5th time that a North Carolina ticket has claimed a Powerball jackpot.

“It’s a lucky day to be in North Carolina,” said Mark Michalko, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. “We look forward to meeting the jackpot winner, but the most important thing for the winner to do today is sign the back of the ticket and secure it in a safe place. This is a life-changing event. The lucky winner should take some time and get sound professional advice before coming in to get the big check.”

The lucky ticket owner has a choice of an estimated annuity of $344.6 million paid in 30 payments over 29 years or a lump sum payment of $223.3 million.

Besides the jackpot win, someone who bought a $3 Power Play ticket at the Charlotte Bistro at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte won $100,000 in the drawing.

Powerball and Mega Millions are two multistate jackpot games available in North Carolina. Together, they provide players the chance to enter four jackpot drawings each week. Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays and Powerball drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The jackpot for Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing is an estimated $475 million as an annuity, or $307 million cash. The Powerball jackpot will reset to $40 million or $25.9 million if taken as a lump sum.

Sales of tickets for games like Powerball help the lottery raise more than $650 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact”” tab on the lottery’s website.