We were lucky to catch up with Kristina Bulovic and Brian Frederick recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kristina & Brian, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?
What comes to mind isn’t a single interaction or situation. Instead, it’s our core personal and business philosophy that shapes how we approach every relationship. As a small business, we’re absolutely focused on building sustainable revenue, but we’ve discovered that the goodwill earned by looking for small and affordable ways to show appreciation to our community actually strengthens that sustainability.
I think we’ve all heard the saying of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” and would agree with it on the surface. However, our approach is the opposite. We believe that, “if we can, then we should.” meaning, what’s the real cost versus the impact we can make?
Take our return policy. When someone brings back a book outside our normal timeframe, we ask ourselves, “Will accepting this late return brighten this person’s day more than the minor hassle the book costs us?”. Usually, the answer is yes, and there’s an opportunity to make someone smile.
It goes beyond policy, though. For example, we had a book club meeting at our local baseball stadium where a young boy had to leave early (it was past his nap time), but he desperately wanted a player’s autograph. We were staying for the entire game anyway, so we got the autograph. A few days later, we drove the signed ball to his house and the surprise and joy on that kid’s face reminded us exactly why we do this.
Another time, we received this really cool cardboard space shuttle cutout for an author event. We put it in our kids area, and one parent mentioned their child was obsessed with it. After a few days of letting several families enjoy it, we dropped it off on our way home for that kid to have. Just like that, an ordinary Tuesday turned into something really memorable for that family.
Neither of these examples has to do with our core business of bookselling. However, they are examples of what we think it means to lead a community oriented business by example. We don’t think of people as “customers”, we think of them as friends of our business and the people who work here. We’re creating that “third place” away from home and work where people feel genuinely welcome, recognized, and cared for. When people feel that connection, they become part of our community, and they just happen to buy books from us, which we believe is what makes our business truly sustainable.
Kristina & Brian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are partners in marriage and in business. Kristina (who runs the daily operations and keeps shop full-time) has a background in retail management and hospitality as the former Director of Events for a prestigious country club here in Charlotte. Brian (who still works a full-time job as an Urban Planner and Landscape Architect in Charlotte) has a deep passion for placemaking and community engagement. Together we put those skills to work on a project that became the start of Belmont Bookshop, a community oriented, family-owned bookshop.
We came up with the idea one day as we were driving to one of our favorite bookshops in Asheville, NC after just finishing breakfast in Belmont. On the way, we saw a for-rent sign on one of the buildings in Downtown Belmont and Brian asked Kristina, “Why are we driving 2 plus hours away to go to a bookshop? Wouldn’t it be great if we had one here, in Belmont?”. I think we spent the entire car ride and trip to Battery Park Book Exchange talking about all the things we thought would make a great bookshop for the residents of Belmont. Brian made a phone call, one thing led to another, and soon we were sitting in front of the city pitching them on our business plan to bring Belmont Bookshop to Main Street.
There were a few times where the Bookshop almost didn’t happen, either because the location didn’t work out, there were other people also looking to open bookstores in the area, or the risk of starting a new business for two people with steady, well paying jobs was just a hurdle that seemed impossible to clear. However, we had some volunteer city committee members on our side who encouraged us to stay the course. So we did. We popped up over the holidays in parking lots until we found a location that we could announce to the public. From there, we upfit the entire brick and mortar that is our shop now, ourselves with the help of friends and volunteers in the community that couldn’t wait for us to open. This saved us a ton of money on startup costs, and ended up being a great way to engage the community in their new, local bookshop.
Since then, it’s been a whirlwind. We were named “Charlotte’s Best of the Best for Bookstores in 2025” by Charlotte Magazine. We’ve built great partnerships with great local organizations and people working to better the lives of everyone in Gaston County, and been fortunate enough that we can participate by donating back to our community. We’ve grown our team from the two of us to eight employees, bringing jobs to our downtown. We have been fortunate enough to have great authors both reach out and accept our invitations to be a part of improving our community through their conversations and engagement. Plus, this summer, we will be launching the very first literary festival to ever happen in Gaston County in partnership with our Downtown Business Development Association.
We have so much to be proud of when it comes to exceeding initial expectations, but we think first and foremost that we need to be grateful for so much welcoming and support from the people we serve in our community.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our reputation has been built on the “foundational pillars” that work together to create something genuinely different from your expected retail experience.
Authentic Community Integration
We didn’t just open a bookshop in Belmont, we became part of Belmont’s fabric before we even had a permanent location. When we were hosting pop-up shops during the holidays, when community volunteers were painting walls in our space, when city committee members were advocating for us, we were already demonstrating that this wasn’t going to be a business that happened to the community, but one that happened with the community. People could see we were genuinely invested in making Belmont better. This fundamental approach has only grown deeper roots… To this day, our shelves are are filled somewhere between 20% and 30% of books we had never heard of, but the community recommended we should carry because they enjoyed the story. Our book clubs and poetry readings are led by interested community members who share similar values as us: that the written and spoken word should bring people together.
Consistent Follow-Through on Our “If We Can, We Should’ Philosophy”
Our reputation isn’t from a singular grand gesture, it’s been built on so many small moments where you either show up or you don’t. Every time we delivered an autograph to a kid’s house or dropped off a cardboard space shuttle to a fascinated child, we were proving that our values weren’t just marketing speak. Word travels fast (especially in a small community like ours), and when a business consistently goes beyond what’s expected, especially when it’s done quietly without fanfare, we think people are still caught off guard by that. It’s not a secret of our business, it’s just common courtesy and our way of saying “thank you” to the people who support our mission.
Creating Experiences, Not Just Transactions
I think the reason it has taken bookstores in general so long to make the comeback we are seeing now, must have something to do with all of the questions we heard (but apparently didn’t listen to) when we started: “Why are you opening a bookstore, it’s much cheaper for people to just get those online?” “Do people still read?” “BOOKS?!”
Maybe (definitely) we are both hard headed. We stuck with our gut feeling, that people aren’t solely looking to save money at every possible opportunity, They are looking for connection, discovery, and that sense of belonging, which is something that’s unfortunately become increasingly rare. By focusing on events that spark conversations with strangers, partnerships with local organizations and small businesses that we believe strengthen our whole community, and creating a cozy space where you can meet a new friend, we’ve given people something they can’t get anywhere online. And yes, people ARE still reading…
The Power of Partnership and Collaboration
We think of Gaston County as an ecosystem where everyone’s success contributes to the whole. Our partnerships with local organizations and other small businesses, our upcoming literary festival with the Downtown Business Development Association, our continued support of local creators and creatives, have all positioned us as collaborators and community builders. We think what has really accelerated our reputation was that people could see measurable impact from day one. We weren’t just talking about community engagement, we were hiring locally, supporting other businesses, and bringing authors and events that had never happened in Gaston County before to town, for free or at a very low cost.
When Charlotte Magazine named us “Best of the Best”, it validated what our community already knew. That we have the best friends and supporters any business could ask for. Belmont Bookshop’s reputation is not just our own, it is our supporters. It’s something our community built around us because they could see and feel the difference we were making in their daily lives.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Libby, our shop dog. What started as us wanting her to be around while we were working on this project, (mostly because of the long days and late nights away from home) turned into people who only visit our shop to stop in and say “Hi” to Libby and pet her. It’s kind of amazing, but aside from the treehouse reading nook, she is without a doubt our best bookseller and recruiter of new people into the bookshop. Plus, she’s really cute!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.belmontbookshop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belmont.bookshop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belmont.bookshop
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1fGrr_0QgAa7pm80719EDg/videos
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/belmont-bookshop-belmont
Image Credits
Kristina Bulovic