Belmont Bookshop will officially open next month at 7 North Main St. in downtown Belmont, N.C. The Gaston Gazette reported that when owners Brian Frederick and Kristina Bulovic "venture to a new place, they check out the local bookstore.... The couple, who moved from San Diego to Belmont five years ago, will no longer have to travel for that experience."
"Anytime that we travel or go anywhere new or anywhere that we've been before, we always make it a point to go find a local bookstore and just walk around and see what they're doing and dream about the kinds of events that they have and how much fun it would be to go to those things, even if they're 10 hours away by car or something," Bulovic said.
Frederick added: "It's a bit of a passion project between Kristina and I. Kristina is definitely the bookworm and the avid reader, and while I enjoy reading, my passion is really in urban planning, place-making and community development, so we kind of put those skills together and passions together. Kristina is a professional event planner, and I'm a project manager for an urban design firm."
The owners, who are currently in the process of renovating their location, "want the bookstore to be a comfortable, cozy space where people can browse through books and vinyl records, play board games and have a drink with friends," the Gazette noted.
"The environment we want to foster is one of community gathering and let's talk to each other and let's learn about each other and let's, you know, have open discourse and things like that for the community as a whole," Bulovic said.
They plan to offer a selection of beverages, including beer, wine and coffee, partnering with other Belmont businesses to sell their drinks, Frederick said, adding: "Belmont doesn't need another coffee shop. Instead of competing in that arena, let's celebrate what already exists and let's make it better together. That's kind of the approach that we like to take."
He also noted that a significant part of the shop's book selection "will be on what the community wants to read, what the community is asking for. It will be new books, at least for the foreseeable future. And then we plan to introduce kind of a buyback program for used books later on down the line. That's been a popular request." While the bookstore's hours are currently limited, they are accepting orders for books and the couple will hand deliver books to people living in Gaston County.
Frederick and Bulovic said that they are grateful for the support they've received, not just from the community, but from booksellers across the country who spoke with them when they visited shops, offered guidance, and even allowed them to shadow sellers. "We've had a lot of support from not only the community but from other booksellers in and around the community. We felt a lot of collaboration and a lot of love, so we want to give that back," Frederick said.