Ally Kirkpatrick’s strategy? She runs her bookstore like a restaurant.
I was struck by something Ally Kirkpatrick said early in our conversation: She doesn't run a bookstore like a retailer. She runs it like a restaurant. Front of house. Menu training. No stretchy pants on the floor. And it's working — in a market where everyone told her physical bookstores were dead.
Ally opened Old Town Books in 2017 with $7,000 in savings, zero retail experience and a newborn at home. To some, it looked like a recipe for disaster. But today, she's running eight monthly book clubs, hosting weddings and proposals in-store and launching a side ice cream business.
Ally’s secret? She stopped trying to compete with Amazon on price and started competing on something Amazon can't offer: experience, expertise and community.
If you've ever wondered how to build customer loyalty when you can't win on price, or how to turn your store into a third place where people actually want to be, this episode of Beyond the Register is for you.
Why does treating retail like hospitality make a difference?
Most small retailers think of themselves as product sellers. Ally thinks of herself as a host. That shift changes everything from how she trains staff to how she designs the space to how she measures success.
The concept of the "third place" — a space that's not home, not work, but somewhere you belong — has been disappearing from American life. Coffee shops, bookstores and local gathering spots have been squeezed out by big-box retailers and online shopping. Ally saw an opportunity: People were hungry for that experience. They just needed someone to create it.
Her approach isn't theoretical. It's grounded in 15 years as a barista and a deep belief that retail is personal, not corporate. And it's working in a category — independent bookstores — that was supposed to be extinct.
How do you compete when Amazon sells books cheaper?
Ally's answer is simple: You don't. "We literally cannot compete on price with Amazon," she told me in this episode of Beyond the Register. The price is printed on the book. There's no margin to play with.
So she pivoted to what she can control: expertise and discovery. Her children's book buyer has two decades of experience, and families drive from across the country to meet with her. That kind of knowledge doesn't exist on Amazon. Neither does the serendipity of browsing — finding a book about snails next to a book about politics, something an algorithm would never surface.
Here's what clicked for me: Ally's not trying to be everything to everyone. She's here for the customer who values curation, conversation and the experience of being seen as a reader. That's a smaller audience, sure, but it's proving to be a loyal one. And loyalty, not volume, is what keeps a small business alive.
What does it take to train a team like waitstaff?
Ally calls her sales floor "front of house." Her staff can't eat smelly food. They can't wear stretchy pants. They're trained on "menu items" — seasonal gift guides and curated displays — the same way a server learns the specials on a restaurant POS system.
She even hires from the restaurant industry. Her current general manager used to be a sous chef.
"She said the one thing that's really different about retail than food is that people don't come in grumpy and hungry," Ally said. "They come in happy."
This isn't just aesthetic. It's operational. When you frame your store as a hospitality business, you start thinking about the sensory experience: the smell of books, the lighting, the way displays are arranged. You train your team to hand-sell, not just ring up transactions. You create an environment where someone might drive five hours to visit and then tell their friends about it.
How do you actually turn a bookstore into a third place?
Ally runs eight book clubs. The first one had 45 people crammed into a 500-square-foot pop-up. Now she hosts a holiday party where more than 80 people show up in formal wear.
She didn't create the demand. She gave it a home.
"People are hungry for it," Ally said. "I just happen to be lucky enough to have the space to host this kind of social interaction."
The book clubs are free. They're on Eventbrite. They're led by staff members who are passionate about the genre — queer lit, sci-fi, true crime. And they're designed to be low stakes: You don't even have to finish the book to show up. It's a structured social interaction where you already have something to talk about, which makes it easy for newcomers to plug in.
What I realized listening to Ally is that she's not selling books — she's selling belonging. And that's something you can't get delivered in two days.
A scoop and a story
What’s sweeter than community, connection and your favorite new books? All of those things, plus ice cream, of course. Ally is now launching Fabled Ice Cream, a side business she's testing in the bookstore before committing to a brick-and-mortar shop. She raised $30,000 in two days through community investment.
She's also leaning into what makes her store distinct: signed first editions, indie-exclusive editions and partnerships with local hotels and developments.
"Local retail is part of placemaking," Ally said. "It's what makes a place livable and enjoyable."
The future she's building isn't about scaling to compete with Amazon. It's about deepening relationships with the people who already value what she offers and creating new reasons for them to keep coming back.
Here's what you can take from Ally's playbook
- Treat your sales floor like front of house. Train your team on your "menu" — the products you want them to hand-sell. Create standards for how the space looks, smells and feels.
- Compete on expertise, not price. Identify what you know your customers can't get from an algorithm. Make that your differentiator.
- Create structured social interactions. Book clubs, workshops, tastings — whatever fits your business. Make it easy for people to show up and connect.
- Hire from hospitality. Ally's GM came from restaurants. Skills like managing the customer experience and staying calm under pressure translate directly to retail.
- Delegate and trust your team. Ally burned out trying to do everything herself. The magic happened when she empowered her team to make decisions and lead.
Here's what I'm taking away
Ally opened a bookstore when conventional wisdom said it was a dying industry. She did it with almost no money and zero retail experience. And she built something that's not just surviving — it's become the heart of her community.
The lesson? If you can't compete on price or scale, compete on experience. Train your team like hospitality staff. Know your customers. Create spaces where people want to be, not just shop. And don't apologize for charging what you're worth because the people who get it will show up.
Check out Ally’s full conversation on this week's episode of Beyond the Register for more.