A bookstore in Boston’s Nubian Square is the only Black-owned bookstore in the city and it’s known for embracing literature and the community for almost 20 years.
At Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury, it’s about more than the literary works lining the shelves but the community they’ve served since 2008.
Dedicated to Black and Brown authors
“I’ve always been a reader, you know, so the chance to have a bookstore, for one, was big,” said co-owner Leonard Egerton. “And then to have a bookstore in the community that I grew up in was huge. To be able to provide children and adults with books with people who look like them, it’s big.”
For Egerton and his wife Clarissa Cropper Egerton, it’s all about making sure their customers connect with the pages they read.
“People love our selection of books because they can see themselves on the covers of the books and inside the stories of the books,” said Cropper Egerton.
With a special spotlight on Black and Brown authors, Frugal is not just about selling books but about celebrating culture. The neighborhood fixture has become a hotspot in Roxbury. It also gained national attention on The Drew Barrymore Show after a fire in the building damaged part of the store.
“We had a huge increase in our online sales,” said Cropper Egerton.
Award-winning bookstore
In 2024, the city of Boston awarded Frugal Bookstore as a legacy business for their contribution to the community. This past February, they were named as one of the top 13 best Black-owned bookstores in the country by travel publication Afar.
“And they just keep coming because they know that it’s needed,” said Egerton.
Frugal Bookstore is filling the need for a place where everyone feels at home as they live up to their motto “Changing minds one book at a time.”
“It’s joyous in a word to see a child come in and say, ‘Oh, I’ve read that book,’ ‘Oh, she looks like me’ or ‘He looks like me,'” said Egerton.
“I want to thank the community and all of our supporters and customers who over the years has been, I don’t know, like almost 18 years and just thank you for your support and we really appreciate it,” said Cropper Egerton.
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