Local support strong for Boulder Book Store

BOULDER ? The Boulder Book Store adds Esprit’s Entrepreneur of Distinction Award to the plethora of recognition it has already acquired during its 27-year history.

“Hopefully, we’re doing something right,´ said David Bolduc, owner of the Boulder Book Store. “This is not just about me but about all the people working here. It’s more for them. They’re the ones who interact with customers.”

Susan Bond, director of business services for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, organizer of Esprit Entrepreneur 2000, said the Boulder Book Store was chosen for the award, because Bolduc not only has maintained a successful business; he’s been involved in the Boulder community and beyond.

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“Boulder Book Store really does stand out because David has done so many amazing things with his business,” Bond said. “He has started it from ground zero, and he’s maintained that business over a very long period of time, which truly makes him a very successful entrepreneur.

“The other competition that’s out there is very high tech and moving high tech, and David has been able to be successful by being an independent business. He’s very involved with downtown, he’s very involved with a lot of community-minded things. David’s a prime example of somebody who has sustained.”

He is very active in the Buddhist community. When Buddhist teachers and officials come to the Boulder area, he helps them find accommodations. He also helps raise funds for the Buddhist community.

Bolduc, who was born in Michigan, attended UCLA but left to be part of the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1969, he opened a small, specialized co-op bookstore in Denver called Together Books. In 1972, he left Together Books to open Backcountry Books on the Peal Street Mall, which he renamed Boulder Book Store a year later.

In 1991, the store expanded and moved to its current location at 1107 Pearl St. Today, it is the largest retail store on the Pearl Street Mall. The 20,000-square-foot store has more than 100,000 titles ready to ship. It has received the “Best Bookstore in Boulder” award every year since 1987 and is host to more than 1,000 author appearances a year.

In addition to running the Boulder Book Store, Bolduc is president of the Independent Bookstores Consortium, a national coalition of locally owned, independent bookstores. Bolduc joined the consortium five years ago and has been the organization’s president for six months. Lori Tucker Sullivan, director of the consortium said, “It’s rare of find a business owner who has such an outward view of the business,” she said. “David has that. He has a good sense of how the outside world is important to his business, in terms of being an independent business and being a member of the community and making sure that the community benefits from his business. He realizes that the strengthening of all independent businesses will help his, too. That it’s important to act together.”

Bolduc has served as treasurer for the Downtown Business Association and on the board of Central Area General Improvement District, which administers parking for downtown Boulder. He also founded the original Farmer’s Market and was a founding member of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance, which lobbies against allowing chain stores in to Boulder. He’s also a member of the Board of Trustees of Naropa University.

“I think he’s kind of an enigma,´ said Phil Shull, commissioner of

the Downtown Business Improvement District, chairman of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce and the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority, and owner the Bookend Café next to the Boulder Book Store. “He’s a very involved man.”

Shull worked with Bolduc on Boulder Book Store construction projects. “He cares about using environmental materials,” Shull said. “He was a green builder, green developer and green owner before it was embraced and before it was affordable.”

Shull said Bolduc is “very resourceful. ? He takes in an enormous amount of information and processes it.”

Bolduc has always stuck to laudable values such as staying

independent and community minded, Shull said. “He always takes the high

road. He always does something right.”

Bolduc will miss the awards ceremony because of a business trip with the Independent Bookstores Consortium.