CLT Find
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
My name is Christy Pope. I own CLT Find with my business partner and friend, Tony South. We are going into our 10th year of business. We created CLT Find to be a one‑stop shop for local gifting. We wanted to represent like‑minded makers and artists in our local community who create beautiful items handmade in small batches.
What brought both Tony and me to Charlotte were our first jobs out of college. Neither of us are native to Charlotte—we are native to North Carolina. Growing up in rural areas of North Carolina, you referenced Raleigh or Charlotte as being the “close city.” I still feel at home in North Carolina and in Charlotte, even though that’s not where I went to high school. We’ve both been here over 20 years.
In trying to make Charlotte a smaller community—since it is geographically large and has a lot of people—we were seeking connections in smaller places: pop‑up events, farmers markets. Tony and I are both former makers. Now we just run our store, but we have roots in making and creating things and trying to reach the community. I think that is how we made Charlotte feel a little bit smaller, a little bit more like home.
We had the opportunity to create an item for this special showcase during Charlotte SHOUT. Since we’re not a restaurant, we wanted to get creative. We carry a lot of local food products, and we had a discussion about why we’re so drawn to the products we carry and what they represent to us. We decided to come up with a curated gift basket. Our customers can buy it as is, or we can change any aspect of it to fit your needs. We’re calling it the Heirloom Pantry Gift Basket.
That name is in homage to the way both Tony and I grew up. We grew up in households where you didn’t buy jam or jelly from the grocery store—you used whatever Grandma and Mom had canned during the appropriate season. And there was a lot we didn’t have canned biscuits—it was homemade biscuits and snacks. Christmas presents were handmade, hand‑baked, and created. We really grew up with that feel of non‑mass‑produced gifting.
The Heirloom Pantry Gift Basket incorporates several food items we sell in our shop, including local honey. We have cheese biscuits or cookies—something very special to me. I grew up making those with my grandmother. I always loved a savory snack over a sweet snack, so a cheese cookie was very appealing to me. They’re delicious. They’re called Piedmont Pennies.
We also have local pretzels that are a family recipe for the maker. It’s called Queen City Crunch, and Katie, who owns it, is using an heirloom recipe to make her pretzels. So it fits perfectly with the name Heirloom Pantry Gift Basket. We included handmade local pottery because that’s something we both love. I love to pick up a pottery piece—nothing has to be too matchy‑matchy in my house. We included handmade block‑print napkins—who doesn’t love a nice sustainable cloth reusable napkin? We just have items that represent some of the talent in the Charlotte and North Carolina community. And it’s a really pretty basket.
The number one comment we get about CLT Find—we hear this daily—is, “Wow, there is so much to see in here.” That’s because we carry items from over 100 local makers. We never know what we’re going to get because they bring us the creations of their hands and their minds. We have brand‑new artwork, brand‑new pottery, leather goods, soaps, candles, jewelry—we have a lot of jewelry. It’s ever‑changing.
For our new customers or repeat customers, they come in and say there’s so much to see, and it’s really appealing. They enjoy picking things up, looking at them, smelling them, touching them, feeling them, and getting to know the product. Many of our makers provide information about themselves on their tags, so you can spend time reading about their process or the materials they use. It’s an experience.
I connect with almost everything we carry. We get to know the makers—they invite us to their birthday parties or celebrations. It’s really like a family. We call it the CLT Find family.
I have to give a little shout‑out to my brother. My brother Thomas is an illustrator. What started CLT Find—what planted the seed—was when he and I decided to do a project together about 13 years ago. I wrote a children’s book and he illustrated it. It is still very special to me that the book is still relevant and that we sell it on our shelves. Every day when I come to work, I’m reminded that my family is at the root of this. There’s meaning behind our business. And it’s the same for all of our other businesses—it’s a family affair. There’s meaning behind it. It’s something they created that they were passionate about. Every time I see ABC Charlotte and 123 Charlotte, the books we wrote, it reminds me of why we have CLT Find.
As far as the CLT Find legacy, I can say we are living it a little bit right now. Toni’s daughter is a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill. She was pretty young when we started our business, and she has run our social media, makes videos for us, helps us stay relevant with TikTok, and pushes us outside the box with technology. She’s so great at it, and it’s a skill set I think she picked up by being a “shop kid”—hanging out with us and doing pop‑up events.
My children are a little younger—my daughter is 10, my son is going to be 14 this week. They are also shop kids, and surprisingly, they don’t complain. They enjoy it. They’re proud of it. They come, they want to check customers out, get bags ready, answer questions, say, “Oh, that’s my favorite flavor of popcorn,” or “I have that.” They’re not embarrassed when we give gifts to their friends or family from the shop.
Having that experience with them is a good enough legacy for us. I don’t know what the future holds, but we are proud to have built a business where our kids can come to work with us, and it doesn’t feel like work—it feels like an extension of our daily life and our home.
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