THE GOOD LIFE
ST YL E
Michelle Castelloe
Moxie Mercantile’s founder expands with a sister store, Betty, and adds kids’ apparel and accessories to her retail bag BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY OLLY YUNG
AS A CHILD, Michelle Castelloe would pretend to ring things up on her grandparents’ antique cash register at her imaginary store. She pictured herself as a shopkeeper, and her grandfather often used the word “moxie” to describe her. “He was born in Maine, and there’s a soda there called Moxie,” Castelloe explains. “It’s awful, but he drank it all the time. He used to use that word to describe me—somebody who’s got some guts, who’s brave, who’s willing to take a risk. I always knew I’d use the word ‘moxie’ in my brand.” It stayed with her through a winding career, from a seemingly comfortable corporate position to the fulfillment of her dream to own her own boutique. In 2015, Castelloe opened Moxie Mercantile in an old bungalow in Commonwealth. The boutique, which began with three employees, sold women’s apparel and home accessories, plus a mix of vintage finds and jewelry by local artisans. Three years later, she opened a second store in Davidson. In May 2021, Castelloe opened her third and largest location in a 2,700-squarefoot space in downtown Matthews. Five months after that, she opened her fourth store, a boutique called Betty,
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in the former City Supply Co. space on Thomas Avenue in Commonwealth. “It came along faster than I was expecting,” Castelloe says. “It feels kind of like having Irish twins with the Matthews location.” Betty by Moxie Mercantile focuses on children’s clothing, adult apparel, toys, gifts, and eco-friendly brands like Sanctuary Clothing, Ophelia and Indigo, Kind Roots, and Zestt Organics. The store’s name is a tribute to 87-year-old Betty Ziegler Mims, who owned Bride’s House of Originals, which occupied Moxie’s Commonwealth location before she sold the building to Castelloe.
CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // DECEMBER 2021
The title of shopkeeper didn’t come easily, though. Castelloe studied sociology and criminology at the University of New Hampshire, but, instead of going to law school, became a flight attendant for United Airlines. After she and her husband, Clifton, settled in Charlotte, she spent more than 20 years in the corporate world and held a number of positions at the clothing retailer Anthropologie, including visual manager and brand director. She also had four daughters, who now range in age from 8 to 17. “It became kind of a joke,” she says. “Every time I had a baby, I got a promotion.”
