Hard hat and high heels: Christchurch optimistic

Rachael Hayward has new additions to her everyday wardrobe. Since Boxing Day her smart business outfits and high heels have added accessories: a hard hat, a hi-visibility vest and gumboots!

They are necessary adjuncts to her job as Regional Sales Manager for Whitcoulls in Christchurch and the lower half of the South Island. “I never go anywhere in Christchurch without them in my car,” she says with a laugh.

There’s a definite air of ‘face up to it, we’ve got to deal with it so let’s get on with it’ in the attitude of Christchurch booksellers.

Rachel has certainly had plenty to deal with, as Whitcoulls Cashel Street and Colombo Street stores are now rubble, and Eastgate and Bishopdale are in malls that will be unable to re-open. The bright spot in the immediate future is that Whitcoulls at The Palms in Shirley is expected to reopen in late August.

Rachael is also faced with the necessity to close Borders at Riccarton Mall, which will be at the end of August. However the Whitcoulls in the same mall will remain open and fortunately it is a store which was upgraded only last year. As only one store is required in the mall, the question of which premises would stay and which would be vacated was negotiated with mall management.

IMAGE: Whitcoulls Riccarton

While it is hard to see an upside in the current situation, Rachael has found that business for the Whitcoulls stores that are open is going supremely well.

Riccarton Road the new CBD?
Following a visit to Christchurch last week, when Booksellers NZ CEO Lincoln Gould got around as many booksellers as he was able, he records his observations:

The overwhelming impression one gets as a visitor to Christchurch is a pervading sense of positiveness.

There is a destruction and trauma everywhere, greater in the CBD and the east and less in the west. But even the heavy traffic on the roads seems to suggest that the city wants to get on, rebuild and move forward. That certainly is the view of the bookshops owners and staff I visited last week.

Sheila Sinclair, owner of the Children’s Bookshop, saw not only her Victoria Street shop demolished, but had the added despair of seeing bulldozers driving back and forth over the site to crush the stock and fittings to ensure they were not pilfered from the ruins.

But when I turned up at Shop 5 Blenheim Square, 227 Blenheim Road - their new site in Riccarton - Sheila, Mary Sangster and staff were all smiles because their new shelving had turned up from Auckland and they were packing stock as well as meeting the demands of a good flow of customers coming through the door.

David Cameron and Jo Hewitson at Scorpio’s opened on 15 April at their new address, 113 Riccarton Road (some are calling Riccarton the new CBD).

They got a lot of stock out of their old shop now cordoned off in the Red Zone, but not before they had begun to restock. Much of the old stock is damaged but they are slowly getting things sorted although they had no telephones or internet for some time.
 

Conversations between bookshop owners are very much related to quake recovery mode. “Who is your assessor. Try contacting this person to help with flooring” – practical exchanges all designed to help each other out.  

Philip King at University Book Shop Canterbury had spare shelving, now being used at one of the newly located shops.

Philip has been faced with a huge loss in business because of the loss of students and relocation of staff from the University. His shop at the University was not badly damaged but the loss of business has been severe. His shop at Christchurch Hospital is still closed.

Generally speaking, insurance companies seem to be coming in for praise for their responsiveness.

Mary Sangster said they have been paid insurance along each step of the way as they have restocked, or bought more equipment.

Others have been faced with more difficult insurance issues, especially where the shop has not suffered major damage but there has been a disastrous loss of business due to circumstances adjacent to their premises that are keeping customers away.

Some Paper Plus and Whitcoulls stores remain closed but there is a silver lining.Simon Grant of PaperPlus, Merivale told of how business is booming for those stores that remain open.

“There are fewer stores open which is one reason, but also there is little entertainment in Christchurch and that seems to be causing more people to buy books,” Simon told me.

Upturn in trade for many bookshops
In fact some shop owners told me business was up between 80 - 100 percent on last year.

Neville Templeton at Piccadilly Bookshop in the Avonhead Mall is in the lucky position of having suffered no damage and business has been strong.

Fleur and John Fanselow at The Reading Bug remain in their store on Colombo Street, just on the edge of the devastated CBD. Their house has suffered considerable damage and they are an example of many in Christchurch who are watching carefully for the effects of all the quakes on their children.

IMAGE: The Reading Bug shortly after re-opening.

However, they are upbeat about their business. Parents are buying books not only to keep their children entertained but also to help compensate for the loss of teaching at kindergartens and preschools which have been closed.

Publishers assisting
Publishers are much praised for the support they are generally giving the bookshops in Christchurch. However, some difficulties occur with publishers where distribution or financial services are handled by overseas offices.

There are reports of a lack of understanding by offices overseas of what Christchurch bookshops are being faced with, as orders are cancelled for no reason and shops being put “on stop” where they have had no means to pay immediately.

Then there are just mountains of back office work which some shops are neglecting because of the other front of shop challenges they are facing. Getting returns back on time is one issue being faced. There are deadlines for returns being missed just because of impact of workload in getting businesses back up and running.

There has also been a suggestion that publishers could be more proactive with advertising. Supplying readymade templates to which shops could just add their logos was one suggestion.

Another bookshop manager was concerned that advertising subsidies from publishers were not as easy to obtain as they used to be. “We have to apply each time now and unfortunately we have so much to do, it is difficult to keep up.”

But it is certainly not all doom and gloom in Christchurch. As I was leaving Scorpio, a bunch of flowers was being carried up stairs to David and Jo. A very similar bunch turned up at The Children’s Bookshop. Each had a card signed by “Anonymous” and expressed thanks and support for the shop having been “got up and running so soon.”

PaperPlus resilient
Mike Drummond, South Island Business Adviser for PaperPlus, confirms that all their stores are up and operating.

“While some of our people have had their challenges everyone is coping well.”

As a corporate, PaperPlus has been proactive in Christchurch relief – customers at PaperPlus and Take Note stores donated over $100,000 to the Red Cross appeal to which the group added a further $50,000.

IMAGE: Lyle Hastings, Group Marketing Manager for Paper Plus and Carol Ball from Red Cross.

At the same time, they collected 36,000 books for children affected by the earthquake, which were delivered to 34 schools in Christchurch.

IMAGE: Lyle Hastings, Group Marketing Manager for Paper Plus, What Now? presenters Charlie Panapa and Johnson (at back) with student James Thompson.

Travelling around Christchurch, Mike notes that “All the coffee shops and businesses west of the centre of town are open and appear to be doing really well.”

But while everyone is getting on with doing business, coping with the unexpected is “the new normal.”

Mike was at Kaiapoi when the windows of the shop next door to Take Note gave way in a tremor. “Within half an hour it was cleaned up and the shops were open again.”

He likens the situation to the war ravaged zones one sees on television news: “When the uproar starts all the roller doors come down, and when it is finished they all go up again like nothing has happened – it has been a bit like that in Christchurch at times!”

Christchurch booksellers coming to Conference

We will have 15 booksellers - independents, Paper Plus and Whitcoulls - coming to Conference from Christchurch thanks to the generosity of all those who donated to the Christchurch Booksellers Relief Fund. 

The fund paid for all travel and accommodation expenses and these people won’t be charged a registration fee.

The Publishers Association of New Zealand is helping Christchurch publishers attend  the Conference and their registration fees will also be forgone.

Report from Christchurch by Lincoln Gould with additional reporting by Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read.