Member Profiles

Almo’s Books in Carterton is not quite one year old, opening last December. It is set up with “a homely New York loft” ambiance – industrial look shelves, modern couch, informality – and a stock selection that is strong in non-fiction and books for children.

One of a kind booksellers are often the gems in our industry and Otatara Bookshop is one of those with a very special character. It has had a variety of “homes” around the Eastern Institute of Technology, and a very prominent one for the past 14 years, situated in a building off the roundabout as you enter the campus.

When Rodger Grant and sons Simon and James (pictured on the homepage) picked up Paper Plus Merivale’s award for national book sales at the group’s awards in August, three people seemed like a pretty hefty management team for one store.

Time Out began 23 years ago in Auckland’s Mount Eden shopping strip with a conscious attempt to be different. One of the first boutique bookstores, it also sold music and kept daringly late hours. And the best thing is, little has changed!

“UBS Otago - my favourite bookshop as a student,” mused Booksellers web editor Emma McCleary when this store profile was planned.

“They used to run a permanent sale room upstairs but I don't know if they still do? That was a student's dream!”

Chris and Warren Baskett have owned Books a Plenty in Tauranga’s central shopping area for eleven years, so they’ve learned to surf the peaks and troughs of trading over that time.

There has been a bookshop at 106 Palmerston Road in Westport for over 100 years. Then it was Parkhouse Stationery, today the store is Take Note Westport, owned for 18 months by Lisa Hankey and Trish Casey.

The book store building could probably tell a story as engrossing as that of Jenny Pattrick’s fictional Denniston Rose...

David Moir was a sales rep at Wiljefs Stationery in Christchurch when he asked Philip King if he could work in one of his stores on Saturday mornings for free.

“Why would you want to do that?” asked Philip. “Because I’m going to open my own PaperPlus store in Nelson” replied David.

Te Kuiti is heartland Waikato/King Country. It is one of those former main trunk line towns in the area where the main street is one-sided; shops line up on the eastern side and opposite is the old railway station – definitely a place of Kiwi character.