Borders Sylvia Park –the mall store with a unique ambiance

One of the appealing features of Borders in south Auckland mega mall Sylvia Park is that the store has a lot of natural daylight. Jade Windle, the store manager, explains that is because the store has its own courtyard frontage and with a walkway down one side, there are plenty of windows to the side as well as the front of the upper floor. Add to that an enthusiastic manager and staff and you have a store that’s positively humming with energy.

Jade Windle (pictured left) worked in retail while doing her three degrees in international communications and organisation management, achieving sales manager status with Kmart. The thought that she should use her degree appropriately saw her do time as an office-bound events manager. But her first Christmas not working in the buzz of retail saw her change her mind and join Borders in Queen Street, rising to become store manager.

Four years there and she has moved to the Sylvia Park store to give her a taste of a suburban rather than city store.

Five weeks after taking over at Sylvia Park, Windle is still dealing with the challenge of different retail demographic. “I’m trying to discover the local focus, what makes someone around here say: I’m just going to pop down to Borders.”

Some of the answers she thinks she knows. “Borders Sylvia Park has a fabulous children’s department and we have had exceptional author events previously with Robert Muchamore and Jacqueline Wilson . Our storytime sessions are very popular here and we also do toddler time activities. I want to keep the area very family oriented as it is a great draw card. We perhaps should make more room for kids to play.” Borders are constantly looking to add stock for children’s and young adult books.

Other Sylvia Park selections of fantasy and science fiction are also high in demand and require frequent stock revision.

Windle is proud of the fact the store has a prominent entry display of the “top thirty” fiction titles sold at Sylvia Park the previous week. Eye catching, and often a short cut to a good new book choice, this list includes children’s as well at adult titles. Another customer-appreciated feature is Borders’ regular ‘3 for the price of 2’ title promotion.

Sylvia Park recently had a relay of the floor area. “It is not something we do frequently, but there is an occasional need for it with categories changing or enlarging. This time we wanted to put a greater focus on New Zealand books, so enlarged the section where we bring local books from every category into one display selection.” This doesn’t affect original category allocation – you’ll still find a Kiwi cookbook in cooking as well as in the New Zealand area.

Borders stores have an events focus, and that’s another feature at Sylvia Park, with author events like Angela Lassig signing copies of New Zealand Fashion Design tied in with the mall’s Fashion Week and international authors that include Sir Roger Moore. A book club meets monthly in the coffee bar, and for NZ Music Month the coffee bar franchise owner has organized live music gigs in store with Windle’s active support.

But if you are looking for what makes Jade Windle such a successful manager, go no further than her service ethic. She couldn’t do this interview until after she’d helped out by running the information desk and acted as duty manager over the store’s busy lunch time trade. “I don’t ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself,” Windle says, which in this case means she’s tackled every task ever undertaken in a book store. Doing time on the floor keeps her in touch, she says. The long trading hours, 73 each week in Sylvia Park’s case, are rostered, with everyone sharing the late night load.

But the satisfactions in a mega store are just the same as those for the smallest owner-operated book store: putting the right book in the hands of the customer.

Windle has the same challenges as any bookseller: the customer who wants the book with the blue cover they saw over there last year. “Every customer is different and they all want something from you,” she says happily. “I love my job, I get to work with great books, movies and music every day!”

Book movers for Sylvia Park line up closely with Nielsen’s bestsellers lists, with the newest Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci and Lee Child titles plus the Stieg Larsson trilogy leaders in fiction. Al Brown’s Go Fish, Mao’s Last Dancer and Every Bastard Says No in non-fiction along with Allyson Gofton’s Slow “going crazy” according to Windle. For children, Dr Seuss titles endure and of course Twilight and two other vampire series, House of Night and Vampire Academy “it is all about the paranormal” are tops for teens.

So when Windle closes Borders Sylvia Park at night, it is with “A sense of satisfaction for all we’ve achieved during the day.”