Member profile: Whitcoulls Meridian Centre, Dunedin

Despite there being two Whitcoulls stores in the Dunedin city area, Whitcoulls Meridian, in the Meridian Mall, has a different clientele, and as a result, a different personality says store manager Daryl Woods.

Meridian’s customers are gnerally young professionals and families, and as a result are bigger fiction and children’s book buyers, in contrast to the George Street store nearby, which has an older customer profile and sells more commercial stationery.

The Read learned firsthand from a customer who was impressed by the lengths Meridian staff went to help her mother in her search for a title when shopping over the holidays. “Mum wanted a particular title. They looked it up and found it for her then offered to order it in and ship it down to her. She was rapt with that, but also that they were so friendly and willing to go the extra distance to look after her.”

Daryl Woods is not surprised. “Peter Kalan, our Managing Director, even received a letter full of praise from a customer when our store swapped a book that didn’t have an exchange card - we could tell by the stickering that it was one sold by our chain. That’s unusual at Christmas. We usually get complaints about long queues for service!”

However, Christmas this year was a smooth one for Whitcoulls Meridian.

IMAGE ABOVE: Assistant Manager Nola Pearce ready to serve customers.

“The customer traffic flow was constant over the whole month of December, without the last minute panic. It seemed like less of a rush, but our figures for 2010 were level with 2009. It was good to see the return of popular authors like Binchy, Cornwell and Clancy with new titles.”

Meridian has Daryl as manager, a position he’s held for three years since moving to Whitcoulls from management positions in Restaurant Brands.

There’s also an assistant manager Nola Pearce, four full time staff and about 10 casuals.

He is proud of the knowledge of the store’s senior staff and encourages newcomers to learn and get help from them.

There are two veterans, Nola with 13 years plus, and Julie Callow who has been there four years. Many of the part-time staff have started work in their late secondary school years and continued right through university. “They build up a great degree of knowledge over time,” says Daryl.

IMAGE ABOVE: Whitcoulls Meridian Centre's Julie Callow, new staff member Stephanie Kaan, store manager Daryl Woods and assistant manager Nola Pearce.

“The challenges at Whitcoulls Meridian are the same as any company store. No day is the same: new promotions have to be merchandised and tactical offers usually require a burst of energy to have displays done on time.

“An important factor in our success is the loyalty card. It's a great system and we get free marketing with customers receiving online notice of promotions.”

And it wouldn’t be Dunedin if the locals weren’t interested in getting a bargain. “Our remainders sell heaps. We can do 250-300 paperbacks a week if the selection is right, and kids and lifestyle titles are popular.”

If Daryl Woods has one reservation it is trying to get appropriate quantities of books by local authors. “Dunedin writer Vanda Symon has got a new book out shortly, but the computer allocation treats it as just another crime title and scales accordingly. If we can just get a program that recognizes the local importance of a title and scales up accordingly I wouldn’t have a single grumble.

“I enjoy my job because in a Whitcoulls store you are never standing still.”

By Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read, Booksellers New Zealand's weekly newsletter.