Whitcoulls Riccarton Mall – first anniversary of a facelift

Whitcoulls Riccarton store manager Nicky Page is an early bird, happy to do the interview with The Read at 8.00 am. It is her usual start time, to get ahead on the busy schedule of the store day.

Page and her team – eight full time and 12 part timers – face an active day, with customer service always the priority.

The 600 sq m Riccarton Mall store was the first Whitcoulls store to be refurbished as part of the new Whitcoulls store style and layout project, and opened on April 20 last year.

“The feedback was immediately positive,” says Nicky Page. “The flow of the shop was easier for customers to follow and the profile of key stock was more obvious. Clean, open, bright and fresh were the compliments we kept hearing.”

For store staff however, there were challenges. “We had to rethink merchandising, the best ways to make use of different fixturing, in fact we had to learn how to use the new shop.” That is an ongoing process as they are always evaluating the right product placement, the right category adjacencies “In fact we are still fine tuning even as we celebrate our first anniversary this week!”

Page particularly likes the nesting tables as a display at the wide entrance to the store:”They are really special and make a focus of whatever we display on them. And we have a very cool big table especially for our store to hold back to school promotions. It holds a lot of stock and still looks sharp.”

The more open layout at the front of the store, besides being more inviting to shoppers, is also a useful space for in-store author events – they have recently hosted Kelvin Cruickshank and previously Paullina Simons and Mils Muliaina. Whitcoulls Riccarton also ran a Disney Story Time promotion in the area.

Nicky Page first started her bookselling career at London Books in Eastgate, at the time when the chain had just been bought by Whitcoulls. Over the 11 and a half years since, Page has held a variety of managerial roles in company stores in the Christchurch area and has been manager at Riccarton Mall for over four years. Her assistant manager is Wendy Rolston.

Nicky Page loves stationery, general merchandise and books, but her real passion is for service. “If customers are in store, that’s what you are doing,” her team is trained. She is careful to schedule plenty of staff for customer assistance at point of sale stations. Yet the other daily tasks of stock management and, merchandising are also rostered with time table precision. “The key is making sure there are highly organized operational procedures for everything, and that everything is done the same way.” Staff creativity is allowed in setting up displays!
And the best seller books currently? “Lee Child and Jodi Picoult’s new titles – not really a surprise there!” says Page. “They are both great authors.”

As the guinea pigs for the new Whitcoulls store style and layout, Riccarton store people received high praise from REDgroup CEO Peter Kalan.

“Nicky and her team were absolute legends trading through the refurbishment. After settling down post-fitout, it’s off to a flying start this year, and while it looks great, our customers really go there because of Nicky and her team.”