Secretarial whizzes swap keyboards for bookshop counter

Good friends Alison Stokes and Barbara Davies were ‘semi retired’ when they discovered Terrace End Books and Toys in Palmerston North was for sale. Formerly a Paper Power store, run by Ron and Penny Barnes for 37 years, the store was due to close when the women seized the opportunity.

Exactly a year ago this week, they took over the store – and it has been all go ever since.

They’ve had to master magazines, one of the store’s biggest categories with over 600 standing orders from customers, stationery, greeting cards, a small range of adult books, mostly nonfiction, and children’s books. Toys, too – but these aren’t your fluffy animals. The toys the store stocks are specialist models, die cast cars and model trains, and shortly, remote control planes.

IMAGE: Barbara, left and Alison in their bookshop.

The move from their PA roles to retail has been an invigorating challenge for both owners.

“I was retired so had to step out of my comfort zone,” says Barbara.

“I have learned such a lot and have grown in confidence in lots of ways. When we started trading the previous owners guided us for one month. There was such a lot to take in and it all seemed rather daunting!”

Alison was on the same crash course;

“I have learnt heaps - how to run an efficient business, dealing with various company representatives in the ordering of new stock, which is exciting, and dealing with the public. All very satisfying and rewarding.”

The store, with the old style toys and ‘comfortably crammed’, is like stepping back in time says Alison. The building is an old corner shop of great vintage in the Terrace End area of the city which was also a Post Office for the area and a grocer’s before books and toys.

Nostalgia is all very well, but a new store a few doors down the road will shortly be finished and Terrace End Books and Toys will be moving in May or June.  The space will be slightly bigger and the interior more colourful with a turquoise feature wall and fittings in neutral shades, but Alison and Barbara aim to keep the cosy vintage feel – as befits a shop whose hit toy last Christmas was a metal spinning top!

With books, they are growing the range cautiously. Local histories, a book on Terrace End and Brendon Deere’s Spitfire: Return to Flight are popular. Cookbooks so far have not been major sellers – except crockpot and soup recipe books in winter!

For popular fiction, they point out, there is major competition in Palmerston North, with two Whitcoulls, one PaperPlus and Bruce McKenzie Books, so it is an area where making haste slowly is best.

Children’s books are popular and they are expanding the range to meet demand.

“It’s quite a blokey store,” say Alison and Barbara. So they’ve enlisted husbands Bruce Stokes - he oversees railways – and Stewart Davies, whose specialty has become collectable cars.

The women divide responsibilities, with Alison mostly in the back room concentrating on accounts and outgoing Barbara, who loves talking to people, on the shop floor.

They have the help of Diane Janes who works 9am-3pm each day, and has been with the shop ‘off and on’ for its entire 37 years; she buys cards and stationery and manages the magazines. The six day a week business is open 8.30am - 5.30pm each week day with a late night until 7pm on Thursday and Saturday opening until 12.30pm.

Along with the new store there will be a concurrent big development: Terrace Books and Toys will have its own website complete with e-commerce facilities. Bruce Stokes has been working on this with a web developer and it should be on line at much the same time as the new store opens. The women hope it will create more business from around the country, particularly in their specialist toy range.

Alison and Barbara are undaunted by the challenge of the move.

Alison: “My ambitions for the new shop are to at least double our business.

The new shop is a bit larger and we would like to increase our stock range. Because the shop we are presently occupying is very old, we are hoping that a new image and a bright clean shop will attract a lot more customers.”

Barbara: “It is going to be a huge challenge, especially the development of the website as it will be like having two shops.

Like Alison, I have ambitions of growing the business and hopefully being in a position to take on more staff at some stage.”

Both agree “Every day is different and challenging,” – but it seems that is the way they like it!