Sue Lees: The idea to own a bookshop idea had been brewing for a while. During my University years, I had worked every weekend at The Auckland Airport Bookshop and working that grave-yard shift in the transit lounge selling chocolates and Playboys to tourists gave me a lot of time to think about what a bookshop should not be.
Time Out opened its doors six months after the 1987 crash. I was 23 at the time. I’d moved to London, and came back for the Christmas break. I was only meant to be home just for a few weeks. My husband Dave was waiting for me back in London. One day I picked up the Herald and saw a photo of a character-building for lease. What young person in the 80s wouldn’t have been tempted by the New York-style loft upstairs and the exposed brick?
The shop was like a baby at the beginning. I couldn’t afford staff for the first two years, even having a loo break was problematic. The shop became my whole world and social life.
But after four years, it had become a very sustainable business after four years. The local village had embraced it and totally supported it. When I was still only 27, the heartbreaking decision was made to sell the shop and go traveling before we had kids.
Joy Draper: I moved from Wellington to Auckland to begin a freelancing life at TV3. During my lunch break at the Flower Street studios I often walked down to Mt Eden Village, where I discovered and fell in love with Time Out bookstore. On one such occasion, when I mentioned that this was the bookshop I had dreamed of since I was five years old, I learned that Sue was thinking of selling.
It happened around the time when good freelance TV work was drying up. So that was it. Pure serendipity.
Particularly in the early years, when it was still really just a one-person business, I was living my dream – surrounded by amazing books, with wonderful, erudite and entertaining customers, and being part of a village of small businesses, most of them owned and operated by an incredible bunch of women.
I lived in the apartment above the shop, with my dog and cat, so was totally immersed in Mt Eden life. Some of my favourite memories are of busy Christmases, where we had all staff on deck, and each crazy day was filled with fun and laughter, happy customers and gift-wrapping, sharing glasses of bubbles with neighbours.
Wendy Tighe-Umbers: One Sunday in 2003, I received a phone call from my friend Jill. “Your favourite bookstore is for sale,” she said. Joy was moving to Switzerland.
I’d had a recent health scare and was looking for a change from working in education for 30 years. So I met Joy on the Tuesday and I owned Time Out by the Thursday.
I’d always loved reading, but had no experience in retail at all. My school holiday jobs were milking cows and cooking in a rest home. I had no idea what I was doing. My very first sale was two CD cases that I forgot to put the discs into. But I learned the ropes, installed more shelving to make a feature of the children’s room, and doubled the income in just two years.
In the beginning, I kept thinking that this was the opportunity of a lifetime. If Sue could start an incredible business as a 24-year-old, and if Joy could maintain that community spirit, surely I could continue this legacy in my 50s. Seventeen years later, Time Out is a 12-hour-a day, seven-day-a-week operation with 12 staff.
We’re well prepared for Level 3, which will be phone and online sales, and a carefully managed click and collect window. It will bring in much-needed cashflow. My hope is that we only move forward in dropping Levels – it will be devastating to move backwards.
