Two secondhand bookshops have opened next to each other in Christchurch, but a bookstore war isn’t brewing in the Garden City.
Steadfast Books has opened up next door to the Book Barn on Ferry Road, in Woolston.
“We get the best-looking people in and the smartest,” Book Barn owner Paul Edwards joked to Seven Sharp.
“We could make a sitcom,” Steadfast Books’ Heath Ling added. “Depending on how much coffee I’ve had will depend on which character from Black Books I possibly could be.”
While the competing stores - one filled with carefully curated curios and the other exuding delightful chaotic energy - are side-by-side, it isn’t a war of literary attrition.
“I used to buy a lot of books off [Edwards] for my own enjoyment and he kept saying to me I should open somewhere and then the opportunity arose to open a quality secondhand bookstore,” Ling said.
“Young Heath has always had an interest in books so we encouraged him,” Edwards added. “When we came along to sign Heath’s lease, the landlord suggested that ‘why don’t we have two?’ and I thought, ‘What a brilliant idea.’”
Ling says it’s about “actually changing that business ethic where you have to trample your competition and work against them”.
“We’re working together to create a book destination so customers win.”
The pair even have a gentlemen’s agreement, sending customers each other’s way and trading books.
“We’re always sending people next door and likewise - and it works well,” Ling said.
“It’s about changing how business is operated. It’s about cooperation and yes, we need to make money and we need to run a business with our own brand but to be honest, the world’s big enough for everyone.”
Edwards added: “What I’d like is to see eight more shops in Christchurch because the demand is still there and in the earthquake, we lost 10.”
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