While the possible closure of Auckland-based Hard To Find Books had plunged its future into “total chaos”, owner Warwick Jordan said he expected its Dunedin store would continue “business as usual”.
“If anything, it could boost it in the longer run if we end up coming down there.”
The Auckland bookshop’s lease is scheduled to lapse at the end of February next year.
Housed in a former convent, the building is owned by the Catholic Church, which decided not to renew the lease as it intended to sell it.
The bookshop had occupied the building since 2018 but has had a presence in Auckland for more than 40 years.
Mr Jordan said he had wanted the bookshop located somewhere it could stay forever as it was “just too much of a mission to move”.
“I thought that was the case with where we are. Turns out I was wrong.”
The contents of the Auckland store could fill an estimated 20 shipping containers — roughly half a million books, he said.
It would cost $100,000 alone to move the books and, because he lived above the bookshop, Mr Jordan would also need to look for a new home.
“I just don’t want to have to go through this again. I’m getting old, but I have no retirement plan whatsoever.”
He did not believe there was another suitable building in Auckland to house the bookshop.
Renting a larger premises was also out of the question.
Another option he was looking at was relocating all of its stock down to Dunedin, but they were already “pushing it” for space.
“We’ve got 30,000 square feet in Dunedin pretty much packed already.
“We’d be bringing down about half a million books, but we’ve got over half a million in Dunedin already.”
While anywhere with enough space was open to consideration, it was “highly likely” the Dunedin store would become the sole retail outlet, Mr Jordan said.
Whether they moved everything to Dunedin was a separate issue. Their Auckland stock would at the least end up being sold from out of storage units, which could still get shipped down to Dunedin anyway.
He also floated the idea of storing the books in a woolshed at a rural property on the outskirts of Dunedin, or in Milton.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz
