|
What's New at Arty Bees Books.
This is the spot to check out every week, as we bring you the latest on the fabulous, weird, interesting, intriguing, and wonderful books, big or small, mostly square-ish - although not always - that have come into the Arty Bees shops over the past seven days or so.
But first we have three public announcements...
It is almost time for our Annual Christmas Buying Holiday.
We will not be purchasing stock from
Tuesday 9th DECEMBER
and will not start purchasing stock again until
Monday 12th JANUARY
but then only at our Arty Bees branch on Manners Street.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause - as usual we are still taking small exchanges and credits to shop cards.
~ ~ ~ ~
Now,
many of you will have noticed that it says that only Manners Street will be buying from the 12th of January, and not our Courtenay Place branch, and there is a very cunning reason for this.
Courtenay Place will not be buying anymore books.
Ever.
It sounds drastic doesn't it, but the truth is that Courtenay Place is very, very full.
I haven't been able to fit in a bookshelf in over two years and books all over the floor may be cozy to a point (and don't get me wrong, we like that within reason) but sooner or later it stops being cozy and just ends up maddeningly, exasperatingly, claustrophobically FULL.
Oh, and our lease ran out. (And the rent went up (and up again) and did we mention that the building leaks and we hate getting soggy books... Ack stop me now, I could go on and on...)
So the Courtenay Place shop will be closed at the end of March 2009 and with those two prime motivators in mind we managed to secure (and this is the really cunning bit) the space directly upstairs from our Manners Street shop.
And with quite a lot of wrangling engineers, tradesmen and lawyers, and the inevitable getting of Consents, we will cut a big hole in the ceiling, pop in some stairs and Bob's your Uncle. (Or Bob's the Boss in our case!)
Which will leave us with one super duper really big bookshop.
We like to think of it, not as losing a branch, but as gaining another 150 square metres to pack books into (or to be more precise, gaining another half a kilometre of linear shelf space).
Suffice to say we are all very excited and a little exhausted and we haven’t even started moving the books!
Which is why Jessica at Courtenay Place won't start buying again, as anything we buy, we then have to move.
Imagine all those books in one place! Bee Heaven!
~ ~ ~ ~
However, in a feat of unparalleled bad timing the Wellington City Council has just launched it's
Restoring Wellington’s Golden Mile plan.
If you have ever brought in books to us, you will be very aware of the need for good public parking within a very close proximity to the shop. Books are very heavy and our choice of store location has always been heavily influenced by the need to make it as easy as possible for customers to get books in to us.
The proposed changes to the central city bus routes in Manners Street, which were made public a week after we finalised our lease agreements, mean that our easy access will be compromised.
Currently the parking outside the shop is great (11 car parks plus 2 disabled parks and a loading zone) and although these can often be full during the peak lunchtime period, they have a good turnover rate in the morning and afternoon and it is generally not too difficult to get a park.
Under the new street plan all parking on our side of the street will disappear and we have only tentative assurances from the Council planners that there will be a “few” parks available on the other side of the road.
There will be new parking in lower Cuba Street (between Manners and Wakefield streets) and on Dixon Street on the other side of the building, but we believe this is too far away to park when carrying heavy boxes of books.
Additionally, we have very grave concerns about the safety of our customers using any parking spaces directly across the road that may still exist, as this would require crossing two extremely busy bus lanes and negotiating the planned bus stop directly outside our store. Under these conditions we believe this will be a hazardous stretch of road to cross at all, let alone with boxes, and we are aware that many of our customers have small children in tow or mobility problems.
We are currently putting together a submission regarding our concerns and would value any support you are able to give.
This is as simple as filling out a submission of your own.
Filling out a submission is a very simple procedure.
Simply fill out your personal details and in the first comments box clearly write “I oppose this plan.”
You don't have to answer the questions they have provided, but it is very important that you are unequivocal about your opposition.
Any statement of support for any part of the plan, even if it is unrelated to Manners Street i.e. putting crossing signals on Courtenay Place, may mean that the Council could disregard your submission and list you as being in support of the plan.
It only takes about 1 minute.
All submissions have to be in by the 5th of December so we don't have that much time.
About the Council Plan - http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/publicinput/golden-mile-2008-11.html
Online Submission Form - http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/publicinput/golden-mile-2008-11.php
Any help would be appreciated.
~ ~ ~ ~
|
