Kawakawa getting pop-up Warehouse but some not happy

Hammer Hardware owner Malcolm Francis is furious over what he says are The Warehouse's plans to plunder Kawakawa with a pop-up shop this summer. Photo / Peter de Graaf

It might be the place where everyone gets a bargain - but some Kawakawa shop owners reckon The Warehouse hasn't bargained on the damage its pop-up shop could do to local businesses.

Retail giant The Warehouse is planning to open a temporary store this summer opposite the Hundertwasser toilets in what used to be the town bookshop. The chain has stores in Waipapa and Kaikohe but none in the southern Bay of Islands.

The plan has some business owners, such as Hammer Hardware's Malcolm Francis, up in arms.

"If they wanted to come here and stay year round, it'd be a definite draw card but to stay for three months, it's just plundering the place," Mr Francis said.

Other shops were at a disadvantage because they had to pay rent all year, said Mr Francis, who chairs the Kawakawa Business Association.

In the Bay of Islands' seasonal economy shop owners also relied on the summer months to carry them through the winter. Now summer would come and they would find themselves being squeezed by The Warehouse instead.

Mr Francis was concerned the result could be empty shops from businesses closing down. At the moment Kawakawa had only three or four empty shops, the best occupancy the town had seen in years.

Kelly Stratford, Kawakawa's representative on the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board, said as a former retailer she was "shocked and upset" when she first heard about The Warehouse's plans.

However, there were plenty of residents who were keen to see The Warehouse move in, even just for summer, and were unhappy about efforts to stop it.

Four people from Kawakawa and Moerewa would be employed in the shop and the manager was a long-term Kawakawa resident.

Mrs Stratford, who used to own the Trainspotter Cafe and bookshop, said The Warehouse had been willing to listen to local concerns and requests about what to stock and not to stock.

Some goods - togs, bras and undies, for example - could not be bought in Kawakawa so could be sold without harming businesses.

With the Hundertwasser Park, a new health centre and other large projects underway or about to start, she said Kawakawa had to face the possibility of big retail chains moving in. The issue is due to be discussed at the Kawakawa Business Association's December 6 meeting.

The Warehouse did not respond to requests for comment by edition time yesterday.

The Retailers Association of New Zealand says pop-up stores can rejuvenate struggling shopping areas or, if successful, become permanent fixtures. However, they could irritate retailers if they paid little rent, putting other businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

The Warehouse's plans to open a store in Kerikeri in the early 2000s ran into strong opposition so the company set up about 7 kilometres away in industrial Waipapa instead. Since then a new shopping centre has sprung up, prompting some shoppers to bypass central Kerikeri.