Popular shop Willo returns to Stratford

Some of the things for sale in Willo.

A popular Stratford shop is back in town, with the owner having secured its future through by buying the building.

Willo, located on Broadway, is owned by Anna Bublitz, who has big plans to renovate the building early next year to make the store twice the size inside.

"It will be my dream shop. Because it's my shop it will be able to have everything the way I want it.

"I love Stratford. It's the people who have made me come back. Everybody is so nice, I just love it."

Anna, who owns a second Willo store in New Plymouth, used to have a store in Stratford but closed it down two years a go.

She was prompted to move back after a woman came in and said how much the people of Stratford missed her.

"That was why I did it. I just thought I would do it as a pop-up shop but by the end of the first day I thought 'I'm not going anywhere' because everybody has been so lovely and welcoming.

When the store is expanded next year it will include small pieces of furniture, a bigger range of clothing and plenty of stock changes to keep things interesting.

Anna takes over shop ownership in mid-December.

"I will be so happy. I have always had a dream shop in my head and this will be it."

The store stocks a range of women's clothing, homeware, giftware, Christmas decor and jewellery .

Stratford resident Nicola Walsh was in the store buying Christmas items.

She said she was rapt to see Willo back in town and likes the unique clothing and homeware the shop sells.

With a new shop selling clothing now back in town, there may be a positive change to the retail statistics supplied by Venture Taranaki in the future.

Clothing was one of the things Stratford people spent the least amount of money on during the first half of the year according to the group's last retail report. According to a a report from Venture Taranaki Trust, Stratford residents purchased about 10 per cent of their clothing from the district in the first six months of 2017.

Local people spent the most amount on food - 46 per cent - and fuel - 25 per cent.
The biggest growth was in the hardware/homeware sector where people spent 16 per cent.

There was $587.13m spent in Taranaki during half-year to June. Spending within the Taranaki region was up 5.7 per cent for the half year which was higher than the national average of 4.8 per cent.

Of that, $47.9m was spent in the Stratford District, which meant spending was up 3.7 per cent compared to the same in the previous year. The average transaction value in Stratford during that time was was $42.17.

Overall, residents did about 50 per cent of their retail shopping in the town during the first six months of the year which was down 0.9 per cent from the same time last year.