Queen Street Curio shop-the end of an era!
After 11 years of running a second hand and new market style shop it is time to close and move onto other things. The shop began its life 37 years ago as The Old Bakehouse Market and then became Queen Street Curio-we sold items on behalf of other people and sold everything from books, clothes, CDs, jewellery, bric n brac, pictures, furniture, farm produce and so on.
Caretaker farm sold all it's organic garlic, figs and chokos through the shop and even Rawleighs products have been available to buy on a regular basis.
Tucked away down a lane in between 2 cafés in Warkworth the shop has been a hidden treasure trove for visitors and locals looking for a bargain.
At one stage the shop hosted night lectures on a fortnightly basis on a Friday-the lecture topics included subjects such as earth building, astrology, te tiriti o waitangi, Bach flower remedies, NZ geological history, permaculture, women's spirituality, Iridology, Anzac stories, and so on. The attendance varied according to the lecture topic but all who came enjoyed the lecture.
Over the 11 years we have had paid staff and willing workers on organic farms(wwoofers) work at the shop-many of our ex-wwoofers have good memories of time spent at the shop talking English with customers. Customers also have good memories of the different people working at the shop and the conversations about travel, politics, philosophy and life. Dorothy, who is now 83 worked there up until 5 years ago and Tamarah was working there part-time while she studied Homeopathy for 4 years.
The biggest blow was the robbery of 2012 when we had $25,000 of jewellery stolen-every bit of jewellery in the shop was taken-the thieves smashed a hole in the back wall to gain entry into the building. The Police recovered a very small amount of stolen property but the expensive gold and silver rings and all the good jewellery collected from trips to Asia was not recovered.
In the last 18 months of the shop the back part was turned into an office for the call staff from the electrical side of the family company, Sharp Services Ltd and so opening the building was done by them early morning as the shop itself, while open 7 days, operated from 10-5 during the week and until 3pm on weekends.
Some of my memories of the shop are as follows: working there myself one day and only selling a 50cent corn of garlic because my energy was on marking student papers and not convincing customers to buy; meeting a customer who had come into the shop because of the new sign painted by Melody and despite having lived in the town of Warkworth for 20 years not knowing that there was a shop there; coming to open the shop in the morning only to discover that I had no keys so having to drive the 17km back to the farm to get some keys (after that we kept a spare set in Warkworth); having interesting philosophical and political conversations with customers; transporting wwoofers from the farm to work in the shop several days a week when we could not afford paid staff and of course on weekends.
I know lots of people enjoyed the shop-our loyal customers locally and all the visitors who came in the summer, the many wwoofers who worked there as a way of improving their english or just having a rest from the farm work and of course the people who attended the friday night lectures. I personally am glad to have finished this shop experience but also happy to know that the new business taking over is an art gallery which will appeal to those who wander down the Warkworth lane to see what is hiding there at the back of the ASB Bank.
Caretaker farm sold all it's organic garlic, figs and chokos through the shop and even Rawleighs products have been available to buy on a regular basis.
Tucked away down a lane in between 2 cafés in Warkworth the shop has been a hidden treasure trove for visitors and locals looking for a bargain.
At one stage the shop hosted night lectures on a fortnightly basis on a Friday-the lecture topics included subjects such as earth building, astrology, te tiriti o waitangi, Bach flower remedies, NZ geological history, permaculture, women's spirituality, Iridology, Anzac stories, and so on. The attendance varied according to the lecture topic but all who came enjoyed the lecture.
Over the 11 years we have had paid staff and willing workers on organic farms(wwoofers) work at the shop-many of our ex-wwoofers have good memories of time spent at the shop talking English with customers. Customers also have good memories of the different people working at the shop and the conversations about travel, politics, philosophy and life. Dorothy, who is now 83 worked there up until 5 years ago and Tamarah was working there part-time while she studied Homeopathy for 4 years.
The biggest blow was the robbery of 2012 when we had $25,000 of jewellery stolen-every bit of jewellery in the shop was taken-the thieves smashed a hole in the back wall to gain entry into the building. The Police recovered a very small amount of stolen property but the expensive gold and silver rings and all the good jewellery collected from trips to Asia was not recovered.
In the last 18 months of the shop the back part was turned into an office for the call staff from the electrical side of the family company, Sharp Services Ltd and so opening the building was done by them early morning as the shop itself, while open 7 days, operated from 10-5 during the week and until 3pm on weekends.
Some of my memories of the shop are as follows: working there myself one day and only selling a 50cent corn of garlic because my energy was on marking student papers and not convincing customers to buy; meeting a customer who had come into the shop because of the new sign painted by Melody and despite having lived in the town of Warkworth for 20 years not knowing that there was a shop there; coming to open the shop in the morning only to discover that I had no keys so having to drive the 17km back to the farm to get some keys (after that we kept a spare set in Warkworth); having interesting philosophical and political conversations with customers; transporting wwoofers from the farm to work in the shop several days a week when we could not afford paid staff and of course on weekends.
I know lots of people enjoyed the shop-our loyal customers locally and all the visitors who came in the summer, the many wwoofers who worked there as a way of improving their english or just having a rest from the farm work and of course the people who attended the friday night lectures. I personally am glad to have finished this shop experience but also happy to know that the new business taking over is an art gallery which will appeal to those who wander down the Warkworth lane to see what is hiding there at the back of the ASB Bank.
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| The Shop |
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| Handpainted sign by Melody Seal In 2012 we celebrated the kowhai festival by dressing up all our wwoofers as pirates and advertising the shop around the many people inside Warkworth for the festival. Unfortunately we may have attracted the interest of thieves since 2 weeks later we were robbed of all the shop jewellery. |
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| The Childrens room in the shop |
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| The wwoofer pirates |
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| The shop view from the front |
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