Levin's literary leap
Bookshop boosts town’s second-hand retail scene
Levin could be gaining a reputation as a pre-loved paradise with the opening of another second-hand shop. The town is blessed with opportunity shops. From the SPCA shop in the north to the Arohanui Hospice shop to the south, it is doing its bit to tackle climate change with a robust repurposing retail scene.
The very latest shop to hit town has a point of difference and promises to add even more to the variety shopping experience. The story behind Tui’s Second Hand Book Shop could probably be worth a book of its own.
Store owner Trudi Gray, 70, was tired of lugging boxes of books in and out of book fairs, so has opened up her own shop.
“It’s a leap of faith, but age is dictating the necessity to reduce the heavy lifting in short periods of time so I decided that, with thousands of books in stock, it was time to open a second-hand bookshop,” she said.
“Having a shop will not be as physical as the fairs.”
She searched the main trunk line from Waio¯uru south for suitable premises and plumped for a shop in Oxford St, Levin.
“There were four shops in Hunterville selling books and I thought about Taihape, but then I got on the property websites and found this one. It’s a lovely-sized shop,” she said.
The rent ain’t that cheap, but Gray said at her age the goal is to try to make a living doing something she enjoys and is passionate about.
“I’m not ready to retire. I live on my own and like the social contact you get from talking to customers,” she said.
“It gives me a reason to get up in the morning. If I wasn’t running a business I would be reading more books and eating even more chocolate.” Gray is no stranger to Levin. In her 50s she set up a postal delivery service, and for nearly a decade handdelivered mail by scooter before moving to the Waikato.
Her foray into the book business began when she bought 30 boxes of books online for $100. At the time she was making craft products from plaster and selling them at markets, so she took a selection of books along
and had no trouble selling them.
“They sold not too badly and I thought this looks promising. It grew to the stage where I decided to concentrate on books,” she said.
It blossomed into a successful book fair business, with 10-day book fairs at Eureka four times a year and extended fairs at T¯ırau during the holiday season.
She hired halls and put her own advertising signs around town. But hauling hundreds of heavy boxes full of books in and out of halls was no easy task because each box contained an average of 25 books — hence the new shop.
Gray has her own small truck, and in the months before the Levin opening she did 11 trips to the Waikato and back — a three-day round trip — to
stock the new Levin shop.
The Levin store in Oxford St officially opened on February 11 with a bang. She had distributed flyers by hand at the annual Medieval Market the day before and lots of people took up the invitation.
On the floor are almost 300 boxes of books, a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, with each box containing at least 25 books, and 30 boxes of children’s books. All boxes are colour coded and labelled.
Gray has managed to accumulate an estimated 50,000 books, most of which are in storage waiting to hit the floor. She expects to add shelves as finances permit “so less bending will be necessary”.
She was able to obtain books from a variety of sources. At book fairs people were often happy to donate unwanted books and then pay the going rate for a box of books they wanted to buy.
Some people were happy to donate pre-loved books knowing they weren’t going to end up in the rubbish bin. Others were moving house and were looking to dispose of surplus books.
Many libraries often held books sales when they ran out of space.
“I love rescuing books and giving them another life. New books can be expensive and some people can only afford second-hand books,” she said.
Gray is acutely aware of the need for children to enrich themselves through books, hence the reason the children’s section is heavily discounted.
“Children’s books are two for a dollar as it is all about getting children to read,” she said.
“They should all be reading books rather than spending time in front of screens. They simply must read often.”
The boxes are well organised under her very own system, with plenty of NZ fiction, romance, science fiction and fantasy, wellbeing books, books on relationships, raising children, DIY, music, feminism, history, sport, cooking, and crafts, etc.
The more-prolific and wellknown authors, like Maeve Binchy, Lee Child, Wilbur Smith, Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts and James Patterson, have their own boxes.
“People love how I set it up. I even get compliments from librarians,” she said.
“I’ve had lots of lovely customers over the years. I really have.”
“Most adult books are $5 and $3; however, there is a purple table with moreexpensive books. I also stock audiobooks and DVDs,” she said.
Tui’s Second Hand Book Shop is based at 56 Oxford Street and is open from 10am to 6pm, Saturday to Tuesday. Gray has help running the shop from her friend, Jennifer Bayne, also a former Levin resident.