Northlands Nabs Bragging Rights Again
Looks like our team in the Northlands Shopping Centre in Christchurch are a force to be reckoned with. They've taken out the award for Retailer of the Month for a second time this year. It's a big deal when you consider there are over 135 retailers in the Northlands complex.
A massive congratulations to Nat and the team. You guys rock to the power of two!
If you're keen to find out why they keep winning the award why not go and see the team if you're in the area. You can give 'em a pat on the back while you're there ;D
Posted by: The Online Guy
Our Neat Treat on Treat Me
With somewhere over 500,000 Kiwis subscribed I'd be very surprised if you weren't familiar with Treat Me. Treat Me is an off-shoot of internet juggernaut Trade Me and sends out email notifications to their subscribers that offer genuinely hot one-day deals on products and services from companies just like us. If you're not familiar with their service but you like what you are hearing you can check out how it works here and if you're interested in signing up you can do so here.
Acquisitions will be offering a 'Treat Me Only' deal on Thursday, December the 1st, 2011 and subscribers will be able to purchase $100 worth of Aromatherapy Company products (check out the deal on the day to see exactly what the pack consists of) for half price. It's a genuine saving, just in time for Christmas too and it's only available on Treat Me.
Mark the date (1 Dec. '11) on your calendar, sign up to Treat Me if you haven't already and enjoy the deal. It's our Christmas gift to you :D
Posted by: The Online Guy
What's the Interest on an 800 Year Old Unpaid Tax Bill?
Our accountant just pointed out that according to this years tax return statement our payment is late by over 800 years! Now if I'm not mistaken 'The Siege of Constantinople' was in full swing by July 1203 so I think we can plausibly get away with telling the IRD that 'the cheque is in the moat'.
Posted by: The Online Guy
Acquisitions - A History
Acquisitions began life in the late 1970s as a tiny shop within the Dunedin Environment Centre called 'Third World Crafts'. Two of the current company directors who had been involved with an environmental campaign being run from the Environment Centre formed a trust to run the shop. The small shop was staffed with volunteers and sold trade aid goods and local craft items. Turn over was around $13,000 in it's first year.
Above: 'Third World Crafts' at 320 George Street, Dunedin (circa 1980).
When the volunteer workforce dried up the directors had to make a decision whether to 'fold up their tent' and finish up or inject some finance and become a commercial enterprise. They decided on the later and proceeded to max out their credit cards. By then they had moved into a larger space at 320 George Street, Dunedin and had to spread out what meagre stock holdings they could afford to fill the space and make it look interesting.
By 1986 Third World Crafts was ready for a change in direction. At that time one of the owners overheard a passer buy refer to the store as being the local 'Corso' (an aid and welfare organisation) store, quite obviouly due to the mix of products, nature and the look of the shop. She decided there and then that if they were going to be a successful enterprise in their own right they needed to 'stand apart'. So the owners developed a new name, brand and look for what would become the first 'Acquisitions' store. Stock lines were continually adapted and the stock levels increased as cash-flow allowed until eventually 'Acquisitions' was the largest gift store in Dunedin.
Above: Acqisitions at 320 Goerge Street (circa 1986).
Above: Acquisitions at 320 George Street, Dunedin (circa late 1980s).
1998 brought with it a change of address for Acquisitions. Due to the recent opening of the Meridian Mall and the subsequent shift in foot traffic further down the street the owners bit the proverbial bullet and decided to move where the shoppers were. A new site was secured a little further down the road and after a complete renovation of the building Acquisitions moved in at 286 George Street. Directly out front of the new premises was a busy bus stop, which became both a blessing and a curse for the gift store. On one hand it bought potential customers right to the front door but on the other it created a huge cleaning problem for store staff. The buses would emit large amounts of deisel fumes, which over time would settle on the walls and fittings within the shop. Cleaning this sticky film of deisel was a constant nightmare since cleaning one part of a wall meant cleaning the whole wall to avoid noticeably clean patches next to dirty ones.
Above: Concept sketch for Acquisitions at 286 George Street, Dunedin (circa 1998).
Above: The facade of Acquisitions at 286 George Street, Dunedin (circa 1998).
Above: A TV Promo for Acquisitions from 1998.
In the year 2000 a decision was made to introduce Christchurch to the world of Acquisitions and a space was secured in the Westfield Mall in Riccarton. The first Christchurch store opened a few months prior to Christmas that year.
The 2000's were a time of rapid growth for the company with four more Acquisitions stores opening in Christchurch (City Mall 2001, Eastgate & Northlands 2003, Palms 2004), one store in Wellington (Queensgate 2005) and three stores in Auckland (St. Lukes 2006, Sylvia Park & Albany 2007).
In late 2009 Acquisitions opened their first smaller centre store in Timaru. Also that same year Acquisitions Dunedin moved from 286 George Street to premises in The Golden Centre Mall across the road.
In 2010 all of Acquisitions' Christchurch stores survived the September earthquake however following the Boxing Day aftershock the City Mall branch was closed indefinitely before being completely destroyed by the mammoth aftershock on February 22nd 2011. February 22nd also saw the Palms and Eastgate stores closed indefinitely due to the malls they were housed in sustaining huge amounts of structural damage. After a couple of false starts hampered by further quakes the Eastgate store re-opened in late July 2011, sporting a new paint-job and new fittings.
Above: The facade of Acquisitions City Mall (Christchurch) following the February 2011 quake.
In July 2011 Acquisitions' St. Lukes store in Auckland closed it's doors for good after it's lease wasn't renewed due to a reconfiguration of tenancies by their mall management. Fittings and stock from St. Lukes were transferred to Hamilton and used to open a new provincial Acquisitions store at The Base retail complex in early August 2011.
Above: Acquisitions' Hamilton store at Te Awa Shopping Centre at The Base (circa 2011).
Hot on the heels of the Hamilton branch Acquisitions opened it's Richmond Mall store in late August 2011 to service the greater Nelson area.
Above: The interior of Acquisitions Richmond (circa 2011).
In October 2011, following a disasterous attempt with an overseas company to launch a new e-commerce website for Acquisitions, www.acquisitions.co.nz was relaunced with the help of Dunedin based web and marketing company Firebrand. The all-new site included a blog, video and photo modules and, for the first time, online shopping.
Above: Acquisitions.co.nz homepage (circa 2011).
Late 2011 welcomed two more new stores to the Acquisitions fold. The first of these being the New Plymouth Store that opened it's doors at Centre City Shopping Centre on October 21st to the waiting Taranaki public. The second was Acquisitions' North City (Wellington) store that opened for business on November 4th.
*WIN* - 'Paris' Book Boxes for Christmas - Closed
This Competition has Closed. Congratulations Gill Wilson of Tauranga.
So we found this set of three 'Paris' Book Boxes hidden in our prize cupboard recently. We pondered their existence for a time and then thought, "What good are they here in our prize cupboard, when they would be better going to a loving family that would appreciate them for what they are?".
If you're interested in winning these lovely Book Boxes, that'll be good for storing photos, remotes and love letters from long lost loves, then read on...
To be in to win use the 'add new comment' function at the bottom of the page to tell us in 25 words or less your favourite holiday memory.
Don't sweat it if you don't think you're funny or imaginative enough because the little essay is just the entry requirement and the winner will be chosen by a random draw.
Competition closes on Monday the 12th of December 2011 at 12 noon.
Winner notified via the email address they provided.
The winner will receive:
1x set of 3 'Paris' Book Boxes (and the admiration of family, friends and colleagues)
The Fine Print: This competition is open to New Zealand residents only. One entry per person please. Employees of Acquisitions and their immediate families are not eligible to enter. We reserve the right to reprint selected entries on our Facebook page or Email Newsletter. Following the draw we will announce the winner here and on our Facebook page.
Good Luck!
*WIN* - Rugby for Christmas - Closed
This Competition has Closed. Congratulations Amanda Bull of Hamilton.
We've got some great items from the Linden Leaves Rugby range to give away and we've also included a cool Kiwiana Rugby Santa Christmas Decoration just because it's that time of year. This'll make a 'rugby-tastic' gift for yourself or a man (or lady of course) in your life this Christmas. Interested?
To be in to win use the 'add new comment' function at the bottom of the page to tell us in 25 words or less what you think the best thing about being a man is. It can be funny, serious or just plain weird but please keep it clean-ish (this is a family show you know).
Don't sweat it if you don't think you're funny or imaginative enough because the little essay is just the entry requirement and the winner will be chosen by a random draw.
Competition closes on Monday the 12th of December 2011 at 12 noon.
Winner notified via the email address they provided.
The winner will receive:
1x Linden Leaves Rugby 110ml Shampoo
1x Linden Leaves Rugby 200ml Shower Gel
1x Linden Leaves Rugby 50ml Facial Moisturiser
1x Kiwiana Rugby Santa Christmas Decoration
The Fine Print: This competition is open to New Zealand residents only. One entry per person please. Employees of Acquisitions and their immediate families are not eligible to enter. We reserve the right to reprint selected entries on our Facebook page or Email Newsletter. Following the draw we will announce the winner here and on our Facebook page.
Good Luck!
Four Stores in Four Months
Yay! We've opened our final two stores for 2011 and I suspect our merchandising team are over the moon about it too. It's been a long year for them after re-opening the Christchurch stores following those damn quakes, closing St Lukes after mall management didn't renew our lease (they wanted to make room for a bank, which is clearly more important) and in the last half of the year opening Hamilton (August 4), Richmond (August 22), New Plymouth (October 21) and North City (November 4).
I just wanted to officially welcome the Hamilton, Richmond, New Plymouth and North City teams to the Acquisitions family and extend an extra special welcome to all the new friends we've made (and have yet to make) in those areas. All reports suggest that our stores have been received well and the general consensus in the regions appears to be that we were long overdue. Right about now I feel I should mention the two 'not backward in coming forward' ladies I met from Richmond - If you're reading this sorry it took us so long but we're there now and we're very happy to be in your neighbourhood. In fact we're jolly happy to be in everyone's neighbourhood.
Now, I'll be interested to hear what announcements the boss makes about new stores in 2012 and I'll be very interested to see where the merchandising team will be hiding when he makes them :D
Posted by: The Online Guy
Live on Earth, Send Gifts in New Zealand
No matter where on Earth you live you can purchase gifts from acquisitions.co.nz and get them sent to your family and friends anywhere in New Zealand. You can even have them gift wrapped and include a personal message too. The best part is that you’ll save a bomb on international postage because all you’ll pay is the New Zealand courier fee. How good is that?!
Shipping to countries other than New Zealand by arrangement only. Email your enquiry to websales@acquisitions.co.nz
Good Golly Miss Molly!
The personal opinions expressed in the following post do not neccessarily reflect those of Acquisitions or it's staff.
Recent Media about the fact that we sell Golly Dolls was a storm in a teacup I feel.
It all sarted when an American rapper saw Golly Dolls for sale at an Auckland Airport store and tweeted negatively about them, suggesting they were racist. Interestingly just a short time before he also tweeted that he'd visited a strip club and was expressing his 'thoughts' on New Zealand women (do we think this guy a good moral compass?). Anyway The Auckland Airport store removed the dolls from sale as a result and Campbell Live picked up the story and tried to see what traction they could get on the whole 'Are Gollies Rascist?' thing (because, of course, the best news stories are the ones the media can create from molehills right?). Campbell Live couldn't get a spokesman from the Auckland Airport store to appear on the show so our managing director, Richard, agreed to appear and explain the reasoning behind why Acquisitions stocks the dolls. Ultimately public opinion and common sense prevailed and the story died a quick death. A Facebook poll at the time pretty much categorically showed that public opinion was very much in favour of the loveable dolls.
Now I didn't have a racist bone in my body when I was playing with my Golly Doll as a boy and it may surprise the PC Brigade to know that I still don't. In fact my Golly taught me more about love than anything else. It appears that Craig Smith's (of 'Wonky Donkey' fame) experience also echos mine although he was clever enough to write a song about it and post it on YouTube. My advice is grab the kids and turn this one up. It's fun, nostalgic and there's not a racist epithet in sight.
Posted by: The Online Guy
