The Springfield Store and Cafe, dubbed NZ's rudest cafe, under offer
Saturday, 21 September 2019
One of New Zealand's most talked about cafes, described as the country's answer to Fawlty Towers, could soon be sold.
The Springfield Store and Cafe – dubbed the 'F… Off Shop' – attracted international attention earlier this year after Stuff revealed it had received dozens of scathing reviews and a visit from police offering customer service advice.
Customers have likened the cafe, situated in Springfield, a rural town west of Christchurch, to Fawlty Towers, a British sitcom about a badly run hotel, describing the owners as grumpy, rude, abusive and a disgrace to hospitality.
Some locals said they boycotted the business because it had tarnished the reputation of the town – the last petrol stop en route to the West Coast.
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Stuff can reveal that the owners of the cafe, Karyn and Donald Cullingford, have been in talks with a couple who want to buy the cafe.
Former Selwyn mayor Bill Woods, who has owned the building that houses the cafe for more than three decades, said the prospective buyers, who lived near Springfield, recently tabled a conditional offer for the building, which he had accepted.
The sale would only proceed if the Cullingfords put pen to paper on a separate deal for the business.
'I would read into it that they [the prospective buyers] are fairly confident that have come to an arrangement with them [the Cullingfords]. They are not interested in leasing it to the [Cullingfords] – they want it for themselves.'
Woods said he had no idea what the new owner's plans would be for the building and 'I haven't asked'.
'They have given me no indication of what they want to do with it. They might pull it down and do something else. It's a bit of a mystery to me.'
Woods said he'd previously told the Cullingfords that if the build was ever on the market he'd give them the first opportunity to buy it.
'They said they weren't interested – they were too old to take on something like that with another mortgage.'
Woods said that in the weeks after the Stuff story in June, Donald Cullingford told him business at the cafe was booming. People had travelled from all around Canterbury to sample their award-winning pies and sales had doubled.
It was the best free advertising they'd ever had, he said.
When Stuff visited the the cafe on Thursday, about 2pm, the pie warmer was well stocked, but there wasn't a customer in sight. Karyn Cullingford and a young woman were working behind the counter.
Cullingford, who's been described by customers as the 'rudest woman in New Zealand' and the 'Wicked Witch of Springfield', declined to talk about the offer they'd received for the business.
'You have a lovely day,' she said, before turning and walking away.
Cullingford, who placed fifth and second respectively in the cafe boutique section of the 2012 and 2013 Bakels New Zealand Supreme Pie Awards, previously acknowledged that on occasion, particularly when she'd worked a lengthy stretch without a day off, she could be 'a tad grumpy'.
'People should come for the food, not my wonderful personality,' she told Stuff.
The Cullingfords took on the lease nearly a decade ago, several years after they moved south from Auckland.
Resident Graeme Dawson previously said the Springfield Store and Cafe was dubbed the 'F… Off Shop' because 'that's what he get told when you go there'.
He told Stuff he wanted the owners to leave town.
On Friday, upon learning the cafe could soon be sold, he had only a brief comment.
'New owners will be good for the town.'