The Tipping Point: Cheapskates bows out as Wellington’s indie retail scene struggles
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Hundreds of failed businesses shut their doors every year - but behind every closure are owners who had lofty dreams and ambitions. The Tipping Point tells their stories.
Bricks and mortar retail, says long-time business owner Dave Green, has become a fool’s game.
Green’s Wellington store, Cheapskates, was one of the country’s pioneering skateboarding/street-wear outlets, surfing a wave of popularity during the 80s and early 90s.
Forty years on the physical Cheapskates is no more. It, along with the Christchurch store, were among the several thousand businesses whose owners pulled the plug in the last year.
Not one to mince words Green said the capital was a particularly tough market, and had been difficult for some time.
Cuba St, once dominated by independent stores that helped make Wellington Wellington was now a mix of bigger chain-type stores “which could be found everywhere”, and Manners St, with its “absolutely delightful summer camp feel” had become an unwelcoming bus corridor with “vagrants, people talking to their imaginary friends, drug abuse, swearing and fighting”.
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As streetwear went mainstream, the market became crowded with 'better retailers' who could navigate shifting brand fashions more effectively, Green said.
At its height Cheapskate had 17 stores, all individually owned. Today there’s only one, in Nelson, plus an online presence.
“When we first started, we had everything to ourselves. We had some glory days through the 80s and 90s and then when fashion kind of catches up everyone thinks that there's some money in this … we basically got surrounded.”
Online shopping was now the default for most people, who were conditioned to buying with the push of just a few buttons. They wanted not only a wide selection of products but competitive prices, convenience and door-to-door delivery - which bricks and mortar stores struggled to provide.
Council rates, policies that drove people out of the CBD or made access difficult, and an increase in brazen thefts, were added challenges, Green said.
As well, the traditional economic pressures of having a physical presence ‒ high rents, high wages, insurance and utility costs ‒ had intensified, putting the squeeze on even the most resilient businesses.
Hamilton-based Mark Champion, part of the Cheapskates family since 1993, pointed to the closure of well-regarded pottery and ceramics business Morris & James ‒ citing difficult economic conditions ‒ in November as an example of that.
It had been a fixture in Auckland’s Matakana for 47 years.
“It’s always been hard to make a living out of retail, but it's nearly impossible at the moment. And the places that aren't closing down are probably not making money,” Champion said.
Meanwhile Green, like a number of other business owners he knows, had at times been forced to pay wages out of of his own pocket as business went 'backwards'.
“It just gets to a tipping point where you've got to make a call. I was aware we weren’t making [that call] for about the last three years. I should have made the call to close sooner, but honestly I didn’t really want to.
“A lot of businesses are surviving on cash flow rather than profit. If you can keep enough money moving to keep all the balls in the air, that's good. But when the music stops and there's no freaking chairs … the music essentially stopped.”
The impact of job cuts on Wellington, where a focus on 'just getting by“ had caused a significant drop in discretionary spending, couldn’t be underestimated, he said. Payment methods such as Afterpay and credit card spending were masking a growing problem.
“Yes our market share has diluted as more retailers sell similar product but I think the main reason for retail suffering right now is that people are broke. People are kicking the can down the road as part of their denial package, but everyone's just out of money.”
Champion is just as blunt: “I think some industries will have their turn and make a comeback, but I don't know that retail is going to have another turn.”
Credit reporting company Centrix data shows retail, with a 34% jump in liquidations over the last year, second only to hospitality (+50%) in the closure stakes.