Christchurch’s South City mall bookshop goes into liquidation
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
One of Christchurch’s handful of independent bookshops has shut up shop in the face of high retailing costs and tough trading conditions.
Athena Books In South City mall has closed and its owners, the Loos family, have put their company Jennmarc Ltd into liquidation.
The shop opened in 2021. It replaced a Paper Plus outlet that Jennmarc had run on the same site since 2016. South City also contains a branch of Whitcoulls.
The first liquidator’s report for Jannmarc Ltd quotes reasons including reduced foot traffic, and the overall economic downturn for the insolvency.
The report says figures are still being tallied but money is owed to staff, lenders, publishers and other suppliers and creditors. The shop’s $70,000 worth of stock and $40,000 worth of other assets will be sold, possibly at auction.
Jennmarc’s directors did not respond to an invitation to comment.
In 2022 store manager Nikki Loos told The Press business has slowed when the New World supermarket next door moved out in 2019 but had picked up again when Chemist Warehouse arrived.
At the time, they were expecting another downturn in foot traffic with the mall’s Warehouse store about to shut. Since then JB Hi-Fi and Reduced to Clear supermarket have opened in the mall.
Renee Rowland, association manager of Booksellsers NZ Aotearoa, said Athena’s closure is the fifth of an independent book shop in New Zealand this year.
“It’s really sad, they served a strong community in the mall,” she said.
“One independent bookstore closed last year and now we’ve lost five. It’s a bright red flag, they are facing huge challenges.”
Rowland said operating costs for book retailers have tripled since Covid. Rents, power and other operating costs have risen, while book prices have not increased and sales have stayed the same or dropped.
“It’s been a really, really tough trading environment for a long time for everyone, including bookshops.
“Consumer spending is down. Even online, the average basket is down, people are going to the likes of (shopping platforms) Temu and Shein.”
Rowland said another challenge is the “labyrinthine” book industry, and the time taken to get books to New Zealand in container ships even if written by local authors.
Booksellers are having to look at their business model and try new things to survive, and some are going online only or introducing a subscription model, she said.
“Bookshops will hang in there. But we need to use them or we could lose them. Literacy depends on people seeing books.
“I would encourage people to visit their bookstore and see what’s happening.”
David Cameron, owner of Scorpio Books in central Christchurch, which has expanded by adding a children’s bookshop and travel bookshop, said the retailing environment is tough.
He said a good location is key, and his business had a downturn in business while in Riccarton after the earthquakes, but picked up when they returned to town.
“We have experienced a lot of growth over the years but that has slowed. Things are tight in general retail, but independent booksellers are mostly in good heart.”
He agreed that slow delivery is an issue, after suppliers stopped airfreighting books to New Zealand.
“The Covid thing changed the topography of getting stock.”
Other independent book retailers in Christchurch include Piccadilly in Avonhead Mall, Smiths in The Tannery, the University Bookshop, and Paper Tree which has stores in St Martins and Tower Junction.
Paper Plus has four Christchurch stores and 21 elsewhere in the South Island, and Whitcoulls has six in Christchurch and six in other parts of the South Island.