The tradition of having a nice slice of home-made Christmas cake with last minute gift shopping at Kaleidoscope, at 44 Helwick Street, has come to an end. Helen Johnston’s gifts and manchester store closes its door for the last time tomorrow (Monday September 30).

After 33 years as a retailer on Helwick Street, Helen has decided the time is right for her to end this chapter of her life. She said she will “miss the people” most of all; her long-established relationships with staff, customers, fellow retailers and reps.

“There comes a time when you have to make a decision are you going to carry on a seven-day a week business or are you going to have some me-time,” she said. 

Helen moved from Dunedin to Wanaka in the mid 1970s after purchasing the Manuka Crescent Motels. She and her husband ran the motels for 11 years before deciding they want to try their hand at something completely different - retail.

She took over Helwick Gifts (where the Spice Room currently is located) and within six months had changed its name to Kaleidoscope to better reflect the myriad colours and variety of retail items she stocked.

In those early years in Wanaka when the local population totalled a few hundred full-time residents and visitors largely only featured in winter and summer, business wasn’t easy - you had to be careful about ordering stock for instance, Helen said. 

Moving into the new store at 44 Helwick Street in the 1990s. PHOTO: Supplied

She decided to get into manchester sales as no-one else was providing that in Wanaka at the time; contacted a rep who said ‘leave it with me’ and suddenly the store was overwhelmed with huge boxes filled with linens.

“We had to work out a deal where we could pay it off in three installments; but it sold really well,” Helen said.

In 1996, a new set of three retail stores was built in the upper end of Helwick Street, near Brownston Street, and Kaleidoscope moved across the road to take up its current location. For 23 years, the shop has opened from 9:00am-6:00pm Monday to Friday and 9:30am-5:30pm Saturday and Sunday.

Those early days were very rewarding though as she built up her loyal local clientele and, with little competition, became the go-to place for Christmas, birthdays, souvenirs and so on.

“December 24th was always the biggest sales day of the year,” Helen said. A slice of Helen’s Christmas cake for her customers on December 23 and 24 became something of a tradition for those last minute Christmas shoppers.

At one stage, her commitment to open her shop seven days a week got her into trouble with the law. Helen believed, as Wanaka was part of the Queenstown Lakes District, and Queenstown retailers had a dispensation allowing them to trade throughout Easter, that dispensation also applied to Wanaka retailers.

Kaleidoscope’s empty front window indicates the end of an era. Melanie Craig Design, which operates next door, will expand into the shop vacated by Helen. PHOTO: Wanaka App

Having opened her store for many years to Easter customers without any problems, a visit from a Department of Labour inspector on Easter Sunday 2004 resulted in a conviction and a change to her trading habits. The fine was waived, Helen said, but she had to pay court costs and, to the disappointment of her customers, she never opened her doors again on Easter Sunday.

“I didn’t want to put myself or my staff through the apprehension of guessing is that customer an inspector, or is that one,” Helen said. “I’m happy opening my shop most days but, if I’m breaking the law, I’m just not doing it.” 

Helen says the retail scene has changed since those early years. There’s more local competition with many Wanaka retail stores selling gifts and souvenirs, she said, and there’s been a noticeable shift in the past five years, even from loyal local customers, to buy online or purchase in bulk from big box stores. “Our linens and manchester items used to be one of our top sellers. Now people take shopping trips to Briscoes,” she said.  

“We are not the only retail people finding it challenging. I talk to my reps and its happening all over the country. Online shopping has affected a lot of brick and mortar shops.”

Helen said proposed changes to Wanaka’s CBD are also going to provide challenges for retailers. “Pedestrianising the lower part of Helwick Street will not be good for retailing,” she said. “If people cannot park close to where they want to shop they will drive on.” She believes the commercial development at Three Parks will become the shopping equivalent of Frankton for locals.

She also believes, even though Wanaka’s “town centre” will always be near the lake, there will be more suburbs with small retail spaces, such as the “pocket retail development” at Northlake. “We’ve got to be very careful we don’t over retail the CBD when we don’t have the population or visitors to support it,” she said.

And like any retailer in her line of business, Helen has had her fair share of light-fingered shoppers over the years, but it was uncommon, she said. “We have a policy of always greeting people when they come in the door, then they know we’ve seen them.”

And sometimes things are not always as they appear. Helen recounted watching a young man handle a small item on her shelf and later saw him leave the store. She looked at the shelf and noticed the item was missing before she raced out the door to confront the chap down the road.

“I asked him: ‘You were just in my store and I saw you with a bottle opener in your hand and it’s not there anymore’. And he said: ‘You’re pretty sharp’. It transpired he had hidden the bottle opener in the store as it was the last one and he didn’t want it sold. Helen put it aside for him and he returned the next day to purchase it.

Although the shop has been her focus for decades there have been other interests too. Helen was the secretary of Wanaka’s squash club for 28 years and is still on its committee and she served for ten years on Wanaka’s Chamber of Commerce committee in its early days.

“But to be honest, running a store with all the buying and bookwork takes up a fair chunk of time.”

Helen had been thinking about retiring for a while and then a friend said: ‘Helen when are you going to leave your shop; we don’t want to take you out in a wheelchair.’ And I said: ‘When I’m ready’.” 

And that time is now. She has promised herself a trip to Paris - “and not just for two weeks”, and said her home, purchased 19 years ago, has never been in the state she wants it. Sorting the office is her first priority; gardening the second.

And then, of course, there’s the rugby. “I’m passionate about it,” she gleefully - and unexpectedly - confesses. She’s a supporter of the local team; has watched live matches at the Dunedin stadium several times; and even written poetry about it, shared on Radio Wanaka.

Just as well there’s a world cup on for the next few weeks.