Dave and Anne Thomas in their Easy Living Homestore in Waipapa. Photo / Paul Lafotanoa
Dave and Anne Thomas in their Easy Living Homestore in Waipapa. Photo / Paul Lafotanoa
It's Anne Thomas' first time owning a retail business.
In the past she was involved in residential property development in Auckland, building and selling high-end homes in its eastern suburbs.
"But retail is quite a different environment," she said after she and her husband bought a homeware store inWaipapa earlier this year.
Anne, Dave and daughter Liv moved to Northland from Auckland in May.
"We bought a cool house with a waterfall and river boundary here in Waipapa. Up until June I spent a few years flying with Air New Zealand and was an inflight service manager and customer service trainer with them.
"I think what I learned from Air NZ has helped me heaps with Easy Living Homestore particularly with regard to customers and delivering excellent service.
"Dave is working part-time from home which works really well and is my right-hand man in all things to do with delivering, lifting, assembling and other big 'stuff'. My daughter, Olivia (Liv), works with me part time and is enjoying getting a bit of retail experience," Anne said.
The Thomases decided at the beginning of this year to take a leap of faith and leave the fast-paced and often chaotic life they were leading in Auckland for the winterless north.
"It has been a great move and we are enjoying being here so much. Our two dogs are now living the dream as well."
She says taking that leap of faith has paid off 100 per cent. And to top it all off they were lucky enough to be able to buy Easy Living from Tissi and Pete Hendl.
"Tissi has done an amazing job of turning Easy Living into an oasis for homewares, furniture and more. We are excited about the new chapter and challenge buying Easy Living has added to our already exciting new life up here and for the opportunity to be involved in this great community."
At the moment Anne is redesigning the company's website to make online ordering a bigger part of their business.
Easy Living offers quality home accessories, furniture and unique gifts and is having a post Xmas sale of clearance stock.
