The French Hen is boldly defying the big bad wolf of recession in the Whangarei CBD, but making a stand didn't come easy.
Linda Payne, owner of The French Hen in the Civic Arcade, has expanded into new premises at a time when city retail operations are going down like ninepins, and freely admits it was a case of feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
She has gone into the premises of liquidated business Classics Books & Games in the same arcade, gaining a street frontage.
"It was terrible when Classics closed because it meant there were just three retailers left in lower Bank St on the western side, and I was even less visible as an internal shop because with Classics gone there was less to draw people to the arcade.
"When a business goes under, it is kind of like when your best friend's marriage falls apart - it makes you look very closely at what you are doing yourself. Kooky and Lemonwood women's clothing stores and Footloose shoes have all gone recently. You sort of feel a disease is spreading and it is quite scary.
"But my dad used to say, work out the worst case scenario and make your decision from there. Wise words.
"I found when I looked at my own reality we were actually doing okay, that we were holding our own no doubt about that, and when Classics closed, sad as it was, it was an opportunity to enlarge the business. I just felt it was an opportunity we had to exploit.
"And I thought well, if we are going to die, it is better to die fighting than to fade away quietly.
"Expansion goes against everything people are saying you should be doing in recession but, once I had got over the fear as I watched other people closing down, I realised that that is exactly what I have always done in tough times - four times over actually - and we have always survived."
Ms Payne founded The French Hen as a one-person business, with product based around a French nostalgia/romantic look, in suite three in the arcade; then moved to the larger suite five; and then took on both three and five, removing the wall between the two. Now she has moved to the former Classics space incorporating numbers two to six on the opposite side of the arcade.
Each expansion has been extremely good for the business and the move is already getting excellent customer feedback.
"I think people find this very cheering, to see something expanding in this economic climate. I think they really need to see that," she says.
A former watchmaker, Ms Payne worked for many years for city jewellers before acknowledging that what she most enjoyed was interaction with people in the retail situation.
"I really, really like people and for me selling is secondary to knowing that people are okay and have really got what they want from the experience."
She believes this is the way forward for retailing and the only way so-called high-street retail can compete with the flood of online and big barn shopping, and currently, recession. The strategy includes a big emphasis on attractive display of goods and imaginative window-dressing.
No one does it alone though. She says the business could not have grown without a raft of supportive people including her landlord, Carl Johnson, who owns the arcade; business mentor Calvin Green, founder of Classics (he sold the business in 2009); loyal customers, family and staff.
Ms Payne started out as a sole trader but says the fun really started when she started to employ people.
"Working as a team increased the enjoyment quotient out of sight and it's gone on that way.
"None of us knew each other before; now we are a tight little team and while our humour might border on being politically incorrect we have so much fun. The working environment is very happy, You get a happy staff and, by crikey, they give you 150 per cent. More people need to know that. I have surrounded myself with genius. And I tell you, it is working."