Photo Recall: Posh nosh for top dogs

Carl Gribble, aged 15 of Epsom, and his dog Prince select a tasty cut of meat helped by the shop owner Lloyd Hastings. Photo / Ross Land, Photo Researcher / Emma Walter

Surrounded by private schools and streets housing indulged pets, Lloyd Hastings reckoned he couldn't fail with his luxury pet deli in the 1980s.

It was pre-stock-market crash, a time when fillet steak for dogs and caviar for cats wasn't such a daft idea. At least Lloyd Hastings didn't think so.

Already running the Fish and Cheeps pet store in the leafy Auckland suburb of Epsom - selling birds, fish, rabbits, guinea pigs and accessories for cats and dogs - Hastings struck on the idea of a delicatessen for pets.

Hastings set up the pet deli like a proper butcher's shop, with dog rolls hanging on hooks in place of salamis and juicy meat, fit for human consumption, under the counter.

When the Herald visited in May 1983, on the first day of business, Hastings' neighbour 15-year-old Carl Gribble posed for a photo with a friend's dog, Prince.

That day Hastings had on offer such things as sun-dried anchovies and roasting fowl for cats.

However, says Gribble, the deli "didn't go as well as thought, to be honest. We sold a lot of dog rolls though."

Instead, the gimmick was a drawcard to the pet shop and the huge aviary out the back. Hastings made sure his pet shop was the talk of the town, importing eau de cologne for dogs, and frilly cocktail outfits for bichon frise and poodles.

The shop, on the corner of Market and Great South Rds, was between St Cuthbert's College and Diocesan School, and not far from King's School. "There was a lot of money about," he says. "We were selling things for exorbitant prices. In a lot of cases the pets were like their children. They spent silly money."

Then, two weeks before the 1987 stock market crash, someone made Hastings an offer for the building he couldn't refuse. Hastings closed up Fish and Cheeps, and the deli, and went to the Gold Coast. Twenty-eight years later he runs Red Back Car Rentals - "have I got a deal for you!". At 65, he's still full of beans.

Carl Gribble, 44, who worked at the pet shop with his brother Kerry in the holidays, is now a sales rep for concrete foundation company Slab Specialists. "We'd sell Christmas trees outside [the pet shop] in December," remembers Gribble.

He and his wife Lydia, their three children and a "fairly big" dog called Jack, now live in Pt Chevalier.

But Gribble's parents still live in the same road in Epsom.

And Hastings' building is still there. Ironically, it houses a fish and chip shop where Hastings had a decent feed recently while touring New Zealand with friends. He hopes to be back in New Zealand to see a Kiwi Rugby World Cup victory.

"I live in Australia but, I tell you what, the blood running through the veins is still Kiwi."