Andrew Gannon purchased the City Furniture Exchange in Tawa Street five years ago and wants to remind his community of the beauties found in his store. Photo / Bevan Conley
Andrew Gannon purchased the City Furniture Exchange in Tawa Street five years ago and wants to remind his community of the beauties found in his store. Photo / Bevan Conley
Tucked away down Tawa St in Whanganui are a number of shops that have stood the test of time and still open their doors to the community every day.
One of those shops is City Furniture Exchange which is now owned and operated by Andrew Gannon and his wife Tara.
Gannon says he is out to make his shop not just a destination store but to remind his community that it is still open daily and offers all the gems that can be found in a second-hand store.
"There aren't as many second-hand shops around the place these days with Trademe, and Facebook a little bit, but it's charity shops - there's about 10 charity shops in town.
"So what we have to do is have a point of difference and our point of difference revolves around old interesting stuff."
From small knick-knack collectibles to garden tools, retro furniture, records, clocks and automobilia, Gannon is interested in buying items that people are searching to find.
"The problem with LPs is having regulars that come in every week and nobody wants to come in and look at the same records, so it's always trying to find new records and that's the same with everything really."
Gannon brought the store from long-time owner John Keating in June 2015 after being unable to work at his previous job due to back problems.
Being a keen collector himself, Gannon often went in to see Keating and when Keating was thinking of selling, the two worked out a price and Gannon collected the keys two weeks later.
"It's the thrill of the hunt. I've been a collector for a long time, and sometimes the thrill of the hunt is better than catching the prey."
Andrew Gannon restores a lot of furniture and tools to be re-sold in his City Furniture Exchange second-hand store. Photo / Bevan Conley
The second-hand shop has been doing business in Wanganui since 1914 and, for a large part of that time, the Keatings had a lot to do with it.
John Keating's grandfather, Tom, was a friend of Tom Windle, the man who originally opened the store's doors at 221 Victoria Ave.
In 1983, Tom Keating shifted the shop to Glasgow St for a matter of months but then moved into a cluster of shops in Bignell St, near the intersection with Tawa St and Kings Ave.
Having been the Keating family business for near a century, Gannon saw a blueprint heavily laid out in front of him and tried to carry it on but his interests differed a little from Keating's.
"[John] was into music so he probably did a lot more guitar and music and I'm a collector of cabinetmakers' tools. [My] interest lies in tools, garden tools and the tools that are the bread and butter of the place because that's what sells every day, I suppose."
Gannon fixes the majority of items sold to him that need to be restored, including old furniture, garden tools and cabinet making tools.
Gannon said since Keating's departure he had opened up the store a lot and made it easier to get around, as well as painting the inside and front of the store.
Maintaining the store's history is important to Gannon as well as the surrounding stores - Butchart's Home Cookery and the Hospice Whanganui shop.
"That's why we're trying to fix it up and keep it within the original keeping of the shop, reminding people we are here."
Gannon said it was not all about making money, but about selling things at a reasonable price so there was good stock turnover and new stock for regular customers to view.
He said he received a lot of positive feedback from out-of-towners impressed with the prices and who wished they had a similar store in their city.
Gannon hopes as he continues to trade that more of his own community will walk back through the doors.
He said people were welcome to bring in items they were willing to sell as he was always looking for more stock.
