A little shop of bygone service

ROSEMARIE LENTINI
September 03, 2012
The Daily Telegraph

THEY’RE the destination stores that have attained cult status for what they sell and how long they’ve sold it.

Tucked away in suburban streets, these family businesses survived several retail slumps and have become cultural icons.

From Stanmore’s timewarp establishment Olympia Milk Bar on Parramatta Rd, whose owner refuses photos and interviews, to “Tobacconist Extraordinaire” Sol Levy on George St, people from all over Sydney flock to – or least know of – these remnants of a bygone era.

Head of UTS business school management Dr Antoine Hermens said strong community links keep niche outlets in business. “Iconic status doesn’t happen by accident. They have a long history, and people are passionate about their stores,” he said.

“For owners, it’s more than making a buck. They worry about what the customer thinks of them and not about the last dollar.

“Interactions with customers is not an interruption for the business, but an essential part of what makes it tick.

“These types of shops are often family run and become part of the local community. They sponsor a local netball team or part of a local church. All of a sudden, they become a part of the local community and people grow up with them and going there becomes a family tradition.”

Neal and Carol Crisford bought Dr What Video in 1983 when Bondi Junction was the heart of Sydney’s movie industry. Now its collection of hard-to-get videos and DVDs lures directors, film buffs, horror enthusiasts and film students.

“Our range is more of a library with bizarre movies for a whole underground of people who collect movies. Our video days are limited. We’ll probably start phasing them out this year,” Mr Crisford said.

“We keep attracting people because we are different and provide a service people want. Like a butcher who makes different sausages, or a bookstore that finds remote books, ours is a service beyond the computers. You have to have the knowledge to be able to answer questions.”

With more than one million mainly left-wing books, Newtown’s Gould’s Book Arcade is Sydney’s largest second-hand bookstore. Piles of Marxist literature and a labyrinth of disorganised shelves characterise the two-storey King St warehouse, which opened in 1988.

“We sell everything as a matter of principle. Our audience is anyone who wants to buy a book and is prepared to look for it. We’re starting to alphabetise the collections,” Natalie Gould, who inherited the business from her political activist father, Robert Gould, said.

“It’s iconic partly because we’ve been here so long, partly because no matter what type of book it is we have it, and partly because second hand bookshops are dying. That’s the reality of life. And I suppose we kind of represent a bygone era. People come in all the time saying ‘we’re just glad you’re staying open’.”

In the heart of Sydney’s west, former rugby league player Peter Wynn has run his Parramatta football merchandise outlet, Peter Wynn’s Score, since 1988 – and it’s still going strong.

“We have heaps of customers – sports fans, rugby league fans, footballers from all codes. We are a rugby league retail headquarters,” the former Parramatta Eels player, who opened the shop with his brother-in-law, said.