ARTY BEES BOOKS NEWSLETTER

26th October 2005

Ah ha!

And you thought I wasn't going to squeeze in a new newsletter before the dreaded two-month mark, and here I am with five days to spare!
Of course the ultimate plan is that this should be a monthly newsletter, but sometimes you have to be thankful for small triumphs.

Like getting through the day without a coffee.

I used to be so good. No tea, no coffee, I would rather die than smoke (which is ironic considering that that's what happens to you when you do smoke!) I don't drink much alcohol (no matter what you may have heard from Moo and Jessica to the contrary), and most cakes and biscuits leave me cold (unless it's chocolate).
Frankly, I'd rather have a banana. Ok, so I have some vices, which predominantly include some variety of Hell pizza, chocolate and cult TV shows but nothing too deadly (apart from Buffy — she's pretty deadly).

So here I am with a one cup a day soy latte problem (I have a problem, I need help) and I'm going to blame it all on Matthew.
Because his coffee smells really good in the morning and because he's just generally evil and devious.

Anyway, back to the point (waffle?) at hand.

This has in fact been the month/months in which small triumphs are to be celebrated.
We've had lots of delectable books come in, and some large tasks have finally been finished. What tasks I hear you say? Do you really want to know? I'm guessing not so much. Think the Twelve Tasks of Asterix except with fewer obelisks — not much call for those things these days and they're very hard to fit on a bookshelf. Anyway, some long-term projects have yet to be started, and I have the ridiculous idea that I'll get them done before Christmas * although I expect to be disappointed.
But we've also had staff out sick, including some bad backs (occupational hazard) and late winter flus and one case of glandular fever.

And so that's what I've been doing instead of sitting here and doing the one-way-chat thing with you nice people.
(This also means we have a large back-list of exciting What's New items in the website to be checked out as well.)

So here we are, another Spring has sprung, and so has another Newsletter ** and in light of all that springyness around (you know, baby animals, new flowers, and fresh growth on the trees and all those things Mother Nature does so well) and because we're all rampant tree-huggers, we thought an ecologically sound newsletter might be just the thing to shake off some winter blues.

Hence the very green font today.

Part of what has kicked off this tree-hugging revelry is that we have been approached by a group named ShoppingFix.

ShoppingFix is a local non-profit organisation whose aim is to promote responsible consumption and sustainable resource use in New Zealand, and it is based on a successful concept from the Netherlands. They are getting support from the Wellington City Council and hope to be up and running next year.
Long term their goals are to encourage consumers to shop with a conscience and to promote the benefits of ecologically and socially responsible business practices to local businesses.
Basically the system will work like the Fly Buys reward system for customers, as a loyalty incentive to shop at businesses that actively encourage firstly recycling, and secondly Fair Trade practices.

All of which we're quite excited about, as it encompasses a lot of our own goals and ideals for Arty Bees.

As a second hand business, it's pretty obvious that we are very keen on recycling. Not only is over 95% of our stock recycled in the first place, but as many of our regulars already know: we just love it when they bring their books back for credit when they've finished with them. ***

Any books we can't use we send on to various charitable groups around town (we must have sent the Downtown Ministry thousands of boxes of books for their Book Sales in the last few years, to name just one destination), and we sponsor several local primary schools with shop credits, in their everlasting quest for new titles in their libraries.
We recycle as much shop waste as possible, and try to keep our energy use nice and low, and on the subject of Fair Trade practices I can honestly say as a business we have never knowingly bought a book we suspected of being made by child or slave labour. Do they even exist? The optimist in me hopes not, yet the realist in me suspects there are.
Anyway, suffice to say we do try to be nice to those customers who sell us books and give them a fair price, so I guess we could possibly squeeze into the second category as well.

In fact our only serious vice is the number of plastic bags we go through — a problem we hope to help remedy in the coming year with cloth bags available for sale. Thankfully, many of our regulars already bring their own bags, we always have a large supply of paper bags on hand and many other customers prefer to go bagless.
It is an unfortunate fact nonetheless, that trolling through the wet wintery streets of Wellington with a naked and unprotected book is not a good plan.
There are few things in life more pathetic than a soggy book (soggy cats are pretty pathetic but they dry better than books — in fact many are self-drying ****).

And finally on the topic of soggy books, many of our regulars at Arty Bees may have noticed the Heath Robinson-esque water-catching contraptions (i.e. buckets and stuff) that caught the deluge of rainwater from the ceiling have finally gone from Arty Bees on Courtenay Place.
Yes, miracles upon miracles, the landlord has finally fixed the leaks in the roof. Hurrah!
I mean we all like Mother Nature, but we do prefer it on the outside of the building as a general rule. *****

So, on that very triumphant note, it is time to bid you adieu.

Until next time,
Robynne. aka the BGH

* Whoops, I didn't mean to mention the "C" word so early - but while I'm on the topic did I also mention I had all my shopping done and wrapped already? Not that I'm boasting, well, OK, actually I am… Back

** My beloved Batman (now Dr Batman) says that now that we don't email out the newsletter, it is technically a blog. Apparently this is the latest "grass roots publishing revolution, man!" (Hail the hippy in us all!) And we did it without even noticing… Yay! Back

*** Some books, like bad pennies or homing pigeons just keep coming back — I once had a lady looking for a copy of an Italian grammar book she had used for a YMCA course in 1962 — she had sent her copy to the Salvation Army in the early 70's and we not only had the right title, it turned out to be her copy!
P.S. The colon in the referenced paragraph was supplied by Dr Batman free of charge. Back

**** But not all of them. Some train their people to run around the house with a towel after them, until they give up and collapse into a hissing, purring ball of contradictions. And then they go outside again ten minutes later. Then they come back in and find the most expensive and inappropriate thing they can, to leave big muddy paw prints all over. Or rub one whole side of their body in a misguided show of affection (malice?) all over the lower shelves of your bookshelf. Which brings us back to soggy books. Ah, the circle of life… Back

***** Unless you count the tonnes of wood (not from virgin native forest) that make up the bulk of our shelves, and indirectly, our books. Back

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