IF the mob last Sunday at Real Groovy’s closing sale are anything to go by many people will miss the record store.  And the Courtenay Place crowd will miss Bennetts Gift World.
Combined, Real Groovy records on Cuba Street and Bennetts Gift World on Courtenay Place represent more than fifty years of trading in Wellington. But the owners of both stores have decided to shut up shop permanently.
When Mark Thomas bought the Real Groovy Wellington store he could not have foreseen the country was on the eve of recession. He purchased the store after the chain went into receivership in October 2008.
“There’s been a significant decline in record sales since the recession hit,” Thomas says. “Once you fill the car with petrol and get the groceries people don’t have much left for other things.
Thomas says with intense competition from multi-national record chains, and more people downloading free music, business wasn’t improving.
“I’ve decided to take control of the situation now while I have control of the situation,” Thomas, adding “I hope to open a smaller version of the store at some point but we’ll have to wait and see what happens to this one first.”
But for Robyn Bowers, owner of Bennetts Gift World, her decision to close after 40 years of trading has more to do with lifestyle change than talk of recession.
 “I want to go out on a high,” Bowers says.  “My decision to close is not a sign of the times, it’s just my choice. I just want to have a life.”
Bowers says she’ll be putting her feet up for a year at home before deciding what to do. While she’s looking forward to retirement she admits she will miss one aspect of the job.
“The customers. Three generations of some families have shopped here so you get to know them quite personally.”
The spending habits of those customers have changed over the years. Bowers says people used to buy bone china and crystal, and when she first took over the store her mainstay was Crown Lynn.
“Today we live in a throw away society and we don’t buy expensive bone china dinner sets anymore. Now I sell a bit of everything, whatever’s fashionable.”
Bowers hasn’t set a closing date but thinks it will be about two months away. She says she’s too busy with the closing down sale to think about any big party. Mark Thomas on the other hand wants to go out with a bang.  While the Real Groovy probably won’t close until the end of May he’s planning a special day of celebration in the store on April 16 with a party at the Southern Cross in the evening.
“The customers have been amazingly loyal to the store. We want to repay them somehow,” Thomas says.