First of all a big thank you to our customers for all your support this year. As challenging as the past year has been, we feel so blessed to have such a lovely crowd of loyal customers. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
	Holiday opening hours 2011/2012 As you may have noticed, we will be closed between Christmas and New Year for the first time in 20 years, to give all our dedicated team members a well-deserved break. We will be re-opening on Wednesday 4th of January. So if you need gifts for your hosts, if you’re hanging out for a decent coffee from the Quake café, or you just want to browse a little after Christmas – our refreshed staff will be happy to help you in the first week of January…
	Interior designer We are more than happy to welcome Lucy to our team. She started with us in November this year and took over Justine’s role. So if you're stuck with a lack of creative input or good ideas for your “new” home – just let us know, Lucy will be able to help you.
	Demolition on the old site At this stage, our old Casual & Country Store and Café building is going to be demolished in late January. We’ll be keeping the quake café running in the shed on site. Sad, but exciting to be moving along at last. Plans for the new building are well underway, although the start date for the rebuild is a little uncertain at this stage.
	New stock arriving A container from overseas just arrived. Great new leather corner units waiting for you, and there is more dining furniture, coffee tables, TV units arriving in January. So it’s worth having a wee peek in January/February if you’re planning to buy new furniture…
	So, now enjoy the holiday time, relax and have a great Christmas. We’ll see you in 2012 Warmest wishes from all the team at Casual and Country

Come and meet Mike, our new barista, who is joining us in our funky shed, teaming up with Derek to make you the best coffee in town. Our chef Mark is delighted to welcome another bloke. Higher testosterone levels, but not up to world cup levels we hope. Our sheilas, Alanna, Megan, AJ, Kirstin, Kelly, and Jane, will keep an eye on them.

 

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Mr & Mrs back in store!

Mr & Mrs room fragrance is finally back in store! It’s so popular, hurry, it sells like hot cakes… Here is a useful tip: Your local hardware store sells “seismic wax”. Use that for the bottom of the bottle, stick it to a surface and save the precious aroma throughout shaky times!

Ferry Road is open again (aren’t they great!), so you can access us the usual way, yeah! Tap water is flowing again, so back to more food variety in the café. We’re open normal hours. So, see you soon!

Once again! We don’t really know what to say, except for keep hanging in there! Our store is open again after a massive clean up on Tuesday. Our Café is up and running again as well with only takeaways due to the missing tap water.  Please do come and visit us. We’d love to see you even for just a wee chat. Here are some directions: Ferry Rd is closed off, so drive in through Humphreys Drive over a few more bumps, we’re here!

We did it! Today was our first trading day in our ‘holiday home’ and we loved it. Lots of familiar faces – it was great to catch up with you guys; … lots of hugs and interesting stories – a really fun day. Thank you all very much for coming in and saying hello. We also have heaps of things for you with special pricing. So poke your nose in and check us out! Our new ‘holiday home’ opening hours are mon-fri 9.00am-5.30pm and sat-sun 10.00am-4pm. Come in our old driveway, look right for the store or turn left for a coffee. See you soon!

GRAND RE-OPENING SALE Our new store located at the corner of Humphreys Drive and Ferry Road (previously the Seventh Wave building) is opening on Monday 23rd May. Furniture, Vases, Cushions, everything on your EQC list... Come in our old driveway, get a coffee from our "quake"cafe and cross the carpark. We’ve got a warm welcome and lots of bargains for you. We're all looking forward to seeing you soon.

Our new café building is ready for action now. Sit down and drink our really good coffee out of a real cup now! Our food choice is growing as well. Call in and check it out! Store progress is happening too. We’ll re-open on the corner of Humphreys Drive and Ferry Road very soon – watch this space!

N o r m a l   i s   a   s e t t i n g   o n   y o u r   w a s h i n g   m a c h i n e ! Our new store location at 1063F Ferry Road (previously the Seventh Wave building) is getting a new look as we speak – opening plans delayed a little longer into early May – our very excited staff can’t wait to get in there. Your gift-buying-worries are nearly over, and you won’t need to travel to Northwood or Hornby to replace your wine glasses, platters, and vases.

Happy Easter to all our customers and friends, please note that we’ll be closed for the Easter weekend. We are re-opening Tuesday 7am.  Enjoy your Easter eggs and hot-cross buns and have a safe and restful Easter break, stay warm and will see you soon for a coffee…   For any enquiries please contact us on marketing@casualandcountry.co.nz

We hope you have experienced some encouraging things within the last few weeks. We can all do with some good news in these uncertain times.  
Thanks to so many of you who have sent such lovely supportive emails, and for your support and chat at our café shed.  

So what’s progress at Casual and Country?
It has been confirmed that our building is going to be demolished. We don’t know the timeframe for that yet. We are planning to rebuild something exciting, it just might be a while.

BUT in the meantime - very exciting news: we have been able to find temporary premises, in the building previously occupied by Seventh Wave Wetsuits at 1063F Ferry Road,  just across the car park. We’re hoping to re-open the store sometime later this month.  Business will not be quite as usual just yet, but we will have lots of fabulous stock to replace your broken bits and pieces, or to give your homes a bit of a lift.

The Random Outlet store will also operate from our new premises, with a number of additions to our ‘slightly damaged’ range, courtesy of EQ2.  It goes without saying that this stock will be ideal for the bargain-hunter. 

The Café will continue in the shed for a while longer, although we hope to be able to get a bigger building before the winter really sets in.

For any enquiries please contact us on marketing@casualandcountry.co.nz 

BUSINESS NOT QUITE AS USUAL
Tuesday, March 15th 2011

To all our special and valued customers, friends, and members of our community:
 
Our hope is that you and your loved ones are safe and well after the earthquake on
February 22nd. We extend our sympathies to those who have suffered personal loss, and damage or loss to homes and businesses.
 
Our buildings at Casual & Country store and café suffered serious and substantial damage. The store is closed for now, BUT we have worked our butts off to restart our little temporary cafe for those who appreciate a good coffee and a little range of takeaway food. So come and check it out! You can even relax outside (there’s not much room inside).  Your loyalty card works, your points are still valid, and you can still text your order to 027 445 5775.

Regarding the store, it might take a while, until we’re up and running again. At this stage, we’re taking little steps.  We don’t know yet, what the future might bring, but we are trying to save some furniture and homewares ready for sale. We’ll keep you posted about any further development on that front.

In the mean time, we are happy to make some of our lovely customers happy with our little quake café, share some quake chat with familiar faces at the coffee machine, and some good old quality Casual & Country coffee and service.

Come and visit us at 1027 Ferry Rd. We’d love to see you there.  

You are able to contact us on marketing@casualandcountry.co.nz 

Thanks so much for the support we have received already from so many lovely people.

Our love and best wishes to you all
Jenny and John Turnbull

PLEASE NOTE:
Our new opening hours for the cafe are Mon - Fri 7.00am - 3.00pm and Sat - Sun 8.00am - 3pm. We are closed all public holidays. With regard to Easter we are closed Good Friday to Easter Monday.