Small business: Conscious consumerism is key for Crushes

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Rose Hope (pictured), co-founder of ethical concept store Crushes along with Sarah Firmston, believes in conscious consumerism and the importance of shopping for New Zealand-made products. The Karangahape Road business has been a staple for over a decade, but faces challenging times as foot traffic struggles to recover post-Covid.
Rose Hope, co-founder of Crushes, talks to Tom Raynel about running an ethical business in today’s economy, and what she thinks Auckland needs in order to bring back a sense of community.
What is Crushes?

Crushes is an ethical concept store. So we love to say if you need to
buy something, then you can put your money into positive and safe places. We sell 60 local businesses’ products here, so you’re supporting the community, the makers and the industry.

There’s also curated second-hand clothing, allowing people to eject out of exploitative, questionable labour practices within the fashion industry. So it’s kind of like we do the hard work to soothe the soul before someone gets here so they can just shop to their values.
What inspired you and co-founder Sarah Firmston to start the business?
Sarah lived on top of a flat that had a shop space. At that point, I was flipping clothing on Trade Me, and she was collecting clothing and selling it out there. We met and really quickly started a store, just on a handshake – there were no contracts or anything. We were just predominantly interested in making something cute, with an aesthetic, and fun. Then we became aware of who makes clothes and why.
We started realising what we offer with second-hand clothing, as well as only New Zealand-made products, is actually something quite powerful in terms of enabling the consumer to change their ways of consuming and disposing of their clothing.
Why did you decide on a circular business model?
Well, I think at the time, it was really popular in Auckland to go to craft markets over the weekend. So our initial business plan in 2011 was: Why is there not a market that’s open 24/7? So these makers don’t have to spend the whole weekend sitting at a little store, hoping people come by? They could keep making, and we could be the market that’s open.
Remember, this was before online platforms through which makers could sell directly. So that was quite powerful, and lots of one-person businesses did see quite great value in having a physical and online space that would do the work for them. Of course, that’s not crazy now, but it was pretty revolutionary in 2011.
How is the business faring at the moment?
It’s pretty incredible – we’ve got 13 years to compare it to and this, by far, has been the toughest year, even compared to 2020 or 2021 with all the lockdowns and stuff. I think several things contribute to it. I think Karangahape Road has always been for a younger student, an alternative kind of community.
I think people forget about young workers who are getting squeezed out of food, housing opportunities and all these things – they’re no longer spending. And so for lots of us who are serving them, we’re getting squeezed out of the industry. These people who no longer have the money to go shopping are trying to be supportive in their own ways without the finances to do so, because they love what we do.
Building a physical manifestation of the brand and creating somewhere for people to come together is a huge part of what motivates me to do what I do. Even though it may seem pretentious, I feel like Crushes and places like it are a gift to the city. My lament is for all that the city will lack when we’re all gone.
Speaking of community, could you tell me more about the social club?
So coming out of lockdown, I felt personally the thing that I wanted, more than stuff, was definitely to feel connected and to relearn what I would enjoy doing to socialise. I definitely felt like there was a death or process, personally, of trying to integrate back into society. I think also, with so many being in an age bracket where you’re either getting pregnant or moving out of Auckland, there’s value in finding like-minded people.
I felt like: Crushes has such amazing people that surround it with their makers, shoppers or visitors. I thought, “If you could only meet each other, you would really like each other.”
So we put together a weekly events programme full of workshops, gatherings and parties, especially friendship speed-dating and the Auckland clothes swap, both of which became very successful in their own ways, as well as monthly knitting clubs and monthly book clubs. And it’s been fabulous to see – people have new besties out of it. So that’s been quite a career highlight for me, because it felt really important.
What is your advice to other budding entrepreneurs?
We made sure to always grow very slowly because it was sustainable in terms of our growth and ensuring our future. I think part of that is to not have more staff than you need, but invest in the ones you’ve got financially so they’re happy to go that little extra bit further.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.
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