We stock about a gazillion different magazine titles as well as stationery across our 5 stores in Australia, New Zealand and online.

Archive for August, 2010

Free coffee for Foursquare users

Monday, August 30th, 2010

An article in The Herald Sun today reports that social networking site Foursquare has hit 3 million users. While that’s not large by Facebook or Twitter standards it is, well, three times the population of Auckland. And growing rapidly.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the latest developments in mobile technology, Foursquare is a location-aware game for iPhones/Androids/Blackberries which involves ‘checking in’ to physical spaces with your phone, letting your friends know that you’re there and winning points and unlocking all kinds of specials the more check-ins you make along the way.

We’ve just started a special offer for Foursquare users where every fifth time to check-in to our Elizabeth Street store, we’ll give you a free coffee.

Got any other ideas for specials? We’d love to hear them.

My Top 5 Mags: Omar, Nacho and Marco from Apartamento

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Apartamento issue 5

Take a deep breath. It’s arrived. Issue #05 of Apartamento has just landed and is now available all six of our stores across Australia and New Zealand. (Yeah, we know. Finally!)

We love this magazine. And, as evidenced by the veritable avalanche of calls, e-mails, tweets, texts, telegrams and carrier pigeons that we receive in the lead up to the release of every issue, it looks like you guys are pretty fond of it as well. And if you’ve managed to somehow avoid crossing paths with this mag (which is actually pretty easy, because it generally sells out in a day or two) then allow us to introduce you:

Founded by Omar Sosa, Nacho Alegre and Marco Velardi in Barcelona two years ago, Apartamento is the world’s first ‘everyday interiors’ magazine. Which is to say, it’s an interiors magazine about real people living in real houses that don’t necessaily look like spaceships, aren’t set into the side of a mountain in rural Switzerland, probably don’t have infinity lap pools and might not have even been designed by real architects.

More than gleaming white cubes and perfectly manicured lawns, Apartamento is a magazine about space and the way that people occupy it.

This latest issue has features on an allotment for growing fruit and vegetables in Sweden, an amazing book-filled lair in Barcelona’s Raval district, Lovefoxxx from CSS talking about her Såo Paulo apartment (“This is the first time I’ve had a home of my own. I rule this motherfucking place.”) and an article on French architects Jean Renaudie’s post-war social housing blocks in the suburbs of Paris.

Subscribers, we’ll be sending your copies out first thing tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we’ve got the editors of Apartamento choosing their top five favourites magazines for your reading pleasure…

1. 032c

032c magazine

Almost 10 years on the run and probably one of the magazines that will be remembered the most from the beginning of this century.

2. Financial Times Weekend

FT Weekend

All Sunday papers should look at the Financial Times Weekend edition with the Arts & Leisure and House & Home supplements.

3. Acne Paper

Acne Paper

Amazing layout and well curated editorial that makes you wish more brands had such taste in print.

4. Purple Fashion

Purple Fashion

Purple is one of those magazines you can’t keep your eyes off, no matter what shape or form it will take next.

5. Casa Vogue

Casa Vogue

An ode to decadence and impossible style, mixing the worst with the most exquisite taste, this is the only interior magazine we must bow to.

Win the last Copy of Carl*s Cars

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

As much as High Gear Monthly (okay, that’s not a real title…) would have you believe, a healthy interest in cars doesn’t have to make you a ‘car person’, with a denial of any interests outside the garage. As the first quarterly mag to successfully make car culture as aesthetically pleasing as a Polaroid snap, Carl*s Cars is a Norwegian gem that seeks to use vehicles as a means to make vehicles and culture park parallel. From gloomy underground garages to the scribbles of Justin Timberlake, this boutique mag’s love of people, cars and lifestyle even led the team to the far reaches of Finland, simply to visit some obscure town called Autotehtaankatu. Now that’s dedication to your mufflers.

Edition 27 of this innovative little publication features a great feature profiling the infamous French Citroën “surgeon” Jean Blondeau, a photoshoot in the parking lot of Monte Carlo Casino, and a rather lovely look at the rides of Norwegian psychedelic-rock group Serena Maneesh. According to lead singer Emil Nikolaisen, if the band were indeed a vehicle, they would be some “blurby, slurpy, silver machine on its way down the expressway to your skull.” Wow, both smooth AND creepy. In a fusion of fashion, culture, music, photography, social nuances and… well… cars (obviously), the illusive “Carl” and friends have crafted a wonderfully slick little pageturner that (unsurprisingly) has just about sold out at Mag Nation.

So here’s the clincher. With just ONE copy left in our Melbourne store, we would rather make this fair game than disappoint the masses.

To win the final copy of Carl’s paper drive, simply tell us the craziest thing you’ve ever done in a car. High-speed chases, laundry en route, letterbox baseball- anything remotely ridiculous at 80km/hr could snare you the final copy of Norway’s finest car culture magazine. (Mag Nation edit after a day of reflection… No. We don’t really want to hear about speed or vandalism. Crazy stuff in a car yes, but please ensure it is legal or at least socially responsible. Speed does kill folks). Editor Karl Eirik Haug claims he used his Citroën DS as an office, a bedroom and a “meeting place for independent thinkers” all over Scandinavia. Surely now, you can do better than that. Enter your responses in the comments field below.

NB. Alfa Romeos, keep your tales reasonably clean… we sure won’t publish gear-changing backseat motoring adventures, unless it’s creatively written in haiku.

High Powered Conversations at Mag Nation HQ

Friday, August 6th, 2010

It’s not all fun and games at Mag Nation HQ. From time to time, we get involved in some really heavy issues. The email exchange below is completely unedited from start to finish, with the exception of a client name to protect their identity. Seriously.

From: Mag Nation Queen St.
Sent: Wed 04-Aug-10 11:50 a.m.
To: Ravi Pathare
Subject: Gay mags

Ravi,

(Insert unnamed IVF clinic here) have an account with us to send them porn once a month but we don’t get any Gay porn titles anymore, can we put them back on order?

mag nation
100 Queen Street
PO Box 106196
Auckland CBD
Tel: 3666 216

________________________________

From: Ravi Pathare
Sent: Wed 4/08/2010 12:02
To: Mag Nation Queen St.
Subject: RE: Gay mags

How many gay porn titles do they want per month and what nos. of each?

Ravi Pathare
Managing Director
Mag Nation Pty Ltd
100 Queen St.

________________________________

From: Mag Nation Queen St.
Sent: Wed 04-Aug-10 12:05 p.m.
To: Ravi Pathare
Subject: RE: Gay mags

Two a month, along with two straight porn and one mens mag. I have the others on hold waiting to send out once a couple of gay titles come in, but DNA/Attidude are just lifestyle magazines

mag nation
100 Queen Street
PO Box 106196
Auckland CBD
Tel: 3666 216

________________________________

From: Ravi Pathare
Sent: Wed 4/08/2010 13:16
To: Mag Nation Queen St.
Subject: RE: Gay mags

Understand. For the intended purpose, DNA/Attitude simply won’t cut it.

Ravi Pathare
Managing Director
Mag Nation Pty Ltd
100 Queen St.
Auckland
New Zealand.

________________________________

From: Vali Valibhoy
Sent: Wed 04-Aug-10 1:20 p.m.
To: Ravi Pathare
Subject: Re: Gay mags

________________________________

From: Ravi Pathare
Sent: Wed 4/08/2010 13:22
To: Mag Nation Queen St.
Subject: RE: Gay mags

Mama Mia?

Ravi

________________________________

From: Vali Valibhoy
Sent: Wed 04-Aug-10 1:50 p.m.
To: Ravi Pathare
Subject: Re: Gay mags

This is destined for the blog.

________________________________

Hot drinks and magazines

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

In the wake of a very small mention at the end of an article on Chai tea in The Age recently, Chai sales at our Melbourne stores have gone through the roof. We’re talking like, a 400% increase. Which is pretty much bananas, when you consider that of ‘Ten Places to Try’, we’re listed right near the end at number seven!

It has to be said, though, that we don’t really sell a lot of hot drinks. Which is a constant source of befuddlement for us… ’cause in addition to our Chai all other flavours of tea, we make a pretty darn good coffee!

It’s not extracted from beans shat out by Indonesian monkeys nor is it Clover extracted single origin, you know, coffee nerd coffee but if we do say so ourselves, we make a pretty tasty cup of joe.

It’s with some bewilderment then, that we’ll occasionally see customers queued up out the doors of the coffee chain next to our Melbourne CBD store while our machine trickles out just the occasional latte. So, as a special offer you, blog readers, if you come into our Elizabeth Street store this week (Monday, 2nd of August — Friday, 6th August) and bring in a friend (with a printed copy of this blog post) and introduce them to our delicious espresso, then we’ll happily give each of you a coffee on us. On the house. Gratis. Free.

(Yeah, yeah, we know, we are the nicest guys in magazine/coffee retail. What can we say?)