Whitcoulls in Auckland, New Zealand

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Telephone:	+64 9-356 5410
Website:	www.whitcoulls.co.nz
Address:	131 Queen St, Auckland, New Zealand, 1010 Auckland CBD
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:	700 ft51 Victoria Street 860 ftSky Tower 0.3 miLorne Street
Categories:	Office Equipment Books, Mags, Music & Video

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Today

Today	10:00 am – 6:00 pm Closed now
Local time (Auckland)	8:16 PM Sunday, July 6, 2025

Business hours

Monday	9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday	9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Wednesday	9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Thursday	9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Friday	9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday	9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday	10:00 am – 6:00 pm

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7 reviews of Whitcoulls

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Rachel C.

Place rating: 4
Auckland, New Zealand

I miss book stores! Wandering the isles trying to find that mind opening read you’ve been waiting for.
Whitcoulls is a Queen St staple. More than just a book store it has everything from books to stationary to crafts. Enormous selection too!

Keith E.

Place rating: 3
Pukekohe, New Zealand

I used to travel into Auckland just to come and visit Whitcoulls DVD section. Now it looks like they are trying to phase out them completely. There was hardly any selection, a few blu-rays. Mainly magazines in that section now.
The rest of the store was brimming with books and their usual stock items. How times have changed.

Sophie H.

Place rating: 2
Auckland, New Zealand

I think it’s essentially a crime to read a book, or to buy a book in such a sterile environment. A book can’t thrive under such conditions, or such harsh lighting for that matter! For me the purchase of every book is a thrill, a thrill that curls up and dies at Whitcoulls.
I remember when Whitcoulls used to to be a real standout performer in the bookseller biz but it has been eclipsed in Auckland by smaller, independently owned stores that cater to a more personal experience.
My experiences with the sales assistants is usually pretty bad, I don’t think any of them actually know how to read let alone the atrocity that someone in recruitment services has hired them to work in a bookstore.
I go in there solely now for their greeting card sales. Ah as Gotye succinctly put: Now you’re just somebody that I used to know (Whitcoulls)

Eddie D.

Place rating: 3
Auckland, New Zealand

As a chain Whitcoulls doesn’t have the greatest reputation for quality. You know, it’s a bit generic and middle-of-the-road. While I think this is probably true of their book selection (oh good, another Jeremy Clarkson autobiography? Fuck off), their stationery department upstairs is actually pretty decent. They have the whole range of office stuff you’d expect from a shop surrounded by office buildings, but they also have a reasonable selection of art supplies. I’ve started buying my inking brushes from there as they’re a comparable quality to the ones I’d get at Gordon Harris, but a whole lot cheaper.
The staff in the stationery department are pretty nice, and I’ve always found them to be helpful when I can’t find something. I can’t speak for the ones downstairs though, as I’ve never wanted anything from the book department. Oh, and don’t bother comic here for comics. They do sell them, but not usefully so.

Zoë M.

Place rating: 2
Auckland, New Zealand

I buy the odd Lotto ticket here, and I went in to get $ 5 off a book when I had a Book Month voucher. But there really has to be a driving reason for me to visit. They can remodel the shop all they like, but until it stocks some books I want to read (excluding the small selection of paperback classics) I won’t shop there regularly.
I used to think Whitcoull’s was okay for stationery, but I went in recently and asked if they had any crêpe paper and the assistant on the second floor art supplies section stared at me blankly before asking me to describe it. Describe it?! Um, it looks like crêpe paper, and it probably has crêpe paper written on the label somewhere… eventually she sent me to another floor (to get rid of me, I suspect).
The crux of it is that Whitcoull’s is just full of really trashy books that they pile up on tables at discounted prices and can’t sell even then. They could start with supporting New Zealand literature, at least.

Trevor C.

Place rating: 3
Auckland, New Zealand

I must say the artist in me finds that going to Whitcoulls is a pretty dispiriting experience. It’s all so commercial that I would say it’s not really a book store — it’s a stationery shop that sells books. The choice of fiction is hardly inspired either — it’s just all the crap you would find at an airport bookstore. Mind you the branch at Albany mall does have a good selection of Fiction which presumbly they got from when it was Borders. Even the stationery is quite expensive there — you can get far cheaper stuff at the Warehouse. I do get that books are not economically viable today so they need to sell the stationery to make ends meet but they could try having a little section of cult books or something to make it more interesting. Books are quite expensive in New Zealand compared to countries like the UK and it’s good to know we can buy new releases on Kindle these days.

Katherine L.

Place rating: 3
Auckland, New Zealand

I used to love Whitcoulls on Queen Street but now I go in there and it just feels plain sad. I went in to get some double sided tape and bulldog clips and my interactions with the staff were reasonably good. The range of product is huge, you’re most likely to find what you want in terms of stationery and magazines and the like, but my god it feels like the life has been sucked out of it. Maybe it’s the fluorescent lighting, who knows. Either way, you’re not really going to Whitcoulls for the ambiance so who cares, right?