NZ-based businesses I use for my mail club!
MITA CREATIVEPrior to starting this blog post, I thought my process involved 5 different NZ-based businesses! I've since realised, there are about 7 (for now), and hopefully, more to come!
As a NZ business owner, and even more so, a Māori one, managing and operating a pakihi can be a TOUGH gig. It doesn't ensure financial security, it doesn't ensure stability, but it does give you the opportunity to be more flexible about your lifestyle and priorities. For this reason, supporting other NZ-based businesses felt like an obvious non-negotiable when setting up the Young Māori Poetry mail club.
In this post, I share 5 of the NZ-based businesses you all help to support with every bit of engagement sent my way!
It wouldn't be the nostalgic letter-based kaupapa without an iconic envelope, right? For the Young Māori Poetry mail club, I've opted for a C5-sized envelope for the times I want to include an A5-sized print (like in ISSUE 002). On this website, you can search for the perfect envelope via size, colour, paper weight, affordability, and more - knowing what envelope size you have (to the millimetre) also helps with estimating postage costs!
Because I'm still in the development, building, and learning stage of this mail club, my purchase quantities are still quite small. This means I'm not buying enough to reduce the per unit cost - however, I am totally fine with that compromise given the envelopes I use are also made in Aotearoa! In this economy? Yes, because we love to support local, e te whānau!
Additional note: the C5 envelope measures 162mm x 229mm, which is classified as a "large" size for standard letter sending with NZ-Post. This is why the postage fee is $4.20!
When you get your letter in the mail, you will notice a recyclable plastic slip inside the envelope! When setting up the mail club, I watched how a lot of other mail clubs added this as a precautionary measure to protect the paper-based goods in the event of wet weather. Luckily, I already knew about Artist Services through the work we do in our creative business, MITA Creative.
If you're a member of the Young Māori Poetry mail club, you now know exactly where to purchase recyclable and reliable art packaging from! Other positives? they're great at sending out goods on the week of ordering - being NZ-based also means that their packages may arrive in time to fulfil even the spontaneous and last minute ideas!
If you've ever received an A4 letter from the Young Māori Poetry club, you might have noticed the emblem stamped on a part of the paper! Yes, that is absolutely a hand-held wooden stamp, and yes, it is made in NZ by the most whimsical little business - Stamps and More!
When first setting up the mail club, I had attempted many times to carve out my own rubber stamp. I ended up spending the same amount on attempts, as if I had of purchased from Stamps and More in the first place! I love my emblem stamp, and being a NZ-based business, the custom stamp was a lot cheaper than some of the other overseas options I had considered!
Another note: it actually arrived at my door, custom-made, within 5 days of ordering it!
Gisborne might give small town vibes, but some of the businesses here turn around big numbers (and achievements, at that!). In 2024, the Gisborne Paper Plus store won the Paper Plus Book Retailer of the Year award at the Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards. This store is owned by a local couple, and is also where I go to send out my letters!
Although there are numerous postal shops around Gisborne, my experience in this shop was the best! I had pātai around ascertaining costs, learning about how the postal service works (especially sending overseas), how the sticker and stamp system works, and I also wanted some tips on how I could organise myself to make the processing on their end easier - this is why I've chosen Paper Plus (Gisborne) as my go to postal drop off - I definitely don't trust those randomly placed postal boxes to get all of your letters out to you, undisturbed, that's for sure!
This is the printing company I use for work that requires a strong black. Given most of the creative mahi I do sits within the black and white spectrum, finding a printer that could bring through that rich black on a recycled card has been really important to me! Through our design business, we were referred here by others based in Auckland - they had only the best things to say, including affordability. Additionally, I had used at least 4 other NZ-based printing companies prior to this, and even Vistaprint (overseas-based, not the best quality either!) and this printer has definitely delivered the best result for us (in both contexts).
Thank you to these businesses for helping me fulfil this creative kaupapa of mine!