St Aidan's Op Shop: a small mission shop on Remuera's Ascot Avenue

Ascot Avenue sits just off Remuera Road, in one of Auckland's more established suburbs, and St Aidan's Op Shop occupies a modest spot within the church grounds there. It's run by St Aidan's Anglican parish, with proceeds going toward the parish's local and international mission and community support work rather than a separate charity brand — a common setup for church-run op shops that doesn't always get the recognition bigger charity chains do.

What online presence the shop has skews positive, though there isn't a large volume of it — a handful of directory mentions describe a well-curated stock of clothing, books and homeware, with reviewers noting friendly service and reasonable prices. That tracks with the general pattern for small parish shops: a loyal, mostly local customer base rather than a wide review footprint.

The trade-off for that curated, unhurried feel is limited opening hours. The shop trades Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10am until 2pm, and is closed the rest of the week — so it's not a shop to swing by on a whim on a Monday or Sunday.

If you're doing a loop of Remuera's op shops, St Aidan's is worth folding into a Thursday-to-Saturday morning trip. It's a short, easy stop rather than a destination in itself, but that's part of its appeal for regulars who pop in on their way past.