Salvation Army Family Store Highbury: a North Shore favourite with a mixed reputation

Highbury is Birkenhead's village shopping centre on Auckland's North Shore, a small strip of cafes and local shops around Birkenhead Avenue. This Family Store is one of the anchors of that strip and, by size, one of the bigger Salvation Army outlets in the area.

Several reviewers name it as a genuine favourite — one calls it 'one of my favourite op shops' for the range of secondhand goods and the hours you can lose browsing books and clothes, and another rates Birkenhead their favourite 'Sally' store specifically for its size and the breadth of furniture, clothing and homeware on offer.

It's not universally glowing, though: one review noted that staff at both this Birkenhead store and the nearby Glenfield branch can be unfriendly or rude at times, which pulls the overall picture down to around 3.8 out of 5 on one rating site. It's worth going in with realistic expectations on service while still expecting a solid range of stock.

Trading six days a week, it takes donated clothing, furniture, homewares, toys and books, with proceeds going toward the Salvation Army's wider community and welfare programmes.