Novita Gifts

On Todd Mall, the pedestrian heart of Alice Springs, a homewares and kitchenware shop has been run by the same husband-and-wife team, Peter and Ann, since 1980. The stock is the practical, giftable middle ground the town would otherwise have to order in from interstate: crockery and glassware, pots and knives, candles and fragrances, jewellery and the odd wedding-registry piece. Four decades in one location have made it the default for a birthday present, a housewarming or a replacement teapot, with a wedding registry service and free local delivery that speak to its role in the community rather than the tourist trade. It ships nationwide now, but the shopfront remains resolutely bricks-and-mortar, a survivor among the art galleries and souvenir outlets that dominate the Mall. For homewares with no chain-store equivalent closer than Adelaide or Darwin, it is the local institution.