Like most Dunedin people in the 1990s, Mrs Armstrong lamented the decline of Princes St as a shopping precinct.
But, unlike most Dunedin people, she did something about it.
One afternoon she was in the street with her daughter and new granddaughter when she decided she had had enough of empty shop windows.
"I said, 'this is disgusting'."
"We had the picture frames sitting there, and there were these ugly things inside.
"Sometimes there was newspaper [covering windows], which I loathe.
"Sometimes they were dirty.
"Sometimes there was even vomit."
So, for the first four and a-half years of the new millennium, she, her husband Alex, daughter Julie, artists and window dressers created lively displays and installed them in the formerly grubby windows of 16 empty Princes St shops.
She called the venture "Thru Windoz" and the displays celebrated anything and everything from the Queen Mother to Christine Rankin, from Old King Cole to the Battle of Britain, from breastfeeding to the value of recycling tyres, from America's Cup success to the All Blacks' 1999 Rugby World Cup ... well you get the picture.
And, at the end of the project - when all the empty windows they had cleaned and brightened had been let for new commercial uses - she wrote a book on how she did it and how it could be done again.
"When we'd finished, I felt we had to have something to show what we had done because it had been such a long project."
And now the city council is talking about doing it again.
As part of a proposed total Rugby World Cup spend of $580,000, council marketing communications agency manager Debra Simes is suggesting $30,000 be used to improve the look of empty shops.
The money would be spent identifying them, contacting landlords and discussing how their shops could be improved "and then working in conjunction with the landlord to clean the frontage and then put something inside the window that improves the appearance over and above a straightforward, vacant, empty street frontage and building."
Ms Simes says her department gets comments from visitors about "unsightly" vacant premises.
"Once premises are vacant for an extended period of time they start to look quite dilapidated.
"What I am just putting forward to the council is the feedback that we have had and our own observations that there are an increasing number of vacant premises."
An Otago Daily Times search for empty shops this week found:
• six in George St, although two were in the process of being refurbished.
• three in St Andrew St.
• two in Moray Pl.
• six in Princes St north of the former chief post office.
When Mrs Armstrong began her campaign, there were 22 empty windows in Princes St alone.
"Everyone agreed something should be done but no one had money.
"We started it with our family mostly and then gradually we got help from the council and the community trust - once we'd proved ourselves."
Mrs Armstrong recalls the main argument from the council was that it was being asked to put money into buildings owned by private individuals.
"My thought was `well they're not getting any rent at the moment and the place is looking dowdy, so let's do something'."
Mrs Armstrong put up $1700 of her own money to get things started.
"We didn't want it to fail. Once we started it going, you couldn't just leave it."
Then, with the help of Work and Income, the council, the community trust and donations from individual businesses, including the ODT, Mrs Armstrong employed a full-time artist, the late Simon Dakers, for six months.
Mr Dakers was responsible for the first of the project's 200 displays using bright colours, positive and amusing messages and plenty of paint and polystyrene.
In 2002 the Dunedin Fringe Festival became involved, providing artists with space for their own installations.
Festival director Paul Smith said the window displays were "fantastic".
"It was very much 'of Dunedin'. It was unique and it was interesting to look at."
His organisation would be "more than happy" to do something similar again.
Otago Polytechnic academic leader communication Caroline McCaw organised the fringe event and said 10 or 12 artists were involved and as well as installations, there were performances in some windows.
"Artist Cathy Helps spent time in a shop window, a period of a week I think, and she made a painting observing people observing her."
Ms McCaw said she had students who could provide installations for the world cup.
Mrs Armstrong said it was one thing to find artists. It was another to find artists willing to clean windows.
"I wanted someone who would say `oh yeah, I'll put my display in and I'll clean the windows to make sure the display stays in a nice condition'. They didn't want to know about that."
She always insisted that displays had a "professional" look.
"They must look professional because if you put up something that's just grotty, you are only adding to the grottiness of the place. That was something I was really careful of."
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie does not consider there is the same problem with empty shops that there was in the 1990s and that could be partly because landlords had reduced rents or given rent holidays to help tenants through "reasonably difficult trading conditions".
He said landlords were aware it was better in the long term to hang on to their existing tenants.
"So I'm sure there are many, many deals being done in terms of trying to help retailers particularly through what have been tough times.
"But that's not to say we are not going to see some tightening up still in the retail sector, particularly in the main street."
He said it was up to the community to weigh up the various ways $30,000 could be spent to make the city look vibrant during the Rugby World Cup.
Last time, Mrs Armstrong's group wound up when all their shops were let and she was delighted they had done themselves out of a job.
"But my word, it's needed again now, isn't it?"
Why bother?
The benefits of filling empty shop windows ...
• billboard posters were no longer attached to windows
• vandalism was reduced
• many special events and local personalities were celebrated
• non-profit organisations had opportunities to create displays
• an attractive, cleaner and tidier environment was created
• an illusion of a vibrant, successful retailing area was achieved
• part-time employment for four people
• positive feedback and support
• enthusiasm and support from neighbouring retailers regarding their improved outlook.
From Dunedin Vision: Thru Windoz by Bernice Armstrong.
Window on the world
It could almost be said that having a few empty shop windows around Dunedin would make international visitors to the city feel right at home, given that many rugby tourists will be from England, Ireland and Scotland.
With bigger economic problems than New Zealand, Britain also has a higher proportion of empty shops and, judging by internet content, seems to be looking to its local authorities to tackle the problem.
In Redcar, Teeside, for instance "virtual" restaurants, bookshops, gift shops and fashion stores have been created by the council to improve the look of town centres there.
In Rotherham, South Yorkshire, "urban artists" have been used to improve the look of empty shop fronts in its High Street and empty shops are being disguised in Belfast and Brighton.
There is even an "empty shops network" for people creating temporary "pop-up" shops in town centres.
