What is in a name?

There are different types of shop browsers, i've listed them below.

Chatter Shoppers

These are the shoppers that walk in on their mobile phone at the top of their vocal chords and leave still on it. They don’t really look at anything just touch things and spend the entire time telling the whole world their woes and draw contents.

Rail swingers

These shoppers barge in usually sniffing up really aggressively as their nose may drop if they don’t create a temporary vacuum and these browsers rush through the rails at the speed of light browsing for designer labels. They can be quite aggressive in their approach to the rails and often scare older customers away.

Moochers

My personal favourite, the browsers who actually browse and mooch. They look at everything, often stopping for a good ten minutes reading the contents of a book until they realise they already have it at home, and these browsers usually always buy something.

Nit Pickers

Now these browsers are tricky. You can gurantee they will bring items to the till and as your about to ring them in, they inform you they have only brought it to your attention because it is a)sized wrong, b)damaged/stained etc. They keep us on our feet as much as we don’t like when we miss something they NEVER do. They never buy anything.

Jumble Stompers

Browsers who knock everything off the hangers, then walk all over it. I don’t understand this action. They kind of stomp on it infact I’ve seen grown women usually 40-55 knock an item of clothing on the floor and jump up and down thinking no one is looking.

Chud Studs

Usually always men. They walk around and “cough” or “sneeze” and out comes a piece of chewing gum straight onto the carpet and then their wife/girlfriend/child usually stands on it.

David Dickinson

These are not really browsers at all more like vultures who scour for a bargain. Bargains that are worth money to sell on and if they can get it reduced well below the label price they revel in it.

They usually have a magnifying glass (always men for some reason?!), a tape measure and usually come in couples. They buy different things which when they leave you often are left wondering if you will see the item on ”flog it” or antiques road show. Oh if you were thinking these browsers were orange they are not sorry if I misled you.

The Kings Ring

Well not long to the first Noel, a few months and it will all be over. I’ve started already on my shopping. I found a cute shop local to me selling little knick knacks and vintage inspired gifts and I’ve made a start there a bloomin good start. Can I point you in the direction of http://www.collardmanson.com while I remember it is actually my favourite shop and the reason why I’m promoting it on here is many things they stock are similar to some items we receive over the door that are not in any way associated with our charity (although they are welcome to donate if they wished, what a dream that would be for our customers). When I say similar what I mean is I had a wander in their Meadowhall stall as you do, I couldn’t help but be drawn in by its magical pull they stock lots of bespoke items such as candle holders, candle sticks, glass wear, clothing, textiles etc and its inspiring because we could display and market some of our items in a more creative way (I touched on this in the last blog) and it’s amazing that some of the things on offer in stores like this are “one off” vintage inspired items where as we on the other hand sometimes have very old or unwanted bric a brac and ornaments which would fit nice in the right setting, the world is changing and people need to see the potential in recycling and looking at things in another way. I’ve picked part of their vision “We only stock what we believe in”   which is a great line don’t you think?

A little bit like us as a manager we have to “cherry pick” the stock and offer our customers good value and good choice that we believe to be true. Charity shops have the potential to be whatever they want to be as long as they have the right attitude.

Footnotes

“The Kings Ring” note: the king of Jerusalem/First Noel, Reference to William and Kates Marriage when the ring nearly didn’t fit, our silver ring, a kings ring where people battle out their differences, conflict between people”

The case of the missing febreeze plug in

The other day I went into work after my day off and the shop didn’t have its usual lovely ocean breeze smell. Hmm I thought suspicious, so I looked down at the plug socket which was discreetly covered by a large cardboard box full of knitting patterns and I pulled it away to reveal....NOTHING.

Someone had unplugged our air freshener and stole it. I know this because none of the other staff had moved it. I was so shocked, then disheartened and then ultimately angry. Why would someone stoop so low (literally) i mean whats the world coming to...having to lock up your air fresheners, or worse alarm them. Goodness me.
Anyway rant over, last Monday we had a retail meeting, I use the word “Retail” as we are encouraged to drop the charity shop label and use Retail Shop instead which I like as it is more present and current.

More charities are using this term to describe their shops. It’s a good move but it's still perfectly ok to call them charity shops - we sell items that have been donated by kind people like yourselves which is charitable and we make money to help our charity which is very important to moving forward.

Can I just say though more and more people are stopping donating and doing car boots instead to make quick money, this is a little bit saddening  and makes it more important people that people continue to donate to charities as we still offer a great bargain and you are making a difference to a cause.

On the other hand its often very surprising people’s generosity, we have had some lovely donations lately including a nice hand painted vase which we sold for a good price, old antique clocks, vintage tea sets and more. It's great to be able to displays these creatively, for example we used an old CD rack and transformed it into a scarf rail by tying scarves and belts on, other shops I’ve seen using old rails and painting them in kitsch colours such as baby powder and blue with the organisations logo on them. I’ve seen antique mirrors draped in jewellery, old antique chests of drawers with scarves and hats peeping out the draws tempting customer’s imaginations.

I love all this free thinking creatively and if the people and charities embrace this it’s such a step forward into the modern merchandising world such as a time like this when the current demand and boom is for “other world, old fashioned” bespoke ideas and items. I use this in a loose term and many phrases have been coined to this effect and that just goes to show anything goes! 

So I look forward to the future of display as it keeps growing and growing, forget the stolen plug in.

I love the image below imagine a lovely tree like this in our shops covered in jewels and diamonds!!!!!

Just call me charity

I’ve been for a stroll in a well known town today, it’s just right. It has a main street, nice restaurants a lovely Abbey and..wait for it lots of charity shops! Yay I’m in heaven..or not. When you have numerous charity shops all in one area, from a customer’s point of view it can be a little bit of a rollercoaster ride.

The standards vary. A lot! You can go into one that looks a little shabby on the outside but inside it is set out lovely, colour co-ordinated is always nice on the eyes and smells fresh, which can be difficult when you deal with second hand clothes not because they are dirty but because they have sometimes been left a long time in an garage or attic and become a little musty, that’s why we steam the clothes and use air fresheners (my favourite things in the whole world) in the shop and good ventilation all help, most people don’t notice but I do. I sniff first before I look around. I had a good mooch around today bought a few things, but some of the more “high profile” shops are not as nice inside as some of the other charities, it's almost like they become complacent with it yet they could be sat on a goldmine! Their windows leave lots to desire and they don’t display their stock to maximum effect.

I went into one charity shop that resembled ours inside, nice layering of winter jackets with jumpers and funky scarves, little denim waistcoats over vintage 60s blouses. It’s all in the detail and this is what makes the difference - an active interest in merchandising and accessorising the stock is a key skill to obtain and it’s very important as people are more often than not-  V-I-S-U-A-L. Give them a feast for the eyes.

Can I just lay something to rest for some readers that may believe that all stock in a charity shop was previously owned by a deceased person, this couldn’t be further from the truth its nearly always women who have just had a ruffle through their wardrobes and had clear out or a clothes swapping party and want to donate to charity some of it is even current season stock with labels.

I’d say only 5% of what we have donated has the label on but sometimes people rip the tags off and don’t even wear and we end up with it so you’d be very hard pressed to actually find something that has been donated in from a house clearance of the deceased. Although we are grateful for that too that’s where we get our vintage ranges from! Recycling - were well ahead in the game. 5 years ago lots of stock would have been ragged now you see vintage boutiques and retro wholesalers popping up like daffodils in spring. If you go to Lincoln City, which is lovely by the way, there are some amazingly beautiful vintage shops which always inspire me. Market research is important too even for us charity retailers.

9am confession

I want to make a confession. I don’t throw Bibles away. It’s funny people who don’t believe in god in times of hardship and despair call upon the Bible. I’m not saying we are going to give away free bibles with every purchase but I do think it’s something we can’t always put a price on. We often receive donations of high interest and age a few months ago I blogged about a 200 year old Bible, how do you put a price on religion and faith?

This large plaque of Jesus Christ nailed to a cross was donated to one of our volunteers this morning as she was waiting outside, she is a very keen lady and has once or twice been spotted waiting at 8:30am - we don’t open until 9 so I have advised her to stay in bed a little longer but she say’s she likes to wait..wait? wait for what? Armageddon? A train? The new argos catalogue? I still don’t know what she’s waiting for, she actually looks like one of the Queens Guard/Secret Agent she stands very upright and firm and with dark glasses, she appears quite imposing and there is always donations beside her. I’m sure if she stood there all day people would just pile donations on her and she wouldn’t move, which suggests the rest of the week they are stolen so I try to get there earlier now.

Back to my original story we have put Jesus in the window and I hope he goes to a very happy home. Do you know some people call their children or even more surprisingly animals Jesus...Oh lord.

Back in my day....

You hear a lot of people saying “oh back in my day we didn’t have new clothes we had to “make do and mend” and we didn’t have charity shops, look at this Edith it’s hardly been worn its lovely” I used to roll my eyes, this has changed.

Since visiting Eden Camp Museum in Malton I spent a good few hours there and learnt a copious amount about how back during World War 2 people lived and feared for their lives and more importantly how they survived. After this experience, I have a new found respect and interest that maybe I didn’t have before and it proves that its ignorance why many people maybe don’t respect the past.

Whilst walking around I kept noticing items that sometimes pass through our hands at the charity shop, jugs, singer sewing machines, hats, tools, old wooden toys, medicine bottles etc all the sorts of things your Mums, Dads Granddads and Grandmas would have used and played with and maybe kept after the war as a “souvenir” and it amazed me how much history and rarity can pass through the paths of charity shops. I was definitely surprised and a little annoyed we hadn’t kept hold of these artefacts. We are becoming more savvy and learning more about these almost other worldly goods as we should, we have a duty to Autism Plus to make sure these are sold at the correct and fair values as people who donate the items want as much for them as possible or else they wouldn’t donate to charity.

I saw medicine bottles for ailments such as “purifying the blood” & “boils and spots” and “feeling under the weather” imagine a bottle for curing under the weather! Brilliant! Just imagine if people could buy these now. I have included a photo I took of some of the bottles in the museum...

If you look in the photo of the bottles you will notice a Boots product, Boots back in 1940! I think it might be a lung purifier or something to do with having bronchitis I will definitely keep a look out for this in the future! I just hope they have cleaned it first! I must reiterate most of the bottles we have donated into our shop have been emptied and cleaned. (we always wash items before they go out for sale regardless)
Anyway to end this long blog nicely here are some photos of some of my favourite donations today:

A nice ethnic patchwork rug. I’ve seen one very similar in a store called “Collard Manson” , we are very modern aren’t we :)

Also featured is a nice floral cream jug, saucer and sandwich plate beautiful for afternoon tea on the veranda.

A rainmac will not save you

It came with a storm, a raging storm many are saying a storm like they have never seen before, felt before or feared before. A storm that raged the sky’s, the world seemed to grow grey, trees were bowing nearly in half, cars were stranded and all hell broke loose, the heavens opened and the water fell. Enough to flood this town. It was just before closing as we let an elderly lady find refuge in the doorway, as it passed we stood and watched in disbelief as torrential rain came pouring through the top of the fire exit, small stones of hail falling like a cascading waterfall.

Then underneath like a river until a huge puddle formed in the backroom of the shop, water came pouring out from the top of the door. We threw down bags to try and soak up the damage, but it wasn’t doing much good there was just too much water. I opened the fire exit and it was like a small river rapids at Alton towers (I love it there, Halloween is the best time to go, it won’t be long before we pop a pumpkin in our front window will it!) guzzling down the alley way.

Anyway the drains couldn’t take it, the pumps couldn’t distribute the water quick enough and lightning struck peoples trees I found out afterwards, some completely in half, the council will not remove an act of god therefore it is left at the expense of the resident. One victim was one of our own volunteers. 

The scene from a neighbouring shop

The whole town began to flood, many shops suffered severe damage we were quite lucky as some were completely flooded through their lighting and roof. Thankfully ours is a relatively new building so a bit more modern and hardy. Although some of our winter stock and carpeting was damaged in the flood, we had to use heaters and fans to dry it all out. Anyway I hope we don’t have a repeat performance as the town may start resembling the lost city of Atlantis!

I ponder too long I may catch a fish. Or a white Rabbit.

White Rabbit I’m not even going to bother looking up this one I want to live in ponder, but why do they say “White Rabbit” on the first of each month? It’s apparently bad luck to speak before saying this phrase.

It’s the first day of August today, this year is going too blooming fast and I choose the word blooming as I haven’t even had chance to buy any plants yet, I have one lone lavender plant, some mint on my window and a small primitive pepper plant, I bought it for 50p from a gala because I won a St Michael vase, the irony of it all is it’s something I would donate to our charity shop because I’d have no use for it but everything has a story you know, and many objects and clothes have stories and if you are to stop and think for a while what journey it has taken to get to where you are now...

If objects had a soul, a memory and a heart then we would think twice before donating or worse throwing it away. It’s surprising what people throw away, and it’s some young people who don’t understand that their clothes they have had hardly worn would be better suited in one of our shops than the landfill sites. Also lately I’m getting a little annoyed with these shops that let you take a bag of clothes in and give you a small token (pittance), its taking directly from charity shops, people are selling everything these days and I worry one day there won’t be charity shops because the world will turn greedy and consume itself! There I said it, its sacrilege. Please donate to charities they need you.

Next time you donate an item to a charity shop think about it, where it’s come from and where it’s going to go you may be surprised what you remember!

custard, bag pipes and money

Strangest things we have had donated: 

·       A tin of custard

·       A fur coat made out of squirrels (with the heads and tails still attached)

·       Ornaments from Amsterdam full of whisky (see earlier blogs)

·       A cabinet full of cat hair and rabbit droppings

·       Homemade CD albums

·       Empty cardboard boxes

·       200 year old bibles

·       Out of date pack of ginger nuts

·       Underwear (from people you would not expect)

·       Exasperatingly large clothes

·       DVD’s with the adult movies still in the machine drawer (apparently Japanese “actors”)

·       Bag pipes

·       Guns with bullets (mainly decorative) in primark carrier bags

·       Swords (blunt)

·       Bags of rubbish quite literally

·       Adult toys

·       Leather jackets with various random items still in the pockets

·       Lipsticks with the head bitten off

·       Foreign money

Most (if not all!) cannot be sold in the shops and must either be disposed or sent to the authorities but does supply us with endless entertainment. Thank you all for your donations.

To be continued…..

Lace up

We sold a lovely vintage wedding dress today, ivory in head to toe lace. It was beautiful. One of our good customers bought it and she has promised to send a photo of her wearing it and i'll upload it to the blog. She just needs to find herself a husband now, maybe that’s what we will ask for next for people to donate potential husbands, I’m sure we would make a killing, well not literally. Maybe we could exchange them for nice quality clothes.

I’ve been a little sad this week over the passing of Amy Winehouse one of my favourite singers, I saw her live in concert she was incredible, such a shame. RIP Amy Winehouse.

Let there never be a shortage of tea bags

Some people would drink Tea constantly. It’s a social activity that can get you out of work. I've noted if planned properly people can waste a good 15 minutes asking if one would like a drink, asking if you take sugar, milk maybe? How do you like it? Oh don’t use a tea bag in the cup please make mine with a teapot. Then they forget it all and have to ask again, worse is when you make a coffee by mistake, even worse is when you add coffee to a tea bag, this has happened to me a few times. Anyway my point is, our volunteers love tea, it is a job in itself it’s the very essence of life and bonding. It’s the first thing they do and the last, and even if they have a cup in their hand just poured if you asked them if they would like another one then they would surely say yes and have it lined up so they never run out because I feel it is the oil that lubricates their cogs without it they would not survive.

I am sure of it so I always make sure I have tea bags, sugar and milk. Even people that say they never drink tea end up drinking it when they work with us as they say on Star Trek “Resistance to tea is futile”.

I do like tea. Decaf for me though or I would be climbing the ceilings. Then they all have a tea meeting and maybe a biscuit and that sends them into a frenzy! Someone once said to me “your a manager your not supposed to make tea” I don’t agree I am part of the team and it is my job to engage in these activities as part of my team building and ongoing bonding. Although other people are better at it than me. Today we drank a lot of tea.

 

Supplement yourself

I know you’re wondering why is there is a photo of a devilishly handsome Noel Edmonds wearing a rather fetching shirt. Well don’t you think he looks dapper? He looks a little like one of our volunteers but with more hair.

Well I got thinking when I saw this photo that he probably didn’t have this lying around in his wardrobe (maybe HE did) but more went out and bought it from, maybe a charity shop? I have come to the conclusion that in today’s world it isn’t just bargain hunters, or specific charity shop buyers that buy clothes from charity shops but more everyday people wanting to supplement their wardrobe by mixing and matching high street/designer gear with one offs from charity shops.

People assume we have these custom one off pieces that are so old the moths are even extinct but not so true, a lot of what we sell is pretty much your run of the mill, new look, zara, topshop and surprisingly Primark which goes down a storm because it’s a quick fashion turnover selling quirky pieces. A bit like us, so we supplement your wardrobe so it looks fuller, you’re still on trend and you have more choice.

Ask yourself this question if you’re a serious charity shop buyer (like Noel) then what percentage of your wardrobe is second hand?  I did get a bit perturbed today when two young girls were on their mobile and their mum must have asked where they was and they answered “just going past the junk shop”. You mean the junk you have on your back? Because seriously I could dress you better and it would be more fashionable. I have to defend my cause right? Too much of what we say and do is censored for fear of controversy, I have just re-discovered this word and it’s my friend.
I hope to bring a lot more of it to you. Joke. 

Shop lift

No we aren’t having a lift fitted in our shops, well the reason being we are small premises with one floor.

The other day at work a woman came into our shop and I distinctively remember her husband walking out with a leather jacket on his back which he plucked from our rails and thanked us with two fingers, a charming sort of guy who ended up in a nice place called prison. Anyway he’s out now and unreformed.

His wife, a small blonde still comes in and we always watch her closely but on this particular day while she was in “browsing” I mentioned to one of the volunteers my particular dislike of this woman and to watch her because she steals. Ten minutes later directly outside of the shop two police officers were quizzing her over some stolen jewellery and they weren’t quiet about it. Apparently some rings had gone missing and they wanted to search her handbag, they let her go and another ten minutes later a police car pulled up outside the shop blocking her and her car in.

She got out and they were asking if she had MOT etc, she started waffling on about not understanding the question (yeah right) she then ran into the shop and asked if she could pay for the shoes she had on her feet and when she tried them on she forgot to pay! After watching her so closely she had managed to walk out the front door in a pair of shoes she hadn’t paid for. After that she was arrested (not because of the shoes unfortunately) Although controversial, the police are a little more relaxed on charity shop theft than in a standard retailer, although this isn’t true in terms, it can feel this way.

Theft is a daily fight, we as retailers forge a war against but often lose as it can go undetected and you have to have a trained eye. One thing I’ve noticed lately is people (particularly women with teenage daughters) donate some bags and two days later come to the till with a selection of items saying “oh I brought some bags in the other day and I’ve accidentally brought some of my daughters clothes in and she’s so upset, can I have them back, I don’t think I should pay for them” what do you do? It’s a hard one as accidents happen but it’s happening more and more, coincidence or organised theft?

I remember one occasion when working with probation workers who were doing community service hours - they wanted to place lady in our shop who had just been convicted of stealing from a charity shop. Work that one out.

Witness This

We have a real good culture at Autism Plus, you know that you are listened to and supported and part of an organisation thats making a real difference in peoples lives, thats what I like about working here. We never discriminate against anyone -it's good to be a part of an organisation like that.

We have a volunteer who happens to be a Jehovah Witness (she simply refers to herself as a 'Witness') It makes me smile because I always think of the Eminem; Slim Shady Song “Will the real slim shady please stand up/can I get a witness” or something along those lines I’m not a big Eminem fan so I did well there.

She is one of the nicest people I know. She has such a strong focus, she has found peace and that enables her to free her mind from the trivial things that bother us day to day and simply volunteers at our shop to do good. I really admire her for that.

I pulled her out a dress today and suggested she could wear it to one of her meetings but she informed me surprisingly that she can’t wear dresses or trousers she has to wear a skirt? It got me thinking that no doubt men will be expected to wear trousers (hopefully, skirts aren’t in fashion for men yet) so why can’t women? So it also got me thinking about work uniforms, a girl I know has just got a new job in a call centre and has to wear high heels, she can’t wear flats? That got me thinking even more that Autism Plus are arranging a high heel challenge in the future that you can be a part of; watch this space for more details!

I see you everywhere I go Mr Customer

Poor Steve, the Van Driver. The man who puts out endless bags and loyally follows them up a few days later in his little white van trawling the streets for goodies so we have something nice to sell in our shops. People used to give more but now rogue van collections are about, unauthorised (and not registered charities) following up the trail of charities like us and collecting the bags before we can do so. It’s frustrating and it’s wrong. Plain Jayne and Simple.  So Steve and Mike work together as a team week in week out trying to get us that stock. They don’t only do that, they also move stock between shops (stock rotation, usually stock that hasn’t sold in a shop after having it on the rails for a few weeks), moving furniture between our units and generally heavy lifting stuff. Today along with a volunteer they have been to collect some private donations from a farm, including a nice table and chairs and a leather sofa. So it’s not true what they say about white van men some of them do good!

One thing I must record for prosperity: there is a customer that I see everywhere. He rides a bike and is always drunk. I see him at work when he comes into the shop (fair enough you may think) but I then see him cycling down the road near where I live (30+ miles away) I see him sat on random benches in and around areas around the city, garden centres, parks etc EVERYWHERE. I parked under a bridge the other day in a town I grew up in and it was raining heavily and I was having a heated discussion with one of my friends and there he was strolling by, bike in hand. I almost believed I was stalking him, a series of unfortunate events actually. He once asked me if I was an exotic dancer, well if he sees me now he won’t think that because I’m hastily piling on the pounds and I have a wedding to go to soon. Maybe hes God? Who knows, although that is blasphemy as God is definitely never drunk. Except when he made Cliff Richard.

You must have all gone t’Seaside t’do sea fishing and see the sea.

Bank Holiday Monday - seems so long ago. We opened that day, I had some strange questions like “do you know if the banks are open today?” I really do doubt some people are indeed real and not bad robots that have been programmed to confuse us all.

No one was about, but it had been raining so I wouldn’t risk coming out unless I needed to or I’d spend a few hours in a nice museum getting told off for touching the exhibitions.

One thing I am not interested in doing but I know a lot of our customers are fanaticals over them they are...wait for it......jigsaw puzzles, yes imagine finding a wonderful puzzle with a nice scene on it, maybe a thatch cottage with some nice bluebells and a terrier?

Preferably 500 pieces so it fits on your bistro table, rushing through rush hour traffic to get home, finding all the corners first, oh wait you bought it from a charity shop and there is a piece missing..What an anti-climax worse still if it’s not complete what are you supposed to do with it? It’s a bit like fishing to me, pointless. Unless your going to eat the fish or if you are a goat you may eat the puzzle pieces. I tell our customers that if we have sold one with a piece missing I tell them a goat must have eaten it because one volunteers in our shop. Seriously though, we usually get told if they have pieces missing and if they do we don’t sell them. So it’s hardly ever we get complaints- our customers often do our quality control for us. 

Some of the staff didn’t turn in today, and so we did have a chance to tidy the shop and do some re-merchandising for summer. Customers notice it right away and they tend to start buying in bulk again and then it dies down when they think they’ve seen everything (even though we put over a 100 items out a day, that can seem a lot but can easily get lost with older stock that they can oversee it.)

So the trick is, keeping it fresh just like your fish. Two women had an argument today over some lace doilies, I left them to it they were older ladies and I weren’t risking a citizen’s arrest, honestly though do you know anyone that has ever made a citizen’s arrest? If you read this and have indeed witnessed one please state when, where and details I am very interested in the procedures and protocols for this.

Big girls blouse

Knowing your customer is an art, actually it’s a science, no it’s a pain.

It’s one of the hardest things to work out in a field like this, dealing with second hand goods. You have to know what is current and in fashion and even if you do your not always guaranteed to be able to offer your customer that, and to be honest they don’t expect it.

They expect quality, quirky finds and bargains. Something we try and offer all the time.  I’ve been into some charity shops in the past and they are old fashioned, yes their customers may be an older generation but their alienating the younger audience and those who are likely to offer you their footfall. Of course we and other charities appreciate all customers and you will always attract the mature & wiser customers but it’s the younger ones that need a little coaching and that’s where your window displays come in.

It may be a bit controversial to say a lot of charity shops have little old ladies behind the till and 1970's dresses on the mannequins but most people expect that when they come into a charity shop. Well not ours, yes we have our little old lady’s who are full of personality but we have a selection of volunteers (I make them sound like a box of chocolates- yum!) over a range of ages that bring some nice dynamics and variety to the shop and our customers, in turn increasing our customer base. 

Back to the windows, we try and keep it modern, clean and bright...Oh and fashionable. Some of the older volunteers dress the mannequins more fashionable (in my eyes) than some of the younger staff we have had!

I’ve been shocked in the past when I’ve given them the task of dressing the mannequins and they walk off leaving baggy floral department store blouses on!

The title of my blog today is about big girls blouses. We just don’t get enough to be honest and bigger clothing sells better than anything! Bring it in girlies don’t be afraid to empty that wardrobe after your super weight loss triumph - bag it up and drop it in. Cheers.

It's good to clear the air

Today I cried at work. It wasn’t pretty but if someone cant express their emotions then it isn’t healthy is it? I am not going to rant on about pity or gossip this is merely a diary of my days at work and I felt this was as important as any other day I could write about.

Often in any job everything comes to a head and you succumb to the madness and pressures that you, society and the nature of a job place upon yourself and its only normal your mind finds a release.

Sometimes in a small environment like this it can become a little intense and personal and things can be taken out of context or overlooked in some instances and as always prevention is always better than the cure but sometimes situations expand and before you know it its too late.

There are of course dramas, dismays and day dreaming and today was one of those days. Sometimes you can hit opposition and conflict and this is exactly what happened today without going into too much detail. As a manager and responsible adult I am somewhat responsible for peoples emotions and if you get close to them in a working environment like this one the smallest change can have a massive effect on that person.
But its good to clear the air and sometimes we all need to stop and take a look at the situation and see where we can improve and I’ve done just that today. Its all about balance! I find Lady GaGa really helps balance my mind and settle my thoughts into something more manageable.

On a brighter note its been a busy day but I’ve heard through the grapevine that a nearby high profile shop may be closing in the near future and if this becomes truth it could have a massive negative effect on our sales, as footfall will surely decrease to our store. So we would need to find a way to combat this, maybe move to a bigger premises? That would be fun, and would be a lovely injection of freshness- well deserved and appreciated. With a biscuit. Speaking of biscuits I like this town, it has character and some of the people really are wacky I was talking to a customer today who lives on a boat (not saying wacky people live on boats - I don’t think Rosie & Jim were wacky)

She’s such a spirited character and fun to talk to I wish everyone could be like that, she has no edge or attitude and is purely pleasant i'd like her as an auntie. She has invited me on her boat for a drink of tea and biscuits and I may take her upon her offer before she set sails south, she also informed me of shocking fact that her boat with 2 engines takes £4000 to fill with fuel! That is incredible I think she is rich and has nice ornaments on her boat and I may set up a donation station sailing down the canals collecting bags of donations, how amazing would that adventure be?

Maybe it would sink though that wouldn’t be amazing, but from the photo she showed me it has a life vest so I’d be ok. It made me think that if your on a bus and you give your seat to an old lady, well what if I was on a boat with an elderly lady and neither of us could swim and we needed to jump which one of us would morally have it? I think I’d give it to her though because I’m like that.

Just don’t get me started on lamb!

Why don’t I eat Lamb? Because its technically a baby and I don’t eat babies. This is one of the heated discussions that I’ve had with one of the volunteers today (all friendly don’t worry)

There have been lots of staff in today, more than usual and although you may think you would get copious amounts of production out of them this is not always the case, its often more productive and effective having less staff so they can get on with their job.

I found two of the staff finding conflict in who should be in charge of the bric-a-brac and they were each striving to find a place on the shelves for the glass decanters and tea, coffee and sugar canisters they were holding. It was sort of like a competition who was going to win the battle of the bric-a-brac. It’s a funny name that isn’t it “bric-a-brac” I don’t like it if I’m honest - which I always am. There is an antique shop in Mapplethorpe that is exactly like what you may expect a charity to be like (which it isn’t), I’ve never in my life seen anything like this, stuff everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE! I nearly bought a handmade doll with one eye like Coraline but I was worried it was possessed or haunted and the little girl that owned it would follow me home. I wonder if its still there.



Friends of Weatherfield Hospital
Shop - Coronation Street

 I remember when Rita from Coronation Street worked in a charity shop, possibly with Emily Bishop? Not quite sure but we could do with some media exposure as an “industry” we are a valuable commodity, quite powerful in our appeal and content and should be treated as so by the media. I like the idea of a “boutique” style charity shop selling the same kind of thing but in more of a bespoke style with fabrics and nice lighting, it’s a modern world now things have changed and I think this idea would really appeal to the public.

By the way if I were to have a uniform sponsored by Fruit of the Loom I would like this logo on my back.

A Royal Wedding

Today first and foremost it was the wedding of William and Catherine Royal. I am not a royalist I cant stress this enough but I do have an interest in this specific marriage because it is of my generation and a piece of history I can feel a part of.

No doubt in a few years all charity shops will be flooded with “Kate and Will” memorabilia such as tacky mugs (I want one, maybe two) souvenir plates and the like,  especially if they get divorced now don’t think I am being negative or commiting “treason” for saying anything untoward against the Duke and Duchess of Cambridgeshire but divorces do happen look at Diana and Charles.

Divorce is a messy thing and does happen but it can generate lots of nice donations such as when a vexed lady donates her ex husbands John Wayne DVD collection or the contents of his designer wardrobe into the shop and doesn’t even care if she has forgotten his right shoe (not that this has ever happened to us of course but I’m sure it has somewhere, I‘m speculating).

All my working life in charity shops I’ve been plagued with “royal memorabilia” jubilees, weddings, commemorative pieces and never really thought anything about them until now, I realise we have been sitting on a gold mine! They are usually of Diana and Charles or the Queen.


Apparently the Queen's crown has the equal weight of 2 bags of sugar but is that light, brown or normal? Who knows I doubt we will ever get the crown donated in to weigh it like we do the rag bags.

Apparently 1 million folks turned out to the procession outside Buckingham Palace, what a missed opportunity for a donation station! A donation station is where a charity can set up camp with notice boards and a station and allow people to bring a bag of donations and then a van driver collects and distributes fairly between shops, helping people spring clean their home, create awareness for the charity and what they do or simply generate stock. There are many fundraising opportunities and ideas to trial, sometimes brainstorming is where the best ideas come into fantastic realities.

Anyway speaking of reality I’ve had a few weeks off and no internet so not a lot of blogging materials sorry for you hardcore readers that hang on for my every word but there is more coming soon but I’ve just been lounging around at home, watching royal weddings and things like that so not a great deal to report other than we need your donations! Stock levels have dropped somewhat and we need them back, we need you to do your spring cleaning and get donating! Our shops really rely on it and appreciate it!

By the way I thought Kate looked beautiful today.

HRH Charity Shop Blogger

Please would you mind removing your fur coat

There are certain items that by law we are not allowed to sell (for example upholstered items without fire labels or toys without a CE label) then there are items for which a licence or age restriction may be required such as a DVD and then the last category, items we can sell but choose not to either out of respect or fear of controversy which brings me to the title “Fur”.

Personally I don’t believe in animals being killed for sport or fashion that’s why in the modern world we have faux but this is not the place to discuss my own concerns, but rather to explain the connotations associated with the endless possibilities of a donation and what should we do with them?

The first thing that springs to mind is a ...SALE! Yes...but as a responsible shop manager or even a volunteer you stop and consider the implications of that fur coat going out for sale on the shop floor (can I just take this opportunity to apologise for my incoherent grammas as I often remind myself of a French person who writes very good English but I don’t always place the word in the correct place of a sentence like just now although it all makes perfect sense)

Here is a photograph of said genuine fur coat, I can’t go into detail of what animal skin it is as I have no idea nor do I have a particular desire to find out although they are beautiful coats and I know from past experience synthetic furs that we have had donated have sold for £50 as they are always very popular.

You see lots at vintage fairs (now they are such a fun experience!) One of the older volunteers (Mary) has a saying “Fur Coat No Knickers” whatever that means I’m not entirely sure to be honest. 

So this leaves us with a problem. What do we do with it? Well there a few options we could rag it but I feel this would be a waste (we get a standard price per KG of a bag so yes even your moth eaten jumpers can be recycled and made money out of!) we could offer it to an animal shelter organisation (the animals like to sleep on them as they are real fur) or an independent campaigner and get some nice publicity or sign it over to an amateur theatre company and suggest they make a donation to us.

What would you suggest?

I have heard a story of another charity that had a fur coat for sale in one of their stores, I think it might have possibly been part of the window display which was obviously not the best move they had ever made (most probably unintentional) and an animal’s rights campaigner placed a lit cigarette in the pocket of the jacket and this resulted in the whole shop being burned down. I don’t know if anyone got hurt, I hope not but the moral of the story is to research what you can and can’t sell and what may be at risk to your reputation, charity profile, staff and ultimately yourself. This is quite an isolated incident. A potential good sale could cost a lot more down the line!

We are always trying to maximise profits and make the most of people’s donations. A charity shop isn’t just about making money (although it’s a Plus – see what I did there?) but also to serve the community for want of a better word - we have volunteers from the local community, youth work organisations, government organisations (more about these another time) and people enrolling on “back to work” courses to improve their skills and CVs. So it’s all good and all beneficial with or without fur coats!

Cat got ya Tongue? Or does Autism Plus?

I bought some nice velour blue and black fancy hangers today so we can display the stock better on our display grids, a little bit more in keeping with high street retailers. I love hangers, I’m very much a hanger on of most things and I quite like fancy hangers. It’s good to have a personal touch and individual style as long as it doesn’t detract from the charity's over all image. Who wants to go with the crowd? That will never be us, we set the pace.

You might have seen it but Autism Plus has had a new logo designed and all the shops have recently been fitted with a new sign.

It has one of my favourite features, a butterfly which has been designed very cleverly using the A (Autism) and the P (Plus) to make the wings of the butterfly. The image symbolises transformation, freedom and spreading your wings which I think is a perfect representation of Autism Plus. It is part of a whole branding change for the shops and hopefully to create a better understanding and awareness of what we do. Some good innovative thinking actually :-)

Well the real reason I’m blogging today is to make an appeal, has anyone lost a tongue? I know you probably couldn’t say but if you have I may have it.

I have a really long tongue I can touch my nose with it. Someone donated a small plastic box that said “Hazardous” when I opened it I was horrified to find a tongue. It was a wet sticky tongue; I was so shocked that I dropped it on the carpet. I literally lost my tongue!

Who would do such a thing, seriously it's the worst donation we had ever received. I realised it wasn’t real, it was a toy tongue but it looks so real, so real in fact I couldn’t resist playing a little practical joke on our deputy..at the end of each day after cashing up we remove the till draw- I decided to hide the tongue in one of the money compartments for her to find the next morning. I wish I had been there it would have been a winner :-) (Can you count how many times I said “tongue” in that paragraph!)

So if this is your tongue please get in touch and I will return it to you in your box and we may never need to say anymore on the subject. Case closed.

I do love funny items the staff had a naughty apron donated in at the beginning of this year, very rude, even I gasped but it was hilarious they decided to buy it and wrap it up and give it me for my birthday, I cook in it actually and I would upload a photo but I doubt it would be acceptable but I’ll let your minds ponder...

R2D2 is that you?

Mondays as a rule are paperwork day. Unsurprisingly I’m late this week delivering the papers to where they need to go and sometimes get into trouble and I get an unhappy face sticker L on my wage slip. But I am working on my punctuality and efficiency as we speak and I do try, but if alot is going on I struggle to concentrate.

Actually I quite like the idea of an Ikea office where I can do it peacefully [paperwork] I do enjoy going to Ikea on a Sunday and eating the Swedish meatballs and I am now sat here wondering if anyone would like to build me an office so I can put photos of my late hamster on the desk and have multiple mugs of coffee left half drank oh and a secret stash of whiskey (this could be a running theme throughout this entire blog) in my lockable filing cabinet that has supposedly “very important documents in” and yes I would like a money tree, a cactus and a fax machine so I can randomly fax people nice messages.

I once decided to fax my headmaster at my school and tell him I wasn’t coming into school that day and that I had a nice weekend but I never got a reply. I like it when you call somebody up and get a beeeeeeeeeeeep down the phone line and your like “…hello….? R2D2 is that you?”. A fax machine would be a handy addition to my proposed office.

The paperwork involved can play havoc with my sanity when things do not balance and I know a lot of people out there can relate. If someone makes a mistake no matter how minor and its on the till and nobody reports it, it can throw the rest of the figures off resulting in giving me a headache. But that is retail and I am not an accountant thank god I have my calculator.

Its funny how we rely on technology and gadgets these days one or two of the volunteers make comments like “oh back in my day you had a block of stone and a chisle we had none of these fancy thingy ma-bobs that work it all out for you” You mean a cash register? Yes the basic technology for recording your sales that although excruciatingly simple can kafuffle the minds of an academic.

But you do have to bear in mind not everybody is as technologically minded as you may presume, working on the shop floor, face to face with customers, handling money, queries and complaints can take a lot out of you and you need a cool collected head at all times to ensure accuracy but more often that not I recognise the piercing sound of the till beeping erratically whilst a volunteer is spitting feathers at the long queue of sympathetic customers.

I find a lot of people when they start working in the shop have an inherent fear of the till, they want to go on and make money but they need a little of coaching and encouragement after all we all have to start somewhere and that’s one of the best things about Autism Plus you are part of the team no matter where you want to start J

Get well soon love!

Charity shops as I have said before are usually run by a manager and an assistant manager but also interestingly by its volunteers, they are essentially the backbone of the shop. I have known other charities that rely solely on volunteers. The incredible act of giving up your time and knowledge to offer it free for a good cause. You do rely on them and this is never proved more true than when they call in sick.

Everyone gets ill at some point even I get ill, people think I’m immune/immortal and if my face is not shown they demand to know where I am. I call them my public and I love them back.
Volunteers, do as a rule phone up on the day of their sickness but sometimes I suspect an organised poorly day event when all your staff are ill together, it can feel like that sometimes and it happened to our deputy last week, you can feel let down but it’s a part of life. Because volunteers  are not paid staff you should respect them and understand although they are very generous with their time other things can take priority which is why you constantly as a manager, need a plan of action and the ability to re-shuffle and prioritise. I personally, have very rarely had to “let-go” of a volunteer but it does happen and luckily we have some great staff.

I once had to let a girl go who caused a few problems in the team I didn’t get good vibes from her. It can be destructive in a small team when success relies on working together, team being the operative word here.

I’ve taken part in team building exercises before and stand on the fence, not literally, about them although they are entertaining and a giggle.
Anyway I always wish my volunteers “get well soon love” and keep in regular contact with them so I know when to expect them back and if they need any extra support. That’s just how I roll :)

Hang on, a change will do you good!

Change is good, very good actually, change you find in your pocket is even better I love finding £2 coins at the bottom of my bag or those little beauties that have slipped through the lining of your favourite jacket and you try all day in vain to get them out and in the end, in an act of desperation you take a pair of scissors and ponder cutting a hole just to get this change.

Maybe that’s just me BUT anyway the change I’m referring to is healthy change like a wave of refreshment rushing over you, invigorating and inspirational and more often than not unexpectedly.

Today after having a long weekend (and well deserved) break from things I came into work feeling rejuvenated (I’m near enough using my entire R vocabulary here to try and impress you, recite, regress, record, revisit, redo, rewind etc etc that’s about all I know actually).

That was until I took in my surroundings fully, the backroom was piled full of donations even blocking the fire exit that was obviously my first concern and dealt with it before anything else.  The shop floor was nothing how I had left it and everything seemed so out of place and out of sorts including me. I came in a little bewildered. It was shopageddon.

It was all hands on deck from the word go, luckily I had arrived early so I could sneak off to the local bakery and grab my self a sausage butty and a latte. Funny thing is I don’t drink coffee at home its like a cosmopolitan thing it looks cool to be seen carrying coffee in a cardboard mug right? Eco friendly. I’m quite a fan (not necessarily an active campaigner) for re-using and respecting the natural environment and order of things and also consume fair-trade goods where-ever possible. I guess I feel a little less guilty for getting drawn into the world of materialism and lifestyle trends we often associate ourselves with. 

This is one of the reasons I love working in a charity shop in a way its like recycling peoples lives, whether its when they have a kitchen clearout and donate entire colour schemes of  matching accessories or their last years wardrobe. The beauty of the now is “everything goes” or so it seems so nothing is dated because there is such a love of vintage inspired goods something I am very passionate about, there is always a wave of new designers re-creating past decades so your always guaranteed to find something unique and current in a charity shop, especially ours ;-)

If a charity shop is not also representing environmentally friendly guilt free shopping I don’t know what is!

Back to change. The way I operate is if I find myself in a situation where for example I don’t know where to start I have to change it, I take sections by sections strip them and re-build. For example I’ll start with the windows, strip, clean, re-dress, use a colour scheme and update. Today with two of our longest standing volunteers (Mary and Gerry) we all mucked in and gave the shop a really good tidy and re-merchandised. We put all our best stock on wooden hangers, got some little luggage tags and hand wrote little descriptions of the items. I monitored this and we sold quite a few items just by moving and creating a type of boutique feel to some of the clothes. Which proves change is good, it fools people into thinking they are looking at something new which in turn results in them seeing it in a new way!

You sometimes find people don’t like change, they oppose it, they are threatened by it but I , I welcome it either way they notice it.

Do you sell knitting needles?

Everyday I get asked questions about things I have no answers to, such as do we have this in a size 14 and will we get one in tomorrow? Where has it come from? And what does it do?

I have come to understand many people also don’t know the difference between ladies and mens clothes. Although I have to admit there is a fine line these days that sometimes myself do cross. Some people think it’s a delivery service or we must have one of everything. But eerily quite often when someone requests something it generally gets donated in a few days later but sadly not to the ones who asked in the first place.

I often get asked if we stock knitting needles, we do not, we don't sell them because they could potentially be used as a weapon  (Although many objects could be used as a weapon really!) Even a teddy bear if you launch it at someone’s head. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and always wanted to throw teddy bears at the artists but I’d be worried about hurting them and being thrown out. So I don’t.

Today a lady asked if we had indeed, some knitting needles we didn’t and I politely informed her of this and said we had some “knitting patterns” she replied quite snappily “I never asked for knitting patterns and without a knitting needle I can’t very well knit anything from them”

One thing that does annoy me is when people laugh at me when I dress the mannequins I think it’s because sometimes its fiddly and they are quite difficult to dress and dresses fall down and crotches split oh all sorts really, and I’m trying my best and then the hands fall off and someone shouts “haha bet you’ve done that a few times” I once put a bikini on upside down on the mannequin. That was a show stopper.

All joking aside though the windows are one of the most important features of any shop display it’s what draws customers in after they have stopped to look. You can also sell entire outfits that have been put together and it’s a job all the volunteers love to do and it increases their confidence and they get a little boost if they receive a nice comment or even a sale.

Alot of people who volunteer with us have been unemployed for a while or lack certain skills so encouragement and training is really vital for them and most go on to secure employment! So bonuses all around really.

Poor Old Moldy Warp!

We had a donation of really old stuff over the weekend, books, bibles, pottery and other bits.

I really love looking and discovering more about these finds and the history of them, although its frustrating at times when you know nothing about the item or where its come from! Only thing left to do is raise money out of it, that is the point why we’re here and why your reading this. Well usually our volunteers draw my attention to suspect looking objects that may hide some high value such as Wade and Alfred Meakin pottery, if this happens we put to one side and we contact head office who research a little more into the items and then that gives us a rough idea of what we should sell it for so we don’t under sell. I mean it has happened somewhere in a charity shop where somebody has put 50p on an item and forgot to put the extra 00s on the end. It’s all about a keen eye, wit and common sense.

But what happens with us is the staff get carried away.....one for example started taking blackpool souvenir ashtrays and saying she thought they was worth something and I should put a good price on them or at the very least send them to head office. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t know everything (well i don’t want to be modest) but I am pretty sure these aren’t going to be featured on “cash in the attic” any time soon but you have to keep an open mind all the same.

Funny thing is sometimes I look at something new and think if this survives a 1000 years or even a 100 it will be classed as an antique and lots of interest and value, I’m currently putting together a time capsule to bury.

 Anyway the title of this blog is an extract from an antique children’s book and I thought it summed up some nice Bibles. Holy Bibles. Very large altar Bibles and inside they are classed as family bibles. They are dark leather bound with gold edges and little gold leaf clasps, so wonderful. I love things like this I have a 200 year old one at home and I love it and its without binding! These here are fully leather bound (no pun) beautiful.  Anyway I’m uncertain of the value they are being investigated as we speak but here are some photos.

These Bibles are going a little mouldy on the pages, they are dated 1822 so that is to be expected if they have been damp in someone’s garage or loft, hence the title!

One thing my momma told me never to do (and she still does) is never to throw Bibles away so I don’t, at one point we had a shelf full of bibles we could have opened up our confession box.

The point is that this job and its “content” if you like is vast and interesting as you come into contact with many eccentric and obscure objects of interest and history that you constantly learn and you learn from. 

I’m like a walking random encyclopaedia but I’m not sure I’m learning anything really useful I only recently discovered what a banana hanger was. I mean seriously? I just put my bananas in a bowl and have done with it but people do like choice and that is what we offer. We don’t discriminate with our own tastes because a charity shop is like an “Aladdins cave” and people expect a bit of everything right? - I know I do variety is the spice of life and one of the most interesting aspects of this job is what people buy.