29 is 261 Cat Years

Today has been a funny onion. We had an NVQ lady come out to assess me, Jade and Janet and enroll us onto a course which will provide us with more skills at work. So we are all signed up and we all feel more productive and it will make us even better at our jobs! I did let one outburst of adolescent laughter, we had to do a literacy test and one of the questions was to put in the missing word it said “Lucy ran down the street to collect her.... “ the answers were “bag, leaf, tv and leg” when I saw leg it really made me laugh that someone might consider the possibility Lucy ran down the street to collect her leg, I wanted to put it I really did at the forfeit of one point in my examination. But obviously it was bag.

We’ve all been really busy today with alot of donations piling up in the pen, mainly kids toys but they do sell really well. Some funky ones that I liked the look of, a tricycle which can be pushed or altered so the child can go off on their own (the type I really wanted when I was a kid and never got) and a baby walker and a rocking cloth-covered-hippo which was made of lovely colours, would make a lovely cushion. We have to be careful with what we put out for sale though, especially children’s things we have to make lots of checks to make sure they are safe, concentrating on areas like wheels and bolts etc. If in doubt throw it out, it’s not worth the risk.

Most of the time people donate good toys in full working order and they make us money! Customers like to come in and see kids stuff it makes the shop seem more friendly and I like that, we like things to look happy.

Our newest volunteer Sam has been in today. I’ve known her a while she’s really nice. She told us all when she first started that she was a witch and has an obsession with cats. She tells tales of her cat that if anyone buys her anything cat related the cat goes near it and paws it with her blessing. Hmm.

She is a great help, she steams clothes and makes them all nice and pressed but I really don’t want to get on the wrong side of her if she is magical. She reads all of our auras and mine is different colours which I like, and that I say one thing and do another - whatever that means.  She has just moved to a new neighbourhood and across the road from her new home there lives a woman with 29 cats that they all follow her in single file down the road when she goes out. I would like to see this, I would film it and pop it on “youtube” and get a zillion hits and be a worldwide sensation.

Quality in black bags

Today was “rag man” day, we have a rag company who come with a lorry and take away the stock we can’t sell and recycles it, some to Europe I think and the rest into factories -they pay us per bag and send a cheque each month and this goes onto our sales. Our rag man is a nice chap, quite tall with a little beard; I always want to call him a trucker. I think his name is chiz or chez. He has a really strong Barnsley accent and usually wears shorts and boots and often moans about the quality and size of black bags, I do understand his frustration they split and burst open making twice the work. I just never invested that much interest into black bags but since learning about them I understand the importance of a quality refuse sack.

We have a volunteer called Christine, she’s retired and she used to work in Bettys Tea rooms incidentally, and worked at those in York, Harrogate and Harlow Carr she rolls her eyes when I tell people this as I’m a massive fan of Bettys, infact I might start calling her Betty. She speaks very posh, she’s fantastic with customers and goes out of her way to help them. I like her to work on the till and be in the shop so the customers know we are an “up-market” and posh charity shop which of course we are J 

We’ve had loads of donations this week! Sometimes you turn around and someone’s dropped off their entire contents of the wardrobe, it can all come at once and then all of a sudden we don’t get anything! It can be random at times though such as when people leave tins of beans in the bags amongst other things... we are grateful for everything we receive. It’s great when we get really nice and quirky donations, the best one this week was a vintage jumper with sheep on it, I thought that was cute and I’ve seen similar at vintage stalls and it can be frustrating when people don’t get the fashion or the “idea” behind what you’re doing but putting that jumper in the right place or town it would sell straight away. That’s why it’s important to know your market and customers when offering them a service and choice.





We’ve also had some designer bags donated this week - a bright pink D&G handbag and a little white Prada Make-up bag, some vintage costume jewellery in a box and a little D&G patent black purse. I like to display them in the window and dress the mannequins to match the accessories we have in at the time so it makes an impact. We have a lot of competition from shops like New Look, Dorothy Perkins and of course other charity shops so we have to keep up with the trends and quality.

In this photo, a window display with a brand new Next perfume gift set, the vintage jewellery, Miss Selfridges kitten heel shoes and the D&G Purse.





Bin in trouble

You may find this surprising but we often get people going through the bins, they literally empty the contents, sometimes on a Monday we can’t open the fire exit which is very dangerous! I’ve caught them a few times, and told the police. Although once a police officer did approach me and ask if she could take a damaged ‘Lost the TV series – story book’ out of the bin I said yes in case she arrested me for saying no.

There have been times people have been found sleeping in the bins in fact once I heard 3 men were in one bin! Ive never had that though thankfully. I used to find lambrini bottles outside the back door like they were a gift, but always empty which was disappointing I don’t mind lambrini. Saying that I’ve been finding brandy bottles at my home in the back garden on my lavender plant and its quite a nice estate I can’t think who would drink Brandy and then throw the bottle in my garden!

I took a photo to give you an idea of what can greet me on a Monday morning, this is actually a good day it can be much worse than this!

For some reason we get a lot of knives donated, although once we had some guns- they were old ones and were just left in a brown paper Primark bag near the till, obviously I took them straight to the police station. I wrap the knives up in bubble wrap and hand them into the police too. These things are part of the job ... you just never know what to expect!

Betty's

Our volunteers are absolute stars, they give up their own time to come in and help out, I thought it only right I tell you a bit about some of them.

First to arrive in a morning is Janet. Janet is a bit of a punk, well that’s how she would describe her style – today she came in wearing some tights, boots and a flowery dress. I love Janet, she’s so reliable and I can talk to her about anything, admittedly I do use her as a brain toilet sometimes, sometimes after the weekend I have a rant and tell her all about my travels and dilemmas and she always listens, even if she just switches off she still looks as though she’s listening which is good enough for me. She’s quite arty and with a paintbrush she can do anything, I really do value her she’s a treasure! J

Then we have Mary who is “in charge” of the window displays on a Tuesday and Janet does them on a Friday. Mary has been ill this week but she always lets me know so I can plan the day around it. I think of Mary like family as she’s been working with me so long now and I spend time with her out of work, we go to the hairdressers and go to ‘Bettys teas rooms’ for tea and just have a laugh. She’s 72 and fitter than anyone I know and she’s so with it fashion wise! Although sometimes she wears her belt a little too high around her jumper!

Next in is Graham, half a century something (but looks 40 something, well so he tells everybody but he does look young actually I can’t deny him that!)  Graham mostly operates the till and keeps the shop tidy, he is listed as one of our casual staff and before we got a deputy Graham and Janet were working together to support me when I was off or needed some extra help. He’s a great guy and genuine and you can have such a laugh with him, all the customers love him and he’s got a wicked sense of humour, but he was injured today he’d been playing cricket with his friend and one of the balls hit his top inner thigh and he was pleased it hadn’t hit any higher or he may be permanently falsetto. I’m glad he’s ok but he was walking funny all day which was making me laugh.

Graham does alot of take-offs for me which is taking stock that’s been out for sale more than 2 weeks and comes off because it hasn’t sold and sent to another shop as part of a stock rotation, keeps the flow going and the shop looking fresh.

People notice when there’s new stock in and comment on it so are looking for it, customers like a change!

All about couture

A few people have commented on the Airwick plug in! saying how lovely and clean it smells in the shop and one lady said how much she loved the shop and what a good job we was doing, and we like to hear that, makes us feel good J

One of the Volunteers Mum knitted me a Christmas jumper last year and I love it I wore it Christmas day, it’s a blue chunky knit with a 3D snowman, she’s very talented and with some of the wool we get donated in she is using it to make little ‘couture’ bobble hats with sequins and things on, here is a photo of Alan with some samples.

I love them actually, and I think it’s really nice she takes the time and effort to make these! I’ve priced them at £5 each and I don’t think that’s bad for a one off piece like these! You can keep warm and have the buzz of knowing nobody else will have one!

Cool Linen and white lilac

A lone Sainsbury’s bag left out the front door to greet me this morning, this often happens; people say they have left donations outside the door, sometimes I even see them when I pass the car park on the way to work and by the time I get they’ve either all gone or down to a tiny size or maybe a single item! I personally would wait and hand them in myself.

Our shop smells lovely, I have just bought one of those plug in air-wicks and it’s lush (said in a Welsh accent like Stacey from Gavin & Stacey)  it masks any dodgy smells and..well just id prefer to smell that to be honest. I currently have Cool Linen & White Lilac.

We rely on a team of volunteers to help keep the shop running, without them I don’t know what we’d do, I’ll tell you more about our wonderful volunteers later. If you’ve never been in a charity shop before, this is how it works…. Autism Plus charity shops rely on the kindness of your donations (yes that’s also a plea, if you’ve got any good quality things you no longer use we’re always grateful for donations!! Especially at this time of year!) We don’t sell any bought in goods so we have to make the most of everything that we receive from the public – which can be a good and bad thing sometimes! So heres the life cycle of a donated bag…. we receive a bag of clothes, we sort the bag into saleable and non saleable items, those things that cant be sold because of holes, pulls etc are sent to a rag man (more about him later!) items which are fit for sale are then steamed to remove creases and freshen, hung, then ticketed and priced by me or my deputy manager. If you try to imagine around 150 items at least have to go out everyday you might begin to see the scale of items we need to keep the shop looking fresh and getting the sales in.

and that’s just the beginning!