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!