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.

Toilet in Trouble

Today one of our older volunteers felt faint after eating a chocolate roll. Well they don’t prepare you for this in the first aid training, I’ve got lots of bandages and I’m not afraid to use them or at least try although personally, I’m rubbish at wrapping but possible pretty good at rapping ;-)

But what I did use which isn’t in the first aid box is my common sense, I sat her down and called a taxi to take her home and luckily the taxi company was right outside the shop it was fate. The taxi driver came in and took her and her shopping trolley to the car and I’ve heard she’s feeling a little perkier. This is the same lady who broke our toilet seat last week, well she finished it off because it had become weak after 7 years and she went to use the facilities and we heard an almighty crack and she came out and said the toilet seat wasn’t working right. I went in and the seat had cracked fully in half. It was a tense moment and I really didn’t know what to say other than, it happens and it didn’t matter I could fix it.

I didn’t use sellotape - we purchased a new one and one of the other volunteers (Gerry) fitted it for us. Health and safety and risk assessments are major issues working in a place like this as the environment constantly changes as well as the needs of your staff and customers. It has to be safe at all times and people sometimes, do not use common sense - they block fire exits, trail cables across the floor, price knives and put them on the shelf you have to double check and double think constantly.

As shop manager it is my responsibility to ensure the shop is a safe place to work. Sorry if I’m going on. I do that sometimes.

Today has been an ok day other than that,  preparing for the spring season and generally tidying the shop up sometimes you just need a good spring clean! People think working in a charity shop you must get exposed to lots of germs, that in theory may be right but a lot of people actually wash their clothes before they donate them (except for the odd few) so my immune system is pretty strong and my muscles from all the carrying and lifting! Although it does seem to be bric-a-brac (pieces of crockery etc) that people don’t wash L I mean I’ve seen more tea stained tea pots to last me a lifetime, hello bleach I’m a big fan!

I used to bleach my hair a lot but I decided to go brunette this winter and people didn’t like it. Mainly customers, at one point I thought they may bring a signed petition to make me change it back but they never did, although one customer did buy me a box of bleaching powder which I thought was sweet in a weird creepy way. They have gotten used to it now and as a compromise I have had blonde streaks.

What really got me was people didn’t recognise me! They’d come up to me and say for example “I’ve put something away, I cant remember who served me I think they had blonde hair” or “has blondie left now?” I must admit I do miss my blonde locks and I may go back but not under pressure. I’m just close to our customers (not too close mind) close as in most know my name and when I’ve changed my hair colour.

It’s good to have a rapport though, right?

Just another manic Monday..

This job can be very labour intensive. I don’t mean digging a trench or building a wall (although sometimes I feel like climbing up one), you need, surprisingly a high level of fitness and mental alertness.

All day you are receiving peoples goods (donations), carrying them from cars into the back room and sometimes they are extremely heavy boxes full of breakables and my knees often wobble and I imagine the horror of dropping their tea sets and Royal wedding commemorative cups they have spent the past 4 hours wrapping up in last weeks newspaper. Then sorting, pricing, displaying and selling back to the public.

We get humongous boxes of books, ornaments, black carriers that weigh a ton –sorting the bad from the good and all this needs processing daily all day to keep it tidy, safe and to maintain maximum income. It’s not easy and many volunteers will tell you this is true because when they first start if they haven’t worked in the charity retail sector before are often very surprised and at how much needs to be done.

Because in larger stores, especially department stores stock is brought in usually pressed, sorted, priced and a plan of where it should go. This all has to be done manually and by scratch by a small team of sometimes inexperienced staff members which is why team work, co-operation and a flair are all essential parts of the job. Although anyone can apply and are welcome to work in this shop there are jobs for everyone at every level of competency. Trust me. I know these things.

Today is Monday and Mondays can be a bit manic “Just another manic Monday” which echoes in my brain all day. After the weekend lots of people have been having a “clear out” so they tell me, or “a neighbour has given me this bag I don’t know what’s in it” well did they specify they wanted it to go to charity, is it their shopping?

Who knows because at times bags are left in the shop and nobody seems to be near it and we have waltzed up to it and taken it into the back and its someone’s groceries. Once a very nice lady took of her shoes off to try some boots in the changing room and in the meantime a volunteer took her shoes and ragged them, that was very embarrassing. Obviously obliviously and she didn’t want the shoes back she bought the new ones. You daren’t take your coat off in our shop before you know it, it’ll be steamed, ticketed priced and sold or worse ragged by an overzealous member of staff.

The other week we had some little miniatures donated in, like porcelain. They were replicas of buildings in Amsterdam, these little bottles at first glance are just nice little ornaments for your mantelpiece but on further inspection and much to my delight they are filled with WHISKY! And we have four of them. Fantastic. So kitsch. One of our head office team have investigated and discovered they're individual value -new at about £15 each which is good going, we should get around £5-8 for each. They are numbered on the bottom, stamped, quite heavy and in perfect condition; here is a photo of one of them.

They are called 'KLM Delfts Porcelain House Miniature'.

Apparently Whisky gets better with age (so I’ve heard) so I don’t know how old these are but what a novelty for a Whisky/Porcelain lover. Please note they are sealed and I don’t intend opening or selling to age of under 18. (We are subject to the same rules, laws and regulations on sales of knives, age restriction VHS/DVD and alcohol.) 

Shameless

Today has been a really busy day I’ve been buzzing around all over the place like a little bee in the height of summer. We've had lots of nice customers today, well obviously they are all diamonds but I do have my favourites. (lets be clear they get treated the same as everyone else, I am just fond of certain ones) You do get to know people working in a small town and they know us, especially me, they even know if I’ve had a trim or highlights!

In summer last year I thought i’d be adventurous throw caution to the wind and wear my shorts. BIG mistake. Infact i’m still recovering. I kept a tally of how many people made inappropriate and silly comments on my shorts. They were typical ones, just above the knee, grey in colour, formal in design a little bit like school shorts but appropriate for work. I’m not a fan of uniforms although I fully appreciate them I just think they strip away the personality from you, I like to dress smart /casual though, and so do all our staff in the shop.

This particular time was unbearable I think I had over 50 comments throughout the week so this year I’m going to wear full length pants 24/7. I’d be ok in the middle east wouldn’t I.

My favourites days at work are when everything run smoothly like today has, no refunds, no exchanges some good donations and friendly folk. Why can’t every day be like that?

Well one of my major beefs with this town is theft, shop lifting and cons. Now I like this town and the people who shop in our shop and who I work with but there is an unbelievable and jaw dropping amount of theft that goes on not just in our shop but in all of them.  It happens on a daily basis. There are 3 main types of shop lifter:

1.      Generic Handbag Snatchers: Ones who carry an old Tesco white carrier (the same one each time,) and knock things off the hangers hoping they drop into the bag or on the floor so they can bend down and pop it in.

2.      Can I have the hanger? Ones who pinch the hanger with the top, there is a strange epidemic of hanger thieves at the minute as we keep finding clothes without hangers, they just lie on the floor and no hanger to be found. Very mysterious. They also hide hangers inside tops so they come out of the changing room with no empty hangers.

3.      Ticket swappers (i still class this as theft). They rip a ticket of something cheaper and swap it for the actual price. E.g. Taking a £1.50 t- shirt and placing it on a £4.50 dress. Blood boiling really, luckily I’ve only ever had to ask two people to leave and not come back for doing it right in front of us. Neither said anything just hung their head in shame. Shameless if you ask me.

So yes theft happens in all shops worldwide and sometimes you have to not take it personally, it’s just we all work so hard to have it undone by a small (feels huge sometimes) percentage of thefts. We have a good relationship with the CCTV, surroundings businesses and the Police so we do get to know of well known shop lifters and have the support there if it does happen.