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.