Fan club

I’m starting to think I could set up my own fan club. I seem to have acquired a few admirers and inadvertently divulged parts of my life I may have otherwise remained private.

I don’t mean dark secrets (my life is unfortunately not that exciting) but getting to know staff and customers, I think is key to forming a strong working relationship.

I have cakes baked for me on a regular basis by a kind Indian lady, clothes mended, thank you cards, chocolates, courtesy phone calls..

I do receive the odd (in every sense of the word) phone call regarding my advice on men dressing in ladies clothes, you always have to remain polite because it may be a genuine question but quite often it’s not. Sigh.

Everyone knows my name apart from you reader, but at the shop it’s a nice thing people can address you by your name and sometimes ask for me personally.

But if I’m in the back room which sometimes I don’t think they realise that I have a lot of work to do, processing stock, paperwork, helping other volunteers etc. I spend an equal time on the shop floor but it’s not always possible or practical all the time especially if we have lots of staff working in there too! I sometimes hear them joking that “I’m hiding”.
 
I could be you know!

Justice is served

It’s been a stressful week but constructive. Last weekend we had some video games stolen, on Monday a police offer entered the shop with a brown paper bag full of video games with our stickers and gift aid references on them. So we were able to immediately identify them!
We matched them up to our records and we had no record of this sale which became evidence the police could use to charge the offender.

People still find it so hard to believe people shoplift from a charity shop!

On a more light-hearted topic we have experienced a couple of really busy weeks in the shop, some nice donations brought in and people seem happy to spend!
Lots of new customers and younger people are coming in who I’m finding are buying more than they used to – probably because we are offering affordable fashion which can be mixed and matched with high streets purchases.

The shop attracts a diverse range of customers, students with a limited budget buying in bulk, small clothes businesses such as vintage shops stocking up with our selections and the more established customer with probably more disposable income who finds charity shop retailing quite a novel and addictive pursuit.

We welcome all into the shop and hope they continue to support the charity, not only with their donations but also their custom.

Welcome back readers

First of all on behalf of everyone reading this I want to wish you a huge belated Happy New Year! Although we’re half way through it now so you may take it as premature Happy New Year for 2014!

In any case sorry I have taken my time in updating the blog, trust me lots has been going on and all very positive. Some of which I’ll share with you in the following weeks and I will try and dedicate myself to submitting more frequently and consistently.

We have all been REALLY busy! In the past year or so we have had a few new members to the team, a love story, introduction of GIFTAID, a new carpet, a visit from Viking FM & a re-tweet on Twitter from Jennifer Saunders - how cool is that?!
The power of Twitter it’s taking over the world. Did you know Autism Plus is on twitter? @autism_plus follow & spread the word! #wordup

We also recently had a successful Autism World Awareness day and as that was my last blog topic before my one year hiatus, so it is fitting to start it back on that! Oh and I promised you a love story I will get to that soon........Stay tuned!

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…..