Witness This

We have a real good culture at Autism Plus, you know that you are listened to and supported and part of an organisation thats making a real difference in peoples lives, thats what I like about working here. We never discriminate against anyone -it's good to be a part of an organisation like that.

We have a volunteer who happens to be a Jehovah Witness (she simply refers to herself as a 'Witness') It makes me smile because I always think of the Eminem; Slim Shady Song “Will the real slim shady please stand up/can I get a witness” or something along those lines I’m not a big Eminem fan so I did well there.

She is one of the nicest people I know. She has such a strong focus, she has found peace and that enables her to free her mind from the trivial things that bother us day to day and simply volunteers at our shop to do good. I really admire her for that.

I pulled her out a dress today and suggested she could wear it to one of her meetings but she informed me surprisingly that she can’t wear dresses or trousers she has to wear a skirt? It got me thinking that no doubt men will be expected to wear trousers (hopefully, skirts aren’t in fashion for men yet) so why can’t women? So it also got me thinking about work uniforms, a girl I know has just got a new job in a call centre and has to wear high heels, she can’t wear flats? That got me thinking even more that Autism Plus are arranging a high heel challenge in the future that you can be a part of; watch this space for more details!

I see you everywhere I go Mr Customer

Poor Steve, the Van Driver. The man who puts out endless bags and loyally follows them up a few days later in his little white van trawling the streets for goodies so we have something nice to sell in our shops. People used to give more but now rogue van collections are about, unauthorised (and not registered charities) following up the trail of charities like us and collecting the bags before we can do so. It’s frustrating and it’s wrong. Plain Jayne and Simple.  So Steve and Mike work together as a team week in week out trying to get us that stock. They don’t only do that, they also move stock between shops (stock rotation, usually stock that hasn’t sold in a shop after having it on the rails for a few weeks), moving furniture between our units and generally heavy lifting stuff. Today along with a volunteer they have been to collect some private donations from a farm, including a nice table and chairs and a leather sofa. So it’s not true what they say about white van men some of them do good!

One thing I must record for prosperity: there is a customer that I see everywhere. He rides a bike and is always drunk. I see him at work when he comes into the shop (fair enough you may think) but I then see him cycling down the road near where I live (30+ miles away) I see him sat on random benches in and around areas around the city, garden centres, parks etc EVERYWHERE. I parked under a bridge the other day in a town I grew up in and it was raining heavily and I was having a heated discussion with one of my friends and there he was strolling by, bike in hand. I almost believed I was stalking him, a series of unfortunate events actually. He once asked me if I was an exotic dancer, well if he sees me now he won’t think that because I’m hastily piling on the pounds and I have a wedding to go to soon. Maybe hes God? Who knows, although that is blasphemy as God is definitely never drunk. Except when he made Cliff Richard.

You must have all gone t’Seaside t’do sea fishing and see the sea.

Bank Holiday Monday - seems so long ago. We opened that day, I had some strange questions like “do you know if the banks are open today?” I really do doubt some people are indeed real and not bad robots that have been programmed to confuse us all.

No one was about, but it had been raining so I wouldn’t risk coming out unless I needed to or I’d spend a few hours in a nice museum getting told off for touching the exhibitions.

One thing I am not interested in doing but I know a lot of our customers are fanaticals over them they are...wait for it......jigsaw puzzles, yes imagine finding a wonderful puzzle with a nice scene on it, maybe a thatch cottage with some nice bluebells and a terrier?

Preferably 500 pieces so it fits on your bistro table, rushing through rush hour traffic to get home, finding all the corners first, oh wait you bought it from a charity shop and there is a piece missing..What an anti-climax worse still if it’s not complete what are you supposed to do with it? It’s a bit like fishing to me, pointless. Unless your going to eat the fish or if you are a goat you may eat the puzzle pieces. I tell our customers that if we have sold one with a piece missing I tell them a goat must have eaten it because one volunteers in our shop. Seriously though, we usually get told if they have pieces missing and if they do we don’t sell them. So it’s hardly ever we get complaints- our customers often do our quality control for us. 

Some of the staff didn’t turn in today, and so we did have a chance to tidy the shop and do some re-merchandising for summer. Customers notice it right away and they tend to start buying in bulk again and then it dies down when they think they’ve seen everything (even though we put over a 100 items out a day, that can seem a lot but can easily get lost with older stock that they can oversee it.)

So the trick is, keeping it fresh just like your fish. Two women had an argument today over some lace doilies, I left them to it they were older ladies and I weren’t risking a citizen’s arrest, honestly though do you know anyone that has ever made a citizen’s arrest? If you read this and have indeed witnessed one please state when, where and details I am very interested in the procedures and protocols for this.

Big girls blouse

Knowing your customer is an art, actually it’s a science, no it’s a pain.

It’s one of the hardest things to work out in a field like this, dealing with second hand goods. You have to know what is current and in fashion and even if you do your not always guaranteed to be able to offer your customer that, and to be honest they don’t expect it.

They expect quality, quirky finds and bargains. Something we try and offer all the time.  I’ve been into some charity shops in the past and they are old fashioned, yes their customers may be an older generation but their alienating the younger audience and those who are likely to offer you their footfall. Of course we and other charities appreciate all customers and you will always attract the mature & wiser customers but it’s the younger ones that need a little coaching and that’s where your window displays come in.

It may be a bit controversial to say a lot of charity shops have little old ladies behind the till and 1970's dresses on the mannequins but most people expect that when they come into a charity shop. Well not ours, yes we have our little old lady’s who are full of personality but we have a selection of volunteers (I make them sound like a box of chocolates- yum!) over a range of ages that bring some nice dynamics and variety to the shop and our customers, in turn increasing our customer base. 

Back to the windows, we try and keep it modern, clean and bright...Oh and fashionable. Some of the older volunteers dress the mannequins more fashionable (in my eyes) than some of the younger staff we have had!

I’ve been shocked in the past when I’ve given them the task of dressing the mannequins and they walk off leaving baggy floral department store blouses on!

The title of my blog today is about big girls blouses. We just don’t get enough to be honest and bigger clothing sells better than anything! Bring it in girlies don’t be afraid to empty that wardrobe after your super weight loss triumph - bag it up and drop it in. Cheers.

It's good to clear the air

Today I cried at work. It wasn’t pretty but if someone cant express their emotions then it isn’t healthy is it? I am not going to rant on about pity or gossip this is merely a diary of my days at work and I felt this was as important as any other day I could write about.

Often in any job everything comes to a head and you succumb to the madness and pressures that you, society and the nature of a job place upon yourself and its only normal your mind finds a release.

Sometimes in a small environment like this it can become a little intense and personal and things can be taken out of context or overlooked in some instances and as always prevention is always better than the cure but sometimes situations expand and before you know it its too late.

There are of course dramas, dismays and day dreaming and today was one of those days. Sometimes you can hit opposition and conflict and this is exactly what happened today without going into too much detail. As a manager and responsible adult I am somewhat responsible for peoples emotions and if you get close to them in a working environment like this one the smallest change can have a massive effect on that person.
But its good to clear the air and sometimes we all need to stop and take a look at the situation and see where we can improve and I’ve done just that today. Its all about balance! I find Lady GaGa really helps balance my mind and settle my thoughts into something more manageable.

On a brighter note its been a busy day but I’ve heard through the grapevine that a nearby high profile shop may be closing in the near future and if this becomes truth it could have a massive negative effect on our sales, as footfall will surely decrease to our store. So we would need to find a way to combat this, maybe move to a bigger premises? That would be fun, and would be a lovely injection of freshness- well deserved and appreciated. With a biscuit. Speaking of biscuits I like this town, it has character and some of the people really are wacky I was talking to a customer today who lives on a boat (not saying wacky people live on boats - I don’t think Rosie & Jim were wacky)

She’s such a spirited character and fun to talk to I wish everyone could be like that, she has no edge or attitude and is purely pleasant i'd like her as an auntie. She has invited me on her boat for a drink of tea and biscuits and I may take her upon her offer before she set sails south, she also informed me of shocking fact that her boat with 2 engines takes £4000 to fill with fuel! That is incredible I think she is rich and has nice ornaments on her boat and I may set up a donation station sailing down the canals collecting bags of donations, how amazing would that adventure be?

Maybe it would sink though that wouldn’t be amazing, but from the photo she showed me it has a life vest so I’d be ok. It made me think that if your on a bus and you give your seat to an old lady, well what if I was on a boat with an elderly lady and neither of us could swim and we needed to jump which one of us would morally have it? I think I’d give it to her though because I’m like that.

Just don’t get me started on lamb!

Why don’t I eat Lamb? Because its technically a baby and I don’t eat babies. This is one of the heated discussions that I’ve had with one of the volunteers today (all friendly don’t worry)

There have been lots of staff in today, more than usual and although you may think you would get copious amounts of production out of them this is not always the case, its often more productive and effective having less staff so they can get on with their job.

I found two of the staff finding conflict in who should be in charge of the bric-a-brac and they were each striving to find a place on the shelves for the glass decanters and tea, coffee and sugar canisters they were holding. It was sort of like a competition who was going to win the battle of the bric-a-brac. It’s a funny name that isn’t it “bric-a-brac” I don’t like it if I’m honest - which I always am. There is an antique shop in Mapplethorpe that is exactly like what you may expect a charity to be like (which it isn’t), I’ve never in my life seen anything like this, stuff everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE! I nearly bought a handmade doll with one eye like Coraline but I was worried it was possessed or haunted and the little girl that owned it would follow me home. I wonder if its still there.



Friends of Weatherfield Hospital
Shop - Coronation Street

 I remember when Rita from Coronation Street worked in a charity shop, possibly with Emily Bishop? Not quite sure but we could do with some media exposure as an “industry” we are a valuable commodity, quite powerful in our appeal and content and should be treated as so by the media. I like the idea of a “boutique” style charity shop selling the same kind of thing but in more of a bespoke style with fabrics and nice lighting, it’s a modern world now things have changed and I think this idea would really appeal to the public.

By the way if I were to have a uniform sponsored by Fruit of the Loom I would like this logo on my back.

A Royal Wedding

Today first and foremost it was the wedding of William and Catherine Royal. I am not a royalist I cant stress this enough but I do have an interest in this specific marriage because it is of my generation and a piece of history I can feel a part of.

No doubt in a few years all charity shops will be flooded with “Kate and Will” memorabilia such as tacky mugs (I want one, maybe two) souvenir plates and the like,  especially if they get divorced now don’t think I am being negative or commiting “treason” for saying anything untoward against the Duke and Duchess of Cambridgeshire but divorces do happen look at Diana and Charles.

Divorce is a messy thing and does happen but it can generate lots of nice donations such as when a vexed lady donates her ex husbands John Wayne DVD collection or the contents of his designer wardrobe into the shop and doesn’t even care if she has forgotten his right shoe (not that this has ever happened to us of course but I’m sure it has somewhere, I‘m speculating).

All my working life in charity shops I’ve been plagued with “royal memorabilia” jubilees, weddings, commemorative pieces and never really thought anything about them until now, I realise we have been sitting on a gold mine! They are usually of Diana and Charles or the Queen.


Apparently the Queen's crown has the equal weight of 2 bags of sugar but is that light, brown or normal? Who knows I doubt we will ever get the crown donated in to weigh it like we do the rag bags.

Apparently 1 million folks turned out to the procession outside Buckingham Palace, what a missed opportunity for a donation station! A donation station is where a charity can set up camp with notice boards and a station and allow people to bring a bag of donations and then a van driver collects and distributes fairly between shops, helping people spring clean their home, create awareness for the charity and what they do or simply generate stock. There are many fundraising opportunities and ideas to trial, sometimes brainstorming is where the best ideas come into fantastic realities.

Anyway speaking of reality I’ve had a few weeks off and no internet so not a lot of blogging materials sorry for you hardcore readers that hang on for my every word but there is more coming soon but I’ve just been lounging around at home, watching royal weddings and things like that so not a great deal to report other than we need your donations! Stock levels have dropped somewhat and we need them back, we need you to do your spring cleaning and get donating! Our shops really rely on it and appreciate it!

By the way I thought Kate looked beautiful today.

HRH Charity Shop Blogger