A rainmac will not save you

It came with a storm, a raging storm many are saying a storm like they have never seen before, felt before or feared before. A storm that raged the sky’s, the world seemed to grow grey, trees were bowing nearly in half, cars were stranded and all hell broke loose, the heavens opened and the water fell. Enough to flood this town. It was just before closing as we let an elderly lady find refuge in the doorway, as it passed we stood and watched in disbelief as torrential rain came pouring through the top of the fire exit, small stones of hail falling like a cascading waterfall.

Then underneath like a river until a huge puddle formed in the backroom of the shop, water came pouring out from the top of the door. We threw down bags to try and soak up the damage, but it wasn’t doing much good there was just too much water. I opened the fire exit and it was like a small river rapids at Alton towers (I love it there, Halloween is the best time to go, it won’t be long before we pop a pumpkin in our front window will it!) guzzling down the alley way.

Anyway the drains couldn’t take it, the pumps couldn’t distribute the water quick enough and lightning struck peoples trees I found out afterwards, some completely in half, the council will not remove an act of god therefore it is left at the expense of the resident. One victim was one of our own volunteers. 

The scene from a neighbouring shop

The whole town began to flood, many shops suffered severe damage we were quite lucky as some were completely flooded through their lighting and roof. Thankfully ours is a relatively new building so a bit more modern and hardy. Although some of our winter stock and carpeting was damaged in the flood, we had to use heaters and fans to dry it all out. Anyway I hope we don’t have a repeat performance as the town may start resembling the lost city of Atlantis!

I ponder too long I may catch a fish. Or a white Rabbit.

White Rabbit I’m not even going to bother looking up this one I want to live in ponder, but why do they say “White Rabbit” on the first of each month? It’s apparently bad luck to speak before saying this phrase.

It’s the first day of August today, this year is going too blooming fast and I choose the word blooming as I haven’t even had chance to buy any plants yet, I have one lone lavender plant, some mint on my window and a small primitive pepper plant, I bought it for 50p from a gala because I won a St Michael vase, the irony of it all is it’s something I would donate to our charity shop because I’d have no use for it but everything has a story you know, and many objects and clothes have stories and if you are to stop and think for a while what journey it has taken to get to where you are now...

If objects had a soul, a memory and a heart then we would think twice before donating or worse throwing it away. It’s surprising what people throw away, and it’s some young people who don’t understand that their clothes they have had hardly worn would be better suited in one of our shops than the landfill sites. Also lately I’m getting a little annoyed with these shops that let you take a bag of clothes in and give you a small token (pittance), its taking directly from charity shops, people are selling everything these days and I worry one day there won’t be charity shops because the world will turn greedy and consume itself! There I said it, its sacrilege. Please donate to charities they need you.

Next time you donate an item to a charity shop think about it, where it’s come from and where it’s going to go you may be surprised what you remember!

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…..

Lace up

We sold a lovely vintage wedding dress today, ivory in head to toe lace. It was beautiful. One of our good customers bought it and she has promised to send a photo of her wearing it and i'll upload it to the blog. She just needs to find herself a husband now, maybe that’s what we will ask for next for people to donate potential husbands, I’m sure we would make a killing, well not literally. Maybe we could exchange them for nice quality clothes.

I’ve been a little sad this week over the passing of Amy Winehouse one of my favourite singers, I saw her live in concert she was incredible, such a shame. RIP Amy Winehouse.

Let there never be a shortage of tea bags

Some people would drink Tea constantly. It’s a social activity that can get you out of work. I've noted if planned properly people can waste a good 15 minutes asking if one would like a drink, asking if you take sugar, milk maybe? How do you like it? Oh don’t use a tea bag in the cup please make mine with a teapot. Then they forget it all and have to ask again, worse is when you make a coffee by mistake, even worse is when you add coffee to a tea bag, this has happened to me a few times. Anyway my point is, our volunteers love tea, it is a job in itself it’s the very essence of life and bonding. It’s the first thing they do and the last, and even if they have a cup in their hand just poured if you asked them if they would like another one then they would surely say yes and have it lined up so they never run out because I feel it is the oil that lubricates their cogs without it they would not survive.

I am sure of it so I always make sure I have tea bags, sugar and milk. Even people that say they never drink tea end up drinking it when they work with us as they say on Star Trek “Resistance to tea is futile”.

I do like tea. Decaf for me though or I would be climbing the ceilings. Then they all have a tea meeting and maybe a biscuit and that sends them into a frenzy! Someone once said to me “your a manager your not supposed to make tea” I don’t agree I am part of the team and it is my job to engage in these activities as part of my team building and ongoing bonding. Although other people are better at it than me. Today we drank a lot of tea.

 

Supplement yourself

I know you’re wondering why is there is a photo of a devilishly handsome Noel Edmonds wearing a rather fetching shirt. Well don’t you think he looks dapper? He looks a little like one of our volunteers but with more hair.

Well I got thinking when I saw this photo that he probably didn’t have this lying around in his wardrobe (maybe HE did) but more went out and bought it from, maybe a charity shop? I have come to the conclusion that in today’s world it isn’t just bargain hunters, or specific charity shop buyers that buy clothes from charity shops but more everyday people wanting to supplement their wardrobe by mixing and matching high street/designer gear with one offs from charity shops.

People assume we have these custom one off pieces that are so old the moths are even extinct but not so true, a lot of what we sell is pretty much your run of the mill, new look, zara, topshop and surprisingly Primark which goes down a storm because it’s a quick fashion turnover selling quirky pieces. A bit like us, so we supplement your wardrobe so it looks fuller, you’re still on trend and you have more choice.

Ask yourself this question if you’re a serious charity shop buyer (like Noel) then what percentage of your wardrobe is second hand?  I did get a bit perturbed today when two young girls were on their mobile and their mum must have asked where they was and they answered “just going past the junk shop”. You mean the junk you have on your back? Because seriously I could dress you better and it would be more fashionable. I have to defend my cause right? Too much of what we say and do is censored for fear of controversy, I have just re-discovered this word and it’s my friend.
I hope to bring a lot more of it to you. Joke. 

Shop lift

No we aren’t having a lift fitted in our shops, well the reason being we are small premises with one floor.

The other day at work a woman came into our shop and I distinctively remember her husband walking out with a leather jacket on his back which he plucked from our rails and thanked us with two fingers, a charming sort of guy who ended up in a nice place called prison. Anyway he’s out now and unreformed.

His wife, a small blonde still comes in and we always watch her closely but on this particular day while she was in “browsing” I mentioned to one of the volunteers my particular dislike of this woman and to watch her because she steals. Ten minutes later directly outside of the shop two police officers were quizzing her over some stolen jewellery and they weren’t quiet about it. Apparently some rings had gone missing and they wanted to search her handbag, they let her go and another ten minutes later a police car pulled up outside the shop blocking her and her car in.

She got out and they were asking if she had MOT etc, she started waffling on about not understanding the question (yeah right) she then ran into the shop and asked if she could pay for the shoes she had on her feet and when she tried them on she forgot to pay! After watching her so closely she had managed to walk out the front door in a pair of shoes she hadn’t paid for. After that she was arrested (not because of the shoes unfortunately) Although controversial, the police are a little more relaxed on charity shop theft than in a standard retailer, although this isn’t true in terms, it can feel this way.

Theft is a daily fight, we as retailers forge a war against but often lose as it can go undetected and you have to have a trained eye. One thing I’ve noticed lately is people (particularly women with teenage daughters) donate some bags and two days later come to the till with a selection of items saying “oh I brought some bags in the other day and I’ve accidentally brought some of my daughters clothes in and she’s so upset, can I have them back, I don’t think I should pay for them” what do you do? It’s a hard one as accidents happen but it’s happening more and more, coincidence or organised theft?

I remember one occasion when working with probation workers who were doing community service hours - they wanted to place lady in our shop who had just been convicted of stealing from a charity shop. Work that one out.