Does it have space for distancing or will it require a major clearout, most of my local ones were already a nightmare with more than a couple of customers, came close to knocking the odd nick nack over more than once trying to get by.
No, as with a lot of charity shops it's a bit tight for manoeuvre if there are a few people, but other than a 'two in, two out' system, I can't see it working. But they need the revenue, so we will see.
The future might have to be these bigger warehouse-style charity locations like the one Oxfam trialled last year. Though that would only be possible for the major charities (though maybe there could be kind of charity retail centres created across the country, where multiple charities operate under the same open-plan, outsized roof). For certain, the small shops - of any kind - won't cope with, or survive under, these guidelines. EG.
There's a few major issues there, they want people to stagger donations, yet who is going to queue for twenty minutes to donate one load, let alone do the same several times, then they are going to be down a large percentage of volunteers meaning processing or just physically moving stock is going to take a lot longer, even assuming they don't have to remove lots of stock from the shop floors to create space. I suspect that the reality for many charities will be that they are rapidly overwhelmed with donations they have no room for and that isn't selling as fast as before due to much reduced footfall, they will also suffer from retailers having huge clothing sales undercutting them as well as many people being skint, my guess is that thousands of tons of donations are going to be dumped, I can't even see the dumping of clothes on Africa happening at the moment. Charities have a very short window to sort their shops out, identify vulnerable volunteers, sort out PPE for staff and prepare for an entirely different retail environment, Oxfam seem to be clinging to the old model a bit too much, if I was running a major charity I'd be looking for cheap warehouse space in the short term and to move to fewer larger shops, I suspect there will be plenty of large empty retail units appearing this summer, small crammed shops of any description aren't going to work in 2020.
If it's anything like the charity shops round here, the staff are going to arrive every morning to find bags of donations left outside, despite the notices on the windows saying don't leave donations when we are shut. This happened to some extent before; I imagine it will be much worse now. And with long queues for the dump, I'm sure they'll get given a lot more rubbish too, despite their appeal for sellable donations.
Yes, some people have always seen charity shops as an easier option than the tip, that may increase and people have also been ignoring notices around here and leaving stuff, not as bad as normal times, but with no shops opening it's effectively fly tipping.
I went charity shop browsing today for the first time since February. In Australia a lot of the restrictions have been eased over the last month so I went out. I didn't see much of interest outside of a copy of Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones 71-93 which I already have. I usually go to these stores to try to get crappy pop albums from the late-90s and '00s since I don't mind paying $1 per album to hear a few songs off of a CD and plus I have sort of accepted that rare early pressings from the '80s are going to show up in charity shops where I am..
I guess that's a very fine line between someone putting a couple of bags of useful donations outside and someone else putting a couple of bags of useless tat, glad there's the option to treat it as a crime though.
Just seen a really nice microwave put out on a wall, unfortunately my arthritis is really playing up leaving me with zero gripping ability in one hand and it was a bit big and far to carry under one arm.
BBC news story: Oxfam tells people to call ahead before donating Considering the bias of most BBC commentators the comments section is shockingly harsh, but probably fair.
An update from British Heart Foundation. Staggered opening from Monday. Our 750 UK shops and stores are reopening from mid-June onwards
It's good that we'll be able to donated again soon. Those sound like sensible plans. Going in the shops looks like being a no-no for me. And I want to pay by cash. EG.
Hi guys, as we're not sourcing any new stuff I thought I might write a little bit about some of the more interesting / less common cds I've picked up from Charity Shops over the past year or 2 : So from top left: Colour Haze - Los Sounds De Krauts. A 2CD set on the Elektrohasch label (that probably gives you a clue as to what's inside ) Fuzzed Stoner Rock which is actually pretty good. Take some Hawkwind, a dash of Monster Magnet, a bit of Hendrix and bob's your uncle! Me - Harmonise or Die. Nice jangley indie from 1993. I'd never heard of the band but they're a band local to me - Bristol, and with the title Harmonise or Die, for 99p I had to give it a punt and I'm glad I did. Bessie Smith - Blue Spirit Blues. I like to have a bit of music from all eras and this one fits the bill for the 1920s/30s perfectly. Sound quality is amazing for how old it is and Bessie is just a bad ass, raunchy blues singer. Soft Cell - Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing. I dearly love my CD of Non Stop Erotic Cabaret one of the first I ever bought. I fell in love with Soft Cell dancing to Tainted Love in Discos in Hong Kong as a teenager in the 80s. Wow, a long time ago! Anyway was down in Exmouth for a caravan holiday with the family, but managed to sneak away into town one afternoon and came across this beauty which I didn't even know existed! Sweeeet! Various - NOW Dance 901. You gotta love a bit of early 90s dance music and here you get 2CD of it, all in 12" mixes . D-Mob, Soul II Soul, De La Soul, Lil Louis, Inner City, Neneh Cherry, etc. I challenge you to not start body poppin' all over the place as soon as Get Up Before the Night is Over by Technotronic comes on. My 9 year old son loves this one and we're both dripping with sweat by the time it's over. Beats the hell out of the playlist Joe Wicks puts on in the mornings. Annie Fischer - Schubert & Liszt. Just amazingly powerful piano playing by 'Ashtray Annie' as she was known, due to her prodigious smoking habit! Some people think her set of Beethoven Sonatas is the best there is - I'm on the lookout for it at a reasonable price. OST - Some Kind of Wonderful. I haven't seen this 1987 John Hughes film but it sounds like I would enjoy it. The soundtrack is fab: Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), Jesus & Mary Chain, Flesh for Lulu, March Violets, etc. This along with the soundtrack to Midnight Express are two of my favourites. Various - It Wasn't my Idea to Dance. A very eclectic compilation. I mean Amorphous Androgynous next to Edgar Broughton Band, then some Kevin Ayers, followed by Syd Barrett, and that's just the first four tracks. Dig it! Love, Peace & Trance. A 1995 Japanese CD by a band put together by Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Apryl Fool fame. This one is kind of a cheat I suppose, I bought it from Oxfam Online and paid a tenner for it, but it was well worth it - Really great ambient/electronic/pop music. There's nothing else really like it. The jewelcase is thicker than a normal CD case, but slightly thinner than the mid-size Japan fatcases, if packaging is your thing, the CD is then housed in a thick card slipcase. The Japanese really outdo every other country with their wrapping! I love it. Ok that's it for now. Would love to hear about your special charity acquisitions.
I just saw that Pet Shop Boys book 'Catalogue' in the window of Oxfam for £35. I bought that brand new in HMV sale for £6.
I haven't done a comprehensive check, but there are zero signs of reopening in any of my local charity shops even though pretty much all other non food retail outlets have signs up and seem to be aiming to reopen on Monday, other than those that look like they've given up entirely, almost all of the charities will have to do some rearranging if they want to follow the 2 metre rule and no signs of that either.
i have got so desperate for 'new to me' stuff to listen to that yesterday i dug out all the Hip Hop Connections cover mounts from the 2000-2005 (give or take) and added them to the archive. been bloody brilliant fun, and found some absolute crackin' old school hip hop cds. may have to dig the actual magazines out of the attic and just soak up the whole scene again. as for getting back into the real world, i suspect that my little high street charity shops will not be back in business for quite a while - if at all. they are all very small places, and social distancing will not be possible.
The shop I volunteer in seems to have set up a one way system through it, having got rid of bulky furniture to create the space needed, luckily it is a long rectangle. I am apprehensive about returning back there just now.
I've read through the pack our local council has sent out to retailers, it's advice and links to official web sites, also if they have 5 or more employees/volunteers they will need a written risk assessment, assuming you have no underlying health issues and are not in a vulnerable group, you could wait and see what they implement then ask to read all the paperwork including the risk assessment, if you are still apprehensive I don't think anyone will blame you for not going back at the moment, only you can decide that.
I can't wait! I can't wait to look through the crap that isn't good enough for them to put on eBay! Genuinely, I'm not overly bothered how long it takes for the charities to reopen, but I can't wait to be in a record shop again. The wait is driving me mad! It's not necessarily because I want to buy loads of records. That would be good, it's more because record shopping is what I do, it's a big part of me and having it taken away has had at least a small negative impact on me, but I think it's been more than that.
My favourite boot sale is open on Sunday, you can imagine how much stuff is going to be for sale, the catch is my mate's car isn't working and neither of us know anything about fixing them or anybody who does, I'm getting rather desperate. Just had a thought, MC Rag you got a car?
