Charity shops reopening?

[Toomuchtooyoung01]

Do you think charity shops will be reopening when the other regular shops do? I have a crazy amount of clothes to donate.

Im watching this i have so much to give from Winter.

You may want to check their policy on donations currently. I know some clothing stores are holding returns for 72 hours before putting them back out again (and no trying on in store).

I'm longing for them to reopen as a shopper but I was talking about this the other day - most charity shops are so small and cramped that it would be impossible to socially distance, plus handling and browsing are inevitable because you can't just spot the thing you want and grab it in a size 14 as you can in a standard clothes shop - and finally a lot of the volunteers are retired so in a more vulnerable group - so I'm not that hopeful.

My local Facebook group has a post from the local hospice saying they are accepting donations at a warehouse from next week and quarantining the donations for 72 hours. I suspect others will do stuff like this shortly. Presumably they will then distribute the donations to their stores.

Anyone who can create a charity/ car boot hybrid in which the joy of charity shopping can be conducted outdoors will be on to a winner. Maybe we should all agree to take our stuff to the local park or something, chuck it in the middle, and share it??

I've been putting boxes of books out for the neighbours too. The weather is dry, good conditions for giving/swapping/selling outdoors.

The shop I volunteer in was already packed to the gunnels with stuff before lockdown so I hope they put a moratorium on donations for a while at least. I agree though that distancing will be a problem - in our shop only 2 people at a time would be possible and staff would have to be cut to one per shift (used to be 2 or 3 / one on the till and 1 or 2 working on sorting Donations and replenishing stock)

I manage a charity shop & we have every intention of reopening, but with social distancing measures etc in place which won’t be easy. I am really nervous though about all the expected donations.

We have carboots opening in north west in June.

I think a lot more younger people are going to need to volunteer!!

I might offer myself for a half day a week!!

Plus, 95% of the population will have had a declutter over the last few weeks, so there will be far more stock than they could handle in normal times + fewer volunteers able to volunteer in the shop + far fewer people just browsing means they aren't going to be selling much.

A BBC article this morning explains the plan of some of the larger charity shop chains:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52822055

Oh @MorrisZapp I love this concept. As a devoted charity shop devotee, this idea sounds amazing! @chunkyrun I was wondering if and when they will start here- again, greatly missed, but the cash thing troubles me. I Have loads of money in my purse but would be worried about getting change etc. Maybe a hybrid of the two might work- say pay a fiver and fill a bag?

Yes it's not a time to be fumbling for coins. Fill a bag for a fiver or tenner sounds ideal. Also, loads of much smaller traders are using contactless now, we've got Big Issue sellers round here who use them.

I would love charity shops to reopen so I can donate old clothes and books (lockdown decluttering...) but I do worry there might be a lack of storage space, volunteers, and customers!

What will the and every other shop do about people 'touching' stuff.

Now that all of us are encouraged to view each other as biohazards, will anyone be allowed to touch anything in store without it being whisked away for 72 hours before being put out again?

I indeed do think that's ridiculous, but a lot of stores seem to be talking seriously about such policies, and if they apply to clothing, then why not absolutely everything else. But clothing is important to me bc I am rarely willing to buy clothing I can't try on first. I wonder if it's a good thing that I literally may not be able to buy anything but pants & socks in the next 18-24m.

What will the charity shops* and every other...

Don't know if I am in same area as the earlier poster but we also have a hospice charity shop that are taking donations at 3 of their stores.