Our Charity Shops are Back!
Retail Returns
We resumed trading in some of our charity shops a month ago and are very happy to back in so many of your local communities. We began by opening nine of our stores at the end of June, a further two reopened mid-July and we now have a total of 13 shops open. After over three months of temporary closure due to the pandemic, the first few weeks of trading look very promising and it’s great to hear the tills ringing again! View the list of our shops and their opening dates, times and addresses.
We will be reopening more shops in the coming weeks; all news regarding future reopenings will be published on the webpage above and on our dedicated charity shops’ Facebook page.
Jane Kent, Head of Retail at St Gemma’s, says: “Thank you to everyone who has supported the shops and the retail team during recent weeks. It was a huge team effort getting everything ready for the re-openings and putting everything in place to keep the staff, volunteers and customers safe. The one-way systems, hand gel stations and till screens are all working well, and don’t forget that face coverings are now mandatory in shops as of 24th July, which of course will include our shops chain.”
“It was a huge team effort getting everything ready for the re-openings and putting everything in place to keep the staff, volunteers and customers safe.”
Jane Kent, Head of Retail
Stock donations
The shops continue to be overwhelmed with kind donations of stock. We’re so grateful that so many of you kept hold of your donations throughout lockdown ready to donate them to support patient care!
You can drop your donation off at one of our open charity shops, but we would encourage you to book a home collection if you can. The service has been incredibly popular so far and over 1,000 bookings have been taken online alone!
To book a collection, please visit: www.st-gemma.co.uk/shops-collection-request Please note that collections are fully booked until mid-August.
As always, we kindly ask that donations are not left outside any of our closed shops as they are likely to be stolen or damaged and cause disruption for our neighbours.
Volunteers
We are looking forward to welcoming some volunteers back to support the open shops over the coming weeks, where it is safe to do so. We are also conscious that some volunteers do not wish to return at the moment, so we are also actively recruiting for additional volunteers, especially to support the van drivers with collections. If you are interested in joining our volunteering team, full details of our volunteer vacancies can be found at www.st-gemma.co.uk/volunteering.
St Gemma’s featured on BBC Radio 4 recently discussing some of the new challenges charities are facing as they reopen shops. You can listen to the interview online, it starts at 31m 30s.
Thanks again to everyone involved in getting St Gemma’s shops back into operation. It’s great to be part of local communities once more and raising valuable funds to support patient care.