Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Stigma...

Sooner or later, if you work in any shop in your home town you'll bump into someone you know. However, when you work in a charity shop, these friends and aquaintances can often seem embarassed at being spotted. While I accept that in years gone by there was a certain stigma attached to entering a 'second-hand' shop, not helped by a few less well run organisations lacking in the hygiene department, but these days things are vastly improved. For a start, many of our items are brand new, created by the charity especially for sale in their retail outlets. Other brand new stock comes from clothing stores which have folded or simply need to ethically dispose of last season's fashions. As for our donated goods, every item is carefully checked for any damage and instantly discarded if not in excellent condition, the clothing is all hygienically steam cleaned and all games are inspected for missing parts; our quality control is second to none. In fact, you're far more likely to get duff goods from a privately owned establishment than you are from ours, so why do some people still feel the need to mumble excuses and appear embarassed about browsing our rails? I'm immensely proud to be a volunteer for a charity shop, and there's absolutely no reason for anyone to be ashamed to be seen shopping in our store!

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