West Midlands charity shops reopen to customers
Charity shops across the Black Country and Staffordshire are reopening their doors to customers in the latest easing of the Government’s coronavirus lockdown.
Non-essential retail stores – including charity shops – were given the green light to welcome customers through their doors from Monday.
Charity shops in the region had been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus crisis. Over the last few weeks, staff at the stores have been working to put in all the necessary precautions and safety measures to keep their staff and customers safe.
Among those to shops to reopen are those run by the Beacon Centre – which has been losing £12,500 a week from the closure of its seven retail outlets across the region. The charity opened its Sedgley store yesterdayand will reopen its Wolverhampton Clearance Centre today. Beacon’s five other stores will remain closed at this stage, but bosses say this will be regularly reviewed in the coming weeks.
Sight-friendly markings have been installed around the stores, plastic screens installed at the tills and the changing rooms will also be closed. Only six customers will be allowed in at any one time.
Beacon Centre retail manager, Rob Evans, said: “The health and wellbeing of our staff, volunteers, and customers remains of utmost importance and as a result the shopping experience will be a little different than usual for our customers but we can’t wait to welcome them back.
“People’s support, whether purchasing an item from one of our shops or donating good quality items we can sell on will help us to continue to support the most vulnerable people in our community.”
Both shops will be operating with reduced opening hours so that the stores can be cleaned each day. Sedgley will be open Tuesdays to Saturdays between 9am and 3.30pm and the Clearance Centre Wednesdays to Sundays between 9am and 3.30pm.
Baby Blues, based in Victoria Street, in Wolverhampton, which supports New Cross Hospital, welcomed customers back through their doors on Monday. The charity allows four customers in the shop at any one time with personal protective equipment for staff, a one-way system and a screen at the tills.
Tracy Frumenzi, charity manager, said: “As a small, independent charity we knew we were ready for reopening. We don’t have a chain so it was easy for us to open. All the volunteers have worked for the last four weeks to help to get the shop to reopen.
“The reopening went really well, we were lucky we had a steady flow all day long, there were no big queues. We were really pleased, we were so excited about reopening and it was lovely to see our regular customers come back and support us.”
“We have reopened with our summer stock and a Father’s Day display which is all current. When we closed our doors on March 23, it was just fear of the unknown, we didn’t know how long it would be for.”
Staffordshire’s Newlife’s superstore and home store, both in Cannock, also reopened their doors on Monday. The children’s charity had been left facing a funding black hole with shops closed and fundraisers cancelled.
Harjinder Samra, deputy commercial director at Newlife, said: “It was wonderful to welcome back so many familiar faces when we reopened the doors of our Cannock stores on Monday and we were overwhelmed by the support we received from shoppers on our first day back trading, it was a fantastic day for the charity.”
“We have introduced a number of social distancing measures in store to protect both staff and customers and have listened to initial feedback from our teams to ensure the new rules are as effective as possible and that people remember to adhere to social distancing while shopping with us to ensure everyone’s safety and a pleasant shopping experience.”
Acorns Children’s Hospice is set to welcome supporters back to its shops from tomorrow. Twenty-two Acorns shops across the region will reopen as part of a phased return.
Among the shops reopening include Bilston, Blackheath, Bloxwich, Dudley, Halesowen and Perton. They will be open Monday to Saturday, with reduced opening hours of 10am to 4pm.
Measures have been put in place to help shoppers follow social distancing guidelines and to provide a safe experience for everyone.
Gary Pettit, head of retail at Acorns, said: “We are really looking forward to reopening our shops on and welcoming our customers back. The safety of our customers, staff and volunteers is our top priority so there will be some changes.”
“We have introduced a number of safety measures, including social distancing, protective equipment for staff and volunteers and we will be limiting the number of people permitted into each shop at any one time. We want everyone to return to our shops with confidence, so thank you for your patience.”
Wolverhampton-based Compton Care plans to reopen its stores in the coming weeks. A spokesman for the charity said: “We are finalising plans and putting all of the measures in place to ensure its safe to reopen our shops, and look forward to sharing more information with everyone really soon.
“In the meantime we kindly ask our wonderful Compton supporters to please keep hold of their unwanted items and we will gladly accept them when we reopen.”
