I’ve decided to honour National Day’s Not Saints days or but all the odd, weird, funny National Days we hear about on the web.
So today is #NationalDay of the Charity Shop
Charity Shop are all over our high streets & raise valuable money for national, local charities. Some are better than others for bargain hunting or value. But if you are living on a tight budget then they are invaluable.
We use them regularly, especially for the children’s books. Why pay five or six pounds for a book for toddlers when you can get a handful for a pound. As much as we teach our little ones to respect books accidents happen after all they are children, but if it only cost 20p then it’s not a major disaster if a page it written on & ripped.
One of the earliest charity shops was set up by the Wolverhampton Society for the Blind (now called the Beacon Centre for the Blind) in 1899 to sell goods made by blind people to raise money for the Society. During WWI, various fund-raising activities occurred, such as a shop in Shepherd Market, London, which made £50,000 for the Red Cross. But it was during WWII that they really took off, probably due to clothes rationing.
The Red Cross opened it’s first shop in Bond St London in 1941, over 200 “permanent Red Cross gift shops & 150 temporary ones opened. A condition set down by the Board of Trade for the shop license was that everything in the shop that was for sale must have been a gift to the shop. Purchasing & then reselling was strictly forbidden. The entire income of the shop had to be handed over to the Duke of Glouster’s Red Cross or the St John Fund. Most premises where given to the charities rent free & some owners even paid for the lighting & heating.
Oxfam has the largest number of charity shops in the UK with over 700 stores.
What do you buy in charity shops? Have you ever found a fantastic bargain? What is your opinion of charity shops?
Leave us a comment below telling us.
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I love my second hand /charity shops
Surprising what you find in them
I buy lots of my wool from them, usually its a selection in a bag for £2, but sometimes you can get a good haul of really good quality wool that I can’t afford. Love them. x Jane