Our charity shop is located at 97 High Street, Barry. We are usually open between 10am and 4pm Monday - Saturday.
Occasionally you might find us closed if, for example, one of the volunteers is off sick and we have been unable to find cover at such short notice.
Jacqui and Kay, the 2 trustees who live on-site at SHUA, run the behind-the-scenes at the charity shop. They do all of the sorting of donations, pricing and display. We have a team of dedicated volunteers, including one of our other trustees, Geoff, and his wife Chris, who then man the shop on a daily basis.
We want to say a big THANKYOU to BOTH our supporters who provide regular support for SHUA in the form of donating items for sale in our charity shop and those of you who come and spend your money here! Gross income (i.e. before rent, rates, utilities etc.) from the charity shop in 2008/09 made up just over one-third of SHUA's overall income. It is our main fund-raising activity and is vital for continuing our emergency work.
Our first charity shop was a little bit further up the road at number 107. We moved into the bigger premises at number 97 in April 2009. It took blood, sweat and tears getting the shop ready to open. The old premises may only have been up the road but just moving and re-sorting all of the stock was a massive task. Luckily, our friends at the Royal Bank of Scotland were on hand to help, with a team of volunteers on loan for a day plus £500 to help us with other costs.
The decorating took some time but for good reason: Jacqui painted the kids' room herself - free-hand, no stencils involved. See photos at bottom of page - isn't it amazing?!
Then there were all of the fixtures and fittings to put up. We took all of our existing fixtures and fittings from the old shop but obviously, with bigger premises, there were more that needed buying and building.
We managed to open, as planned, after the Easter Bank Holiday & feedback from our customers and donators has been excellent.
If you haven't yet visited us then you must come on down and see for yourself and snap up a bargain at the same time!
Items we can sell
Our remit is "new and nearly new". We sell clothes, shoes, bags, bed linen, books, CDs & LPs, toys and games, videos & DVDs, bric-a-brac, jewellery, curtains and more.
Any donation is very gratefully received. We have always been incredibly lucky - we have many, many kind supporters in the local area who donate to us regularly. Thanks guys!
A note about items of furniture
We have limited space at the shop so if you have an item of furniture that you think we could sell, please TEXT us (07831 216170) or EMAIL us to ask whether or not we are able to take it. Please do not turn up with it at the shop as our volunteers may have to turn you away. (However, you could always auction it for sale on E-Bay and nominate SHUA to receive the proceeds!)
Rags Recycling
By recycling your rags, we can not only help you do your bit for the environment but also raise funds for SHUA. So please do bring any material that is not fit for sale to our charity shop for us to sell on to the rag man. We can recycle clothes, bed linen, towels, handkerchiefs - pretty much any material you can think of. It would be really helpful if you could pack anything for ragging into a separate carrier (or bin) bag and label it as rags - this will save time sorting it.
Rag recycling is not to be sniffed at - we raised a few thousand pounds in 2008/09 from doing this!
Donated items for use at the rescue centre
If you wish to donate items for use at the rescue centre then please drop these off at our charity shop. We would be very grateful for any of the following: food (wet or dry), toys, bedding, towels (very soft ones get used as bedding; less soft ones for human use), carpet squares (to line pens), scratch posts, baby activity mats (great fun for kittens), litter trays etc. If you have any DIY supplies that you think we might have a use for, please TEXT us on 07831 216170.
