Hospice reopening two shops
After shutting up shop in February to help in the fight against Covid-19, Hospice South Canterbury will reopen its two Timaru outlets tomorrow.
The organisation’s marketing and events manager Jeanna Munro said Covid numbers in the community ‘‘seem to be on the downhill slope’’ which prompted the decision to resume trade at the Orbell and Church street shops.
‘‘We now feel we can open the shops, with the volunteers that are happy to come back,’’ Munro said.
‘‘We are quite confident that the district health board have things under control.’’
The Orbell St shop will start back with its normal hours of Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, while the Church St store will operate under the reduced times of Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 4pm and Saturday, 10am to 1pm.
During their closure, Hospice South Canterbury turned its trade online.
Munro said this endeavour was ‘‘more labour intensive’’ and produced fewer sales than operating through a physical store, but spoke positively of the process.
‘‘The managers did extremely well’’ taking photos of items and posting two or three times a day, she said.
Munro said the two shops are normally too busy with in-store customers to trade through digital channels.
‘‘It was a chance to have a real experiment,’’ Munro said.
Hospice South Canterbury’s largest annual fundraiser the Caroline Bay Rock and Hop, which typically raises $100,000 for the organisation, was also cancelled this year.
‘‘We did take a hit on our budget. We budget $100,000, and we didn’t get that.’’
But Munro said the organisation made up sales elsewhere, with event sponsors and ticket holders allowing their investments and purchases to become donations instead.
‘‘We’re lucky to live in this fabulous community, we got amazing donations,’’ Munro said.
‘‘We’re lucky, it could’ve been a lot worse.’’