Fresh new look as charity opens its store of the future
PROCEEDS GO TO CHILDREN’S AIR AMBULANCE
A First-of-its-kind charity shop has opened in West Bridgford.
The Children’s Air Ambulance opened the doors to its ‘store of the future’ in Gordon Road yesterday.
Funds raised by the store will support the charity in its life-saving missions for critically-ill babies and children, with each mission costing £3,600 on average.
The charity already operates 19 shops across the country, but the West Bridgford branch looks a little different – as well as selling the traditional offerings of clothing, bric-abrac, electronics and toys.
The fit-out of the shop itself has used locally-sourced materials, after the charity partnered with Oak Project Management, an ethical and sustainable engineering, construction and project management company.
Some of the sustainable choices include using the wooden floor from an old church, second-hand doors, and creating display units with salvaged bricks and scaffold planks.
The till area has also been made from steel mesh and contains 200 items of clothing, to represent the amount of clothing that goes to landfill every six seconds.
Hannah Coventry, head of retail for the charity says: “We are incredibly honoured to be able to open this unique Children’s Air Ambulance store and can’t wait for the local community to experience a brandnew way of charity shopping.”
Hannah initially opened the store in March 2012 when she was a store manager, and is now pleased to see it transformed into the flagship branch of the new ‘store of the future’ design.
The shop has a modern feel to it, with an all-gender fitting room kitted out with a selfie light.
She added that the shop is all about being inclusive. There is also a donation station, so people wanting to drop off items don’t have to wait in a queue with shoppers.
Regarding the project management company, Hannah continued: “Oak has been involved in this project from thebeginning and we can’t thank them enough for their expertise in helping to bring our visions to life, while keeping sustainability at the heart of everything they have done.”
A spokesperson for Oak Project Management added: “Our team were incredibly excited and honoured to be involved in such an inspirational project to help the children’s charity continue to raise vital funds at their West Bridgford store.
“We repurposed, reused and recycled many building materials to complete this project, which aligned with our ethos of reimagining use for repurposed materials and we can’t wait to see the groundbreaking store once everything is complete.”
The charity shop was opened by Charity Shop Girl Jen Graham, who is an ambassador for the charity.
Ms Graham, who is a secondhand fashion stylist with almost 200,000 followers across Tik Tok and Instagram, said: “I am honoured to be able to open the ‘Store of the Future’ in West Bridgford and to encourage even more members of the local community to shop second-hand.
“The more we can all donate to the charity shops, the more we can keep those items in circulation, whether that’s bric-a-brac, fashion, or accessories – together we are keeping the items out of landfill and in turn supporting a deserving charity with vital funds.
“The charity receives no government or National Lottery funding for their lifesaving missions and every item purchased in their stores will go towards helping to save the lives of critically-ill babies and children across the UK.”