A couple of weeks ago I went into one of our Charity shops and I was pleasantly surprised to see that one f the ladies who run the Mah Jong group was helping. We got chatting about volunteering and she asked would I have a couple of hours to spare. I used to help in a super little Charity shop up a couple of years ago I loved it and was quite sad when it when it closed down. So i decided I would go along and offer my services.
They took me up on it and soon put me to work after showing me how they conduct their business, as it was a much bigger concern than the one I had done before.
Wow, it was really more like a business with all sorts of lists and tick boxes, whether they were 'gift aiding' or not which had to be noted and their number put on each item, The number of bags to be listed, sorted into sacks, large bags, small bags e.g. carriers, or single items. The when you fill a bag with rubbish it too has to be ticked off before being put into a specific cupboard. The quality of clothing was a bit better than I had been used to, with anything that didn't come up to par discarded, not just any discard, but total rubbish, soft rubbish and hard rubbish. Anything to be sold sorted into , men/women/children/ summer /winter/designer/ jacket/trouser/top/undies/sleep/ you get the picture, but what struck me more than anything was the amount of stuff that gets discarded, and from there put into rubbish, the stuff is perfectly good but just not good enough, Much of it goes to be sorted in the large clearing warehouses and sent to third world countries, which is good, but I can't help but think that in this day and age, we don't really know what poverty is in this country, we are very much a 'throw away to-day and get another next pay-day' nation. Not just clothes, household goods, furniture and bric a brac. To-day a table came in Ercol brand, priced new over £300 , it was put out for £185 nothing wrong with it. A printer, shiny and up to date, he didn't know what was wrong with it, so bought a new one, and could we use this. !!
I grew up in Glasgow during the war and can recall seeing children coming to school with no shoes, and the backsides hanging out of their trousers, and shoes or boots a couple of. sizes too big or small. Going to houses with no carpet on the floor , newspaper in place of a tablecloth and coats on the bed. I thank God that I was born into and brought up in a reasonably comfortably warm home and never knew what going without meant. Go work in a charity shop and then see if you believe when people say th ey are in poverty , recession or not. RUBBISH.
Thank you for visiting and please come back, Arlene, Tango and Ruby
