Trading

Over the past two years, Norwood has been revamping their seven Charity Shops in an endeavour to lose their ‘elderly image’ and make them more funkier and appealing to a wider audience, targeting younger customers as well as their regular middle-aged customers.

Stock
Unlike many of Norwood’s competitors, it is our policy to only sell donated stock. We do not buy in goods, so we are able to sell them at a lower price.
A large proportion of this stock is donated by the community and sold as ‘second-hand goods’, but we regularly receive donations of brand new goods from wholesalers, ranging from luggage, china, ceramics, trendy clothing, men’s West End designer shirts, shoes, high fashion belts and jewellery to swimwear. These new goods are also sold at far less than their wholesale cost price.

Vintage clothing, shoes and bags, are high fashion currently, and one can often find these on our rails and shelves. We have also started selling items on eBay and you can find brand new electrical goods and expensive jewellery to name a few.

For those supporters of Norwood, who use eBay to sell their own items, you can donate money from your sales to our charity via Mission Fish. Not only does Norwood benefit from your donation, but also we are able to claim Gift Aid on it, which is a bonus.

Other ways of supporting our charity are by volunteering in one of our shops, and of course, by donating your unwanted high quality, fashionable goods and bric-a-brac. We have a van collection should you be unable to drop off your donations at one of our shops. This can be arranged by telephoning: Alison Rose on 020 8420 6872. There is a 24-hour answerphone so you can be sure that you will receive a call back during normal working hours.

Volunteering
We operate our shops by employing a manager, who is experienced in the retail sector and has a good knowledge of what our customers want. Volunteers help the managers with their various duties and we run shifts from 10.00am to 2.00pm in the mornings and 1.00pm to 5.00pm in the afternoons, Mondays to Fridays, and also on Sundays, where there is Sunday trading.

Many students come to us to work their allotted hours for schemes such as The Duke of Edinburgh Award, or for their school’s community service. We often place students from colleges who wish to better their English or who wish to do their work experience in our shops. Students find that this helps them with their UCAS applications as well as giving them all round retail experience, which they can use when applying for paid work.

Feedback we have received has been particularly high as students enjoy working in a warm and friendly environment, especially if they find the shop is ‘buzzy’. We often receive requests from students to return to their chosen shop during their school or university holidays.

One or two of our managers are university students themselves, working part-time whilst continuing their studies. For more information contact...

Carole Levy
Trading Development Manager
telephone : 0208 420 6810
email: carole.levy@norwood.org.uk

Alison Rose
Administrator, Trading/Collection
telephone: 020 8420 6872
email : alison.rose@norwood.org.uk