So this happened today. I've always known that my name would end up in the 'goodbye' section but still it caught me by surprise and I got a bit emotional *teary eyed emoji*
For the past year or so, I have spent most of my weekends volunteering at the local British Red Cross retail shop. I didn't do it because I had to, I did it because I wanted to. Now I'm not fishing for compliments, I just want to talk about my experience in hopes of inspiring anyone reading this to spend a couple of hours per week giving back to the community and seriously, you'll get so much out of it than you expected.
I started off learning to tag and steam clothes and I spent my first couple of months in the production room above the shop. It might sound like a tedious job but to me, I felt like a curator. A curator of clothes. Obviously, our stocks are primarily donations and most of them are second-hand but before you cringe at the thought of buying worn clothes, we do double/triple/quadruple check them before we put them up for sale and most of the donations we get are in really good condition, some of them are even new!
Other than clothes, people donate all kinds of stuff from books to accessories to paintbrushes and the basically you can find these little trinkets lying around the shop floor. We do have strict regulations about other things that we could sell, like have these bottles of lotions been used before or do these toys have the CE label attached etc. There's a lot of filtration that goes through before we put them up for sale. I'm telling you guys this because I know some people are very cynical about the things that charity shops sell, it's not like we get clothes and immediately hang them up, we make sure they're in saleable condition first.
Enough about the regulating bit, time to more exciting stuff: the customers. By the end of the 3rd month, I was already allowed to be on the till (counter) and I loved it. I get to meet the customers and sooner or later, I started to notice t the regulars and the eccentric buyers. It's always nice to have a chat with them and they often have nice things to say. However, I have encountered a few rather unpleasant people: the thieves. On more than one occasion, I've seen empty hangers or price tags on the floor. I remember the one single time I caught someone red handed. Normally, I have my managers (Claire and Claudia) do the confrontation but production room needed help and I was on my own in the shop. I liked to believe that I handled it pretty well as they paid for the item and never came back. I just don't get people who steal, especially from charity shops. I just don't.
Speaking of my managers, they're really the sweetest and most understanding people I have had the honour to call them 'Boss' (never really used that term though, we go by first names here). They are so dedicated to what they do and ensuring that the volunteers are comfortable with their tasks and always making sure we get breaks during our shifts. It made my first work experience in the UK a very memorable one as I learnt so much from them about retail and dealing with customers.
Hoping that my future employers are as understanding as them or at least have free cookies and tea in the kitchen!
I'm really going to miss working there, but I know I need the weekends now to revise (ugh) for the exams. Oh boy, I could go on and on and on about volunteering at the BRC but let's save it for another time.
About a month to go till the adventure!
Till then,
Liza x
