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|   | Subject: Mary Queen of Charity Shops
Posted Jun 3, 2009 by r4registry | | Post: 1
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Brilliant piece of entertainment!
Illuminating,Funny, heartwarming and concerning all at the same time.
Mary has a battle on her hands but how typical of attitudes to change, paradigm shifts, ineffective management and lack of process lead to lost revenue.
Most shocking was the contents of donations, the average refuse depot worker probably see's less offensive items.
So 'Hand on Heart' have you ever donated 'tat'?
I have, to my shame, given some items of relatively little value but never dirty undies, used condoms or nappies.
Do you think the whole issue is using sack's putting people in mind of rubbish?
I always donate clean clothes that aren't damaged in any way. Usually a mix of mine and my kids'. Children's clothes cost so much and are worn for such a short time, especially baby clothes, it's a shame not to hand them down. Some are still as good as new.
I watched one episode of the show and thought, she has no idea who she's working with. Old people run those shops and try their hardest to make them appealing. She talked down to them and suggested major change in very little time. Rather than come and explain what she wanted she gave them tasks, and you can see them thinking - I don't need this rubbish.
I did like it when she got the call centre workers to donate designer clothes, though. That *was* a good move!
Elly
Hi Elly,
It's good to hear not everyone just uses these as an excuse to dump unwanted rubbish.
Mary's brief was to increase income, which she did. The question is did the voluteers realise their objective? I think for them it was more a 'social' rather than commercial event.
The documakers played on events a bit for entertainment value, which was their objective.
The area manager did not portray himself as a good leader which would make it diffcult for anyone taking charge and trying to improve things quickly.
What Mary was saying is charity shops have to change to survive.
Nobody likes change, it's stressful being taken out of your comfort zone. The alternative though is to go out of existence.
Although, I too felt sorry for the voluteers, I could see different agenda's and knew there would be casualties. It comes down to a choice between capability, which can be improved with training and out right resistence, which only leads to conflict.
I think that plastic bags, work at the psycological level, putting peoples minds on rubbish rather than value.Perhaps more of the corporate tpye collections would reap better rewards.
R4
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