Mary Queen of Shops BBC2
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Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
It would be stratospheric if someone else was running it. Seriously. It's phenomenally successful in spite of the current manageress. She's unbelievably rude.
Iguana
Well-Known Member
I know her well. She also puts up with some unbelievable shit. It's one of the only charity shops that needs a full time security guard.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Who follows you round evangalising for his strange fringe church. He's very weird. Well, he was last time I was in there, I don't go any more because he's really creepy. I had been shopping there for over 25 years. No more.
And never once did I give the manageress or the security guard shit. I was a good customer.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Oh, and there was a demented Kiwi or Aussie woman who worked in there who was unbelievably racist too.
Frankly, I can do without being followed round when shopping and lectured about how the problem with schoolkids is the criminal black ones....unbe-fucking-lievable.
Frankly, I can do without being followed round when shopping and lectured about how the problem with schoolkids is the criminal black ones....unbe-fucking-lievable.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Actually I'm a bit bitter about Barnardos. When my children were little we used to go and feed the contents of our penny jar into the green swirly thing. I bought loads of household stuff there, bought Christmas presents and all my Christmas cards there and went in about twice a week. I liked spending my money in there. It was ultimately three members of staff that drove me away. A pity because the other staff always struck me as nice, dedicated people.
bi0boy
Power User
Miss Potter
hates mice
I watched the first episode, will watch part 2 today. It made me laugh as I recognised a lot of the characters, they must be the same in charity shops all over the country. The volunteers at my shop are all over retirement age (except me) and there's a perceived hierarchy based on who's been there the longest.
The manager is a sweet enough person but is hopeless at her job. No people skills whatsoever. It can't be easy though as many of the volunteers are set in their ways and often murmur "this wouldn't have happened in so-and-so's day". I spend a lot of my time taking crap off the rails and shelves which they've just priced & put out without any sort of quality check. The worst one was a girdle which may have been white once but had turned a kind of yellowy grey, with a disturbing stain in the crotch.
In an ideal world every charity could afford a Mary to give their shops a retail makeover but obviously their priority has to be directing profits towards the people it is designed to help.
The manager is a sweet enough person but is hopeless at her job. No people skills whatsoever. It can't be easy though as many of the volunteers are set in their ways and often murmur "this wouldn't have happened in so-and-so's day". I spend a lot of my time taking crap off the rails and shelves which they've just priced & put out without any sort of quality check. The worst one was a girdle which may have been white once but had turned a kind of yellowy grey, with a disturbing stain in the crotch.
In an ideal world every charity could afford a Mary to give their shops a retail makeover but obviously their priority has to be directing profits towards the people it is designed to help.
it didn't have any sort of affect like that on me. i thought she was doing fairly well at a tough task.
Rollem
two kinds of wonderful
that's bollocks. if you only watched last nights episode, then you missed the fist one last week where it showed her consulting with all the estaff and expaining every step of the way what she wanted to do, why she wanted to do it, and how. they are all behind her, even if they dont always agree with everything she puts forward
its tricky managing volunteers. on the one hand you dont want to upset them because they give their time freely, but on the other you dont want a bunch of useless articles who end up creating more work for the paid staff / not delivering what you want your volunteers to deliver. I am not saying the old dears in this shop are like that, but it is phenomenally difficult- trust me. i have upset many a volunteer, but they usually turn out to be the ones who's motives for volunteering are exactly selfless
i love mary, i think she is doing a great job, and it will be intersting to see how the shop moves forward next week. some of her ideas i was not so sure about - like the refit which kind of alienated the staff in a way. but her motives are clear - make the shop a viable business, and so far she seems to be on the right track
as for the save the children area manager - he needs to get a bloody grip and stop poncing about like he is gods gift to retail. he has no clue how to manage volunteers (so frightened of upsetting them that he ends up being told what to do by them!) or a retail shop - hence why it was stc's worst performing in the region! what an absolute twit! "she's got heaps of experience" (mary) "doing the same job for 26 years doe not mean heaps of experience"
Yeah, Nick the area manager gets on my goat. He seems the type who is happy to be a manager but seems to want to have no responsibility. Charity management etc now just seems to be run by posh twats. That woman from head office in the black suit and white shirt really pissed me off too. She was wearing expensive tailored clothes - not charity shop stuff. Her and Nick turned me off the charity sector tbf.
I thought Mary did well and was tactful when dealing with the staff. Just because they volunteer at the shop doesn't mean they own the place. Only problem is if some of the volunteers leave it is likley they will die shortly after as going to the shop seems to be their main meaningful activity. If Mary really wanted to change the shop she would have to get rid of most of the volunteers.
I thought Mary did well and was tactful when dealing with the staff. Just because they volunteer at the shop doesn't mean they own the place. Only problem is if some of the volunteers leave it is likley they will die shortly after as going to the shop seems to be their main meaningful activity. If Mary really wanted to change the shop she would have to get rid of most of the volunteers.
what?! just cos someone works for a charity they have to wear stuff bought from a charity shop? what a bizarre idea. should they live in a charity run hostel, too?
i dont like the way charity shops are going in that many of them have more expensive clothes than primark or other cheap shops..some seem to be pricing themselves out of the poorer persons reach
..they need to get the balance right.i can respect that the charities need to make money and having higher priced clothes will help them do so.HOWEVER i dont think shops in working class areas should "posh up" beyond what most shoppers there can afford..
i think mary is one of these people who is awe of designer labels which of course doesnt endear her to me.
in her small feature in last weeks time out "londons BEST charity shops" it was mainly about ones in kensington and chelsea and how they had lots of nearly new designer dresses/shoes at only £50 or sometimes even more
they pictured some of the gear and it wasnt that striking looking , it just seemed to be about the label.i can understand the high pricing more if an item is unique rather just designer.but i guess most members of the public disagree with me and these shops which get the "high class donations" do very very well as people are totally won over by the designer status thing.i'm much more into vintage and always have been!
i havent seen part 2 yet..so wont comment on the changes she has made til i have
..they need to get the balance right.i can respect that the charities need to make money and having higher priced clothes will help them do so.HOWEVER i dont think shops in working class areas should "posh up" beyond what most shoppers there can afford..i think mary is one of these people who is awe of designer labels which of course doesnt endear her to me.
in her small feature in last weeks time out "londons BEST charity shops" it was mainly about ones in kensington and chelsea and how they had lots of nearly new designer dresses/shoes at only £50 or sometimes even more
they pictured some of the gear and it wasnt that striking looking , it just seemed to be about the label.i can understand the high pricing more if an item is unique rather just designer.but i guess most members of the public disagree with me and these shops which get the "high class donations" do very very well as people are totally won over by the designer status thing.i'm much more into vintage and always have been!i havent seen part 2 yet..so wont comment on the changes she has made til i have
i dont like the way charity shops are going in that many of them have more expensive clothes than primark or other cheap shops..some seem to be pricing themselves out of the poorer persons reach
agree, i guess it depends on whether you see charity shops as a working class local resource, or a place for already rich charities to make even more money by flogging cheap designer gear to posh liberals
they werent originally, the original concept was to provide a resource for the poor, set up by the salvation army
since then theyve kind of remained somewhere in the middle
SpookyFrank
Don't swallow the cap
I love all this downscaling of TV shows for the current economic climate. Mary "patronising bitch" Whatserface has been relegated to charity shops and Sarah Beeny's gloating over yuppie house flipper cunts who are no longer able to print money by doing fuck all. Soon a round on countdown will only last 15 seconds and the phone in competitions on This Morning will be transformed into live public auctions for bits of the studio and Philip Schofield's hairdo.
Iguana
Well-Known Member
No they haven't. The only purpose of an Oxfam shop is to raise money for Oxfam's projects. The only purpose for Mind shops is to raise money for research into, and the treatment of those with, mental health issues. The only purpose of a Barnardos shop is to raise money for their children's projects. And so on for Scope, Save The Children, Cancer Research, Sue Ryder, British Heart Foundation, etc.
Charity shops exist to raise money for their charity, if there is an overlap in their mission statement which also includes providing cheap goods for the locals in the area, then maybe it is somewhere in the middle. But the vast majority of charity shops are only there to raise money for their cause. That's it. It doesn't matter what you think it should be for. If locals get cheap stuff, good for them. If a huge amount of unwanted good is saved from landfill, that's great. But those aren't the purpose of the shops.
foo
dirtysweet
I also laughed when Chris from Mind said she hid the Jimmy Choo bag out the back of the shop overnight
a mate of mine who runs one of the Sue Ryder shops in Cambridge says she always puts things by for herself, although she does still pay for it. she says it's ok with the charity for her to do this, one of the perks or whatever.
she hates Mary off this programme with a passion though
who prices it up though? I hope it's not your mate
foo
dirtysweet
yep think it's her and the other woman who do the pricing. i reckon she probably pays the same as what it goes up on the rack for, cos she's a decent person. the area manager comes in to check once a week she was telling me.
it's a wicked shop, always busy and friendly. none of that 'vintage' over-priced malarky.
edit: i got a lovely top in there this morning as it happens for 2 quid.
it's a wicked shop, always busy and friendly. none of that 'vintage' over-priced malarky.
edit: i got a lovely top in there this morning as it happens for 2 quid.
