The following locations are set to see EACH shops reopen on Monday, 3 August:
Cambridgeshire – Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge
Norfolk – Downham Market
Suffolk – Felixstowe
That leaves just five of the charity’s 43 shops still to reopen: Halstead, Stowmarket and Clacton-on-Sea plus its Colchester outlets in High Street and at Angora Business Park. Those are set to reopen on Monday, 17 August.
EACH has been the second-fastest growing charity retailer in the country for the past two years. Since the closure of its shops at the end of March the good cause has been losing out on £100,000 a week in income.
On 15 June it reopened five shops in Norfolk to assess how well it could balance the implementation of new safety precautions, the needs of staff and volunteers, and commerciality. Those initial reopenings were a success, as was EACH’s second phase of 13 reopenings and the third phase of 18 reopenings this week.
Highlights from the first day of trading included:
- Shops in Soham and Whittlesey doubled their normal Monday sales figures.
- The Thetford shop trebled its usual Monday sales figure, whilst the North Walsham shop took treble its usual number of donations.
- The Dovercourt shop received 168 bags of donations, the equivalent of almost a full week’s worth of donations in usual circumstances.
Sarah Throssell, EACH Acting Head of Retail, said: “The first phases of reopening have seen much higher sales figures than anticipated along with high volumes of donations, with some customers telling us they’ve been saving their donations especially for us, which has been lovely. We’re really excited to be trading in the community again and very nearly have all our shops back open across the region. The safety of customers, volunteers and staff remains a priority, and we can’t thank our customers enough for their patience and continued support. We really appreciate them respecting the guidelines we’ve put in place and are happy things seem to be working smoothly for all involved. It means we’re able to once again play the role we need to in helping fund vital care and support for families who access EACH’s services.”
The measures in place at EACH shops to ensure the safety of staff, volunteers and customers include:
- Shops are trading form 9.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays for those that are open seven days. This is to allow safe setting up and closing down.
- To ensure a safe shopping experience, the number of customers allowed in a shop at any one time is restricted. There is a different number allowed in each outlet depending on size.
- Customer are asked to social distance and wear a face covering in line with government guidelines.
- There are hand sanitiser stations at the front of all shops for customers to use on entry and exit.
- Changing rooms are closed. However an exchange or refund will be given if goods are returned to any EACH shop within 28 days. The original price ticket must be in place and customers will need the original receipt.
- Customers are encouraged to make contactless payment.
EACH is welcoming donations. It says there may be special arrangements in place to accept them so that donors are not required to enter shops and also that shops may temporarily stop accepting donations at certain times of day due to restrictions on handling donated goods, and the extra time needed to process them. The charity is still asking people not to leave donations outside if shops are closed as they are likely to become damaged and result in a disposal cost for the good cause.
EACH has also reopened its online shops, on eBay and Amazon, with both reporting healthy returns.
For the latest on the reopening of EACH shops, as well as a video showing what to expect when visiting, go to www.each.org.uk/shopopenings.