Our charity shops rely on their communities to thrive, from friendly volunteers who give up their valuable time to high-quality donations that help us raise funds.

As one of our newest and busiest stores, our Demelza charity shop in Walderslade Village was intended to be a community-minded space to encourage residents to shop, donate and volunteer with us.
The last year has seen the team settle in, grow and has become a centrepiece to the close-knit bustling village.

Shop Manager, Caroline, spoke of the importance of being people-focused, saying, “The people make this shop work. We have 33 volunteers aged from 16 to 80, and they all work together, support each other and learn from each other.

Being a community shop we get a lot of regular customers, and our team has built great relationships with them, which is lovely for both our volunteers and our customers.

We also make sure we work with our other shop teams and E-Commerce. We want our donations to raise as much money as possible and it’s important to us that we all work together to achieve this. It’s what we’re here for, after all.”

Each week, our Walderslade shop can take up to 150 donations from our generous supporters and sell around 1700 pre-loved items, and since April they have signed up 275 supporters to our retail Gift Aid meaning that those donations go 25% further.


Area Manager, Leanne, added that the shop is “a happy, buzzing place to be, and really showcase best practice and collaborative work with our teams and the public… Long may it continue!”

Click to find out more about volunteering opportunities in our shops