Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to look at:
"Working in a Charity Shop" or sometimes called a "Thrift Store" in...
More in America, Canada. So, to explain
what I mean by a charity shop - a charity raises money for a particular purpose, so
either for people in a disaster area; people needing food, clothing, shelter. Money has
to be raised, transport to take the things to the place where the disaster has happened.
So, places like Oxfam, a charity called Oxfam which operates all around the world. It began
in Oxford, which partly explains its name. It started in Oxford, and in response to a
famine. So, they put those two words together: "Oxfam", and so, it has been running now for
many, many years, and is a big, international charity. Okay? So, we have Oxfam. The Salvation
Army is another charity who operate in various countries, and they are partly a religious
organization, but they are also very practical, and they arrange shelter for homeless people,
and they have hostels for people to stay in overnight or to live in on a more permanent
basis, and they provide food and clothing. So, again, they need to raise money to do
all of that. Then there are two medical charities, here, that I've written down. The Cancer Research
and the particular UK-based charity, the British Heart Foundation who do research into
And perhaps I should just explain "famine". So, I mentioned Oxford, and I said a famine,
I didn't explain famine. When there is no food, maybe the people have been growing their
crops, but there has been very bad weather and they have lost their crops-wheat, maize,
vegetables, perhaps the whole harvest has been lost because of very bad weather, like
heavy rain; or if it's been very, very dry in a hot country and the crops don't grow,
and they haven't had the water to put on the crops for them to grow-there will be no food,
That's the full word, there: "famine". Okay, so that explains
So, working in a charity shop... You find these shops in many cities and towns, in the
UK, in North America, and often you can go in and buy maybe second-hand clothes or shoes,
all sorts of things that you need; books, coffee, tea, things like that. It's also called
a thrift store, because "thrift" means you don't spend a lot of money. If you don't have
a lot of money to spend, a charity shop or a thrift store is a good place to go if you
need some new clothes. Sometimes the clothes are completely new and they have not been
worn. Maybe they were given as a present and the person didn't want the present, they never
even tried it on, so they give it to the charity shop. So... And then the charity shop sells
it, and that is how they raise their money for their particular purpose. Right. So, if...
One of the good things about working in a charity shop if you come to an English-speaking
country and you're trying to learn the language, it's a very, very good opportunity to learn
the language, because you'll be working with other English-speaking people, so you have
to speak to them to work with them. You might be having to speak to customers in the shop
as well. So, it's a very good opportunity to learn a lot more vocabulary, how to say
things, grammar maybe as well. So, it's a very good place to go if you're trying to
get a job, but you haven't been able to get a job. It's good experience. It's good work
experience to spend some time in a charity shop. Maybe just for a few hours a week or
one day a week. I should explain that it's usually voluntary, which means it's not paid.
It's unpaid work, but it's very good experience. Right. So, an opportunity to learn the language.
So, these are some of the charities whose shops you might see, and they're all in the
centre of towns and cities, you see them everywhere. Sometimes if they need volunteers, they will
put a piece of paper in the window, a notice that says:
"We need more volunteers. Please come in and talk to us about it."
But if you don't see a notice, don't let that put you
off. You can just go in, have a look around, see what you think of the shop, and if you
think: "Oo, well, this is nice, it seems a nice place to spend some time", you can just
go into the shop and ask: Do they need any volunteers at the moment? Okay? So, these
are some of the things you could say: "I'm looking for some voluntary work." Okay? Or:
"I'm interested in volunteering." Or: "Do you have any volunteering vacancies?" "Vacancies"
means you need more people, there is an opening for another volunteer. Okay? And then you
could say how much time you have available, like: "I could help out a few hours a week",
"I could help out one day per week", "two days per week", and so on. Okay? So, let's
imagine you've done all this, you've gone in, and they have said:
"Yes, we would like you to come and volunteer and help us in the shop."
So, we're now going to move on and
have a look at the kinds of things that you would be asked to do in the shop. Okay.
Okay, so let's have a look at some of the things you might be doing when you volunteer
in a charity shop. So, obviously with any shop, you have to display things, you have
to show them to customers. The window at the front of the shop is, you know... You can
set things out in the window to make them look nice, to make people want to come in.
So, the window. Inside the shop you have shelves, which you can put things on in a nice display.
Racks, that's metal things that you hang clothes on, on metal racks. So, obviously, a lot of
clothes are given, they have to be hung up on the racks. Okay.
When people bring in their donations, the things that they are giving, which are
(to them) unwanted items. They don't want them, but somebody else might want them. Someone
else will be willing to buy them. So, you have to sort... Somebody has to sort them.
There is usually a room at the back of the shop where the donated items, which are usually
in bags, go straight to the back of the shop, and people take the things out of the bags
and decide whether they are good enough quality to sell, and then they decide on things like
pricing. So, what...? What can we sell this for? A t-shirt, maybe £2 for a t-shirt.
So, they decide on the price or you might be helping to decide on the price. You then
have to put a label on with that price-okay?-before the item goes on display.
You might be asked to help on the till, the cash desk when customers want to buy something.
They hand over their money, you might say: "Would you like a bag to put that in?" You
might put it in a bag for them. You might need to give them their change and a receipt
from the till. So, that's handling the money side of things. Okay?
So, what kind of things are usually donated to a charity shop? Well, books are always
very popular, a lot of books; clothes; shoes; handbags; scarves, like this; jewellery - necklaces,
earrings, any jewellery, rings, anything like that you can think of; ornaments which people
put on their shelves at home to decorate their home; glassware - glasses to drink out of,
all of that kind of thing; crockery, like plates, cups, and saucers for eating from,
drinking from. They... These are very typical items which people donate, which are sold
And some shops have a very big book section. I have an Oxfam shop. I can't point to it;
it was on the previous board. I have a very big Oxfam shop near where I live, and the
whole of the upstairs room is for books, and they divide the books up into categories to
make it easier for people to find what they want. So, you may have to sort books into
categories, which is especially good for learning the language and learning new words. Having
to decide whether a book is a biography, a book about somebody written by somebody else;
or an autobiography, a book written by that person about their own life; literature, like
stories, novels, short stories; history, history books; books on travel; cookery with recipes
in, how to bake a cake, all of that thing, that sort of thing, which I'm impossible.
I can't possibly do that kind of thing. Cookery, not one of my strong points. Humour, books
with humour, cartoons, humorous stories to make you laugh; foreign language books, so
they all usually have their own section in different languages; and probably children's
books as well, children storybooks. So, all of those kinds of books would be very good
practice for you to be working with and putting them into their sections.
So, I hope that helps to show how useful it could be for you to do a little bit of volunteering
in your local charity shop. There are charity shops in all sorts of places in the world,
especially in the UK; wherever you look, there's a charity shop. And if you buy things from
a charity shop, they are usually very good value. So, I hope that's helpful. If you'd like to
visit the website, www.engvid.com, there's a quiz there which will ask you some
questions on this subject. So, please go and try that.