Our appeal follows our successful two-week ‘pop-up’ slot with CharitySuper.Mkt, the UK’s first ever shop space shared by multiple charities recently held in Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
Our participation in this UK-first, which finished last weekend, demonstrated the huge demand for second-hand fashion, with shoppers telling us they’d like us to provide more.
Our Business Development Manager, Gemma Beckett said: “The Charity Super.Mkt was an incredibly successful event for us and our companions loved being involved in something different. It really showed what an appetite there is for pre-loved fashion and people told us they’d like us to provide more.
“Transforming empty retail premises and bringing them back to life, while meeting the needs of the thriving charity retail sector by promoting a more sustainable and purposeful way of shopping is the way forward. We’re keen to expand our retail offer to meet the increasing demand for second-hand clothing.”
Gemma was interviewed about our exciting plans by Roberto Perrone of BBC Three Counties Radio and told him that we’d be keen to breathe new life into empty retail premises by selling more second-hand clothing for the growing number of thrift and sustainable fashion shoppers.
Currently we only sell pre-loved clothing in our Tring store, predominantly stocking furniture and household items from our shops in Crosby Close, St Albans and Boxmoor Reuse and Restore, Hemel Hempstead. We also sell upcycled and restored pieces from our Out of Emmaus Workshop in St Peters Street, St Albans.
Emmaus Hertfordshire and Emmaus Greenwich were trading for the first two weeks of the month-long Charity Super.Mkt event, with our eye-catching shop displays featuring in widespread media coverage including TV and national news, as well as by social media influencers.
Charity Super.Mkt is the brainchild of Wayne Hemingway, founder of the Red or Dead fashion brand, and Maria Chenoweth, the CEO of TRAID (Textile Reuse and International Development).
If you’re a landlord with empty high street retail premises that would be a good fit for Emmaus to offer more preloved clothing, please email Gemma at [email protected]
To listen to Gemma’s interview on BBC Three Counties Radio click on the catch-up link: BBC Three Counties Radio (interview starts at 36:17).
Also talking about our Charity Super.Mkt success is our Tring store manager Emily (far right in picture) who was interviewed on Tring Radio, via this link: The Eco Show – 2023-03-13 18:00:00 (autopod.xyz) (interview starts at 18:10).