The Hospice is an organisation I know well – like me, it is a longstanding and active member of Durham Business Club, and last year I contributed to the Umbrella Street fundraiser in Durham, supporting the Hospice at the same time as honouring my late dad Trevor.
More generally, I have often had chance to see the valuable role that charities play in their local communities, through my travels across England as a High Streets Task Force Expert, in the on-the-ground consultancy work that CannyInsights.com does in places like Durham and Chester-le-Street, and in visits to places like the marvellous Haven Community Hub in Essex.
Summing up the important role of charity shops in my YMCA presentation last year
Last year I also met with store managers from YMCA shops across the North East, offering advice on topics such as merchandising, kerb appeal and marketing, and sharing examples of best practice that I had seen in the charity retail sector.
Crucial
St Cuthbert’s Hospice Shop in Chester-le-Street. Photograph by Graham Soult
For St Cuthbert’s Hospice, its nine charity shops across County Durham generate around a quarter – some £500,000 – of the £2 million income that the hospice has to raise each year.
When asked by St Cuthbert’s Hospice to pick a store to visit for their photoshoot, it was a natural choice for me to head to the shop in Chester-le-Street.
Favourite
Chester-le-Street’s St Cuthbert’s Hospice Shop has established itself as a really important and active part of the town’s business community.
Graham Soult
As you may well be aware, in recent years, CannyInsights.com has managed the “Shop Chester-le-Street” campaign, providing marketing and mentoring support to businesses in the town, with the project promoted on the colourful lamppost banners that hang across the town centre.
Previous promotion for St Cuthbert’s Hospice Shop via the Shop Chester-le-Street campaign that CannyInsights.com manages
Amy, the manager of Chester-le-Street’s St Cuthbert’s Hospice Shop, is one of the many local business people who we have had the pleasure of working with, providing our support and encouragement over the years.
Indeed, the St Cuthbert’s Hospice Shop is one of my favourite businesses in the town. Amy and her team always get involved whenever the Chester-le-Street Business Association is running an event or competition, such as the annual Christmas Window contest, and after 27 years of successful trading the shop has established itself as a really important and active part of the town’s business community.
Books
Arthur Mee’s words about Chester-le-Street. Photograph by Graham Soult
As a shopper, I tend to be attracted to charity shops by the secondhand books, so I was hopeful that I would find something interesting when I visited Chester-le-Street.
At the same time, I am pleased to be a regular giver of books to local charity shops too – I have to make room for all those new acquisitions somehow – so I headed to Chester-le-Street with a welcome donation of half a dozen preloved books for the shop, which I know will generate crucial funds to help keep the Hospice running.
I was hoping to find a book that would suit both the campaign and my personality and interests, so I was thrilled to discover a 55-year-old hardback guide to County Durham – part of the ambitious “The King’s England” series by writer and journalist Arthur Mee – which was a bargain for just £1.
The first book in Mee’s remarkable series was published in 1936, with the series eventually stretching to 43 volumes. The Durham book was first published in 1953 – a decade after his death – but the copy that I picked up is the 1969 revised edition, updated to reflect changes to the historic landscape while retaining Mee’s way with words.
Regular followers will know that I often go on about how our high streets and places are always evolving. However, Mee’s opening line about Chester-le-Street – that “no place in the county can boast a history longer than that of this small but busy town” – is as true today as it was in 1969.
Charity shops are some of the most enthusiastic advocates for the high street.
Graham Soult
Indeed, despite all the current challenges for high streets, Britain is still awash with more busy towns than you might imagine if you only pay attention to The Sun’s apocalyptic headlines.
While there – your local busy town, not The Sun website – I encourage you to check out your local charity shop, as you never know what you might find, at the same time as supporting a worthy cause.
And despite the complaints you sometimes hear, in one town or another, about there being “too many charity shops” it’s worth remembering that for many shoppers they are a draw – as well as being some of the most enthusiastic advocates for the high street.
That, surely, is something worth celebrating, just as St Cuthbert’s Hospice is so adept at doing.
