First day at Oxfam....

Had my first day volunteering at Oxfam, up on Kensington High street. Found out a lot about the charity and the store I'll be working at. First off, they have the largest turnover and generate more £ than any other Oxfam shop in the UK. Wow. But the "learning the ropes" had to begin. So, after meeting a few nice volunteers, they showed me what we'll be doing. I can say I'm very impressed. We get quite slot of donated bags per day, but we go through them as well. The big change for me is, learning and knowing that our product needs to meet the highest standard for the clientele. Apparently, we get the discerning shopper at our store. But going hand in hand with that, is the amazing donations we get. I saw Fendi, Diane Von Furstenberg, Burberry to name a few. There were plenty of high end brands that I don't know, but we sell too.
The things that empresses me most though, is then culling/sorting process. The stats they told me, was 80% of what we receive, we don't use!! Okay then...but wait. It doesn't disappear. Oxfam owns another company (I can't recall it's name) but it's a sorting distributing firm. We can be very picky about what we want to display for our customers- who want the best. But back to the culling. Items are divided up into special bags. Off they go to the firm, where they are looked over and redistributed to other Oxfam shops. Since we can't use them, other shops in other parts of the country can! What is left is then minced and sold to companies who need- cotton pulp or whatever. Is is a 1 million pound business which goes back into Oxfams coffers. So it's a win-win.
After culling, things are prices, steamed and racked ready to go out on the floor. I got to sort,steam and work the till today. I passed on pricing. I don't think it's my thing, but they have chart so pricing is standardized. This is good, because it's not based on the individual pricer. So, while things are more expensive than other shops, it's well priced for ours.
I'm really looking forward to my next day, probably working the till again. I have to get more comfortable with the coinage. But this poses no trouble, just requires using the little gray cells...