Poorly rottie

Absolutely fantastic, but exhausting, flat clearance, which we finally completed at 10pm today. I just hope I am as mentally alert at 90 as the gentleman who previously owned it, as he obviously kept up his varied interests right up to the point where he went into hospital with his final illness. His collection of books and DVDs will keep both the Cambridge shops well-stocked for several months at least.

Much less welcome was a series of increasingly frantic phone calls from the owner of a rottie bitch registered at our clinic and suddenly very ill with vomiting and diarrhoea containing blood. He lives about half an hour's drive from Cambridge and doesn't have a car or any money. The lack of money was fairly moot given that no taxi firm is likely to be happy to transport a large vomiting dog. Getting a vet out to him on a Sunday would have been astronomically expensive, and probably not a solution as the dog was ill enough to need inpatient treatment which would be even more astronomically expensive done privately.

Finally organised the Pet Taxi to drive the dog to our emergency care provider on the promise that the owner will pay us back by installments. 

I do wish potential pet owners with no funds would consider the charms of the Jack Russell! At least they are portable and the majority have cast iron stomachs capable of digesting the most horrible things.

So, enormous gratitude to the family whose generosity gave us so much stock to raise the funds we so badly need today.

Suits for May Balls

Why hire a suit when you can buy one for a similar amount?

Now available at our charity shop, 61 Burleigh St.

Staggering on

Spent most of yesterday steaming incoming donations at 61 Burleigh st (hence pic of steamer). The cylinder that looks a bit like a Henry vacuum cleaner body is actually filled with water and then heated by an electrical element like an ordinary kettle. Steam comes out of the nozzle at the top of the flexible tube and is run over clothes hanging on a rail to freshen them up and remove the creases.

By the end of the day we had two rails of clothes ready for the Monday team to price and put out in the shop, but the tub of incoming donations was starting to look lower than I'd like.
If you're having a wardrobe clear-out, please bear us in mind. Even if you think most of your purge isn't good enough for anyone to wear again we can still sell it for recycling and the same goes for shoes. We can also make use of things like bed linens, curtains etc.

If you are interested in volunteering I've now put up a downloadable copy of the shops volunteer form. We are required to ask for information about next of kin and medical conditions so that we would know what to do if a volunteer was taken ill while on duty at the shop. Just complete the form, bring it in to the shop at any of the times we're open and ask to have a word with the manager. Our greatest need is for people who can help on weekdays, but we can also use more people on Saturdays when the shop's very busy. Ideally we'd like to have one person on the till, one filling up spaces on the shop floor and one sorting incoming donations on every shift.

Anyone for My Little Pony?

Aww! A Furby!

Had to go back to the shop today to drop off some old newspapers for wrapping china as we were nearly out of them yesterday and it's wasteful to use new bags just to protect breakables that buyers are going to wash anyway before eating off them. While I was there I thought I might as well tidy up some of the chaos from yesterday; then someone phoned to ask if they could drop off a large donation of children's toys, and with one thing and another I ended staying for most of the rest of the day.

While we're so short-handed at the shop, this may be the way to go as I got a lot more done with the shop closed. Basically running a charity shop is like painting the Forth bridge: hopefully people will be buying stuff every day; but then the gaps they make have to be filled up. If you're aiming to take £500 daily and the average price of what you're selling is three to five pounds, then you have to put out at least a hundred individual somethings every day.

In practice, you need a fair bit more than a hundred because not everything will sell.

Your hundred items come out of the stock room, and that has to be continually refilled by donations or the shop will fold. At a very rough estimate I think I got just about a hundred items priced and put out to fill the gaps made by shoppers on Saturday and there were at least a hundred individual toys in the donation that was dropped off. I'm not a toy expert, but most of them looked in good condition and saleable — although someone will need to check that the jigsaws have all their pieces and that the battery operated toys do work. 

One of the toys I did recognise was a Furby, which did its stuff very cutely when I figured how to switch it on. 

There's also a rather alarming mauve skipping rope which counts how many skips the unfortunate child manages and also seems to be in working order.

What a day!

Up at six; wash up cat bowls; bleach & re-fill litter trays; wash floors; bath to render self acceptable to respectable human company; feed cats; feed self. Tablets for the five cats who need them.

Drop off Fern, who is one of my own cats, to the vet for an ultrasound check of her heart condition. Then back home. Decide no point moping about waiting for the vet to call, so into the shop early. Hardly had time to start discussing plans for next week when the call came to say F. was ready to collect, so turned round and zoomed back to the vet.

Results were not great, but better than I'd been fearing. Fern's heart condition is worse, but not dreadful and they think putting her on beta blockers should get her heart rate down enough to make it possible to think about tackling the underlying problem, which is that her hyperthyroidism has stopped responding to carbimazole treatment. Back home with F. and a packet of tablets to add to her collection of medication.

Then back to the shop again. We've no volunteers to cover Saturday afternoons at the moment, so I did the till while Bettina (shop manager) carried on with pricing and refilling gaps where items had been sold. Ideally we'd have at least three people, so that one could do the till; another keep moving new stock out onto the shop floor, and the third sort, steam and price stock ready to be put out.

It was a fairly busy day, although most people weren't going for the more expensive things. Ffiona and Bettina have just put out all the really good ball gowns that they've been saving up for the May Ball season, so let's hope those go when that kicks off at the end of the month. Right now the students are in the middle of exams, so probably not in the mood for retail therapy.

As often happens, there was a surge of activity just before five, so I couldn't bail out until just past the hour. I hared off to the clinic as I was supposed to be meeting a work experience pupil at five and got there at five twenty with no sign of the pupil. I hope he either couldn't make it or forgot, but he was ever so keen on the telephone, so I rather fear he arrived on time, found everything locked up & went away disappointed.

Hung around for another hour dealing with post and emptying the rubbish in case he went back home and phoned my mobile when he got there, then decided to call it a day. Back home; quick shop run for weekend food; then cat food and litter to one of our fosterers.

We really, really need more volunteers to cover the shops.

Thanks for a very generous donation

Many thanks to Newmarket Road Tesco for donating a huge amount of end of line children's summer clothing to our charity shop at 61 Burleigh St.

Deputy Shop Manager Post Available

Our present deputy manager at 61 Burleigh Street is moving away from Cambridge in the New Year, so we are recruiting a replacement.

The post involves working a total of 24 hours per week, with some additional cover for the manager's holidays. Starting salary is £6.21 per hour (review after 6 months).

As Emporium 61 works at the vintage/retro end of the charity shop market any applicant will need an interest in fashion and willingness to learn.

You can download a full job description from our website.

Get your organic Christmas decorations here!

Many thanks to the kind donor of a load of mistletoe at our bookshop at 188 Mill Road. It's adding a wonderfully festive element to the shop and is a nice addition to our stock of Christmas cards, mugs, pictures and bags.

Roll up and get your bio-degradeable decorations!

After Christmas, have a go at propagating the seeds—mistletoe is an important native plant with benefits for wildlife.

Romsey Recommends

As part of our contribution to the Mill Road Winter Fair event on 5th December we'll be putting up a window display in our bookshop at 188 on the theme of "Romsey Recommends". To take part, just drop into the shop and fill in a form giving the author and title of your book recommendation and we'll add it to the display.

Feel free to include a photo (of yourself or of the book), or you can be anonymous if you prefer.

Closing date for recommendations November 30th

Mill Road Christmas lights switch-on this Saturday!

The Mill road Christmas lights will be switched on at 5 pm this Saturday, 14th November. The actual switch-on will happen just in front of Cutlacks ironmongers, so why not visit our bookshop at 188 before wandering on down?

RSPCA Bookshop 188 Mill Road

Bookshop at 188 Mill Road re-opening with great offers for students

20% discount on production of student card. Lots of books and also great posters and prints to cheer up your room.

Bookshop at 188 Mill Road

This is a bit of an experiment. The bookshop is now taking "want" requests for books, so if you're looking for a favourite out of print author (or simply a cheaper 2nd hand copy of an expensive text), fill in the details to let us know and we'll keep an eye out for it as new donated stock comes in.

The permanent location for the form will be at www.rspcabookshop.co.uk/wantlist.html

1st Saturday at Emporium 61

Emporium 61 on its first Saturday's trading. It will look more "RSPCA-like" once we've got planning permission for the permanent sign to replace the rather weedy temporary one and finished the displays inside.

Until we've recruited more volunteers and a deputy manager, opening times will be:

Monday: closed

Tuesday: 10.30 — 5.30

Wednesday: 11.30 — 6.30

Thursday: 10.30 — 5.30

Friday: 10.30 — 5.30

Saturday: 10.30 — 5.30

Sunday: 12 — 4.00

Andrew and his team have now got the back room into shape and would be delighted to receive incoming donations. If you need to drop off something by car, please phone the shop on 01223 312 802 and they will arrange for you to unload at the back of the shop (from Paradise street). Good bric-à-brac, ornaments etc. are all very welcome as well as clothes.

Very nearly there...

The map below shows how to get to our new charity shop: "Emporium 61". Burleigh street is pedestrianised, but there's ample parking in the Grafton Centre car park if you're coming from outside Cambridge.

If you're planning to drop off donated items and need to unload from a car, you need to go to the unloading area in Paradise Street which runs parallel to Burleigh Street. If you're using a satnav device that uses postcodes, entering CB1 1DR should get you into Paradise street. At the moment we are still fitting out the shop, so it would be very helpful if you could wait another couple of weeks before bringing your donations.

We will be announcing the definite opening date very soon now...

View RSPCA E61 in a larger map

Harry Potter Books at 188 Mill Road

Heffers books generously donated a stock of Harry Potter books to us when they closed their old shop in the Grafton Centre. If you've seen the film and now want to buy the book, why not support us at the same time? If you don't live in Cambridge, you can also buy online.

Update on new charity shop - FINALLY!

Claire and I signed the last batch of papers yesterday and Kit transferred the payment over to our solicitors' account so it really looks as though light is finally appearing at the end of the tunnel. The last-minute hitch turns on our potential liability for the rent increase which would have been paid by the people selling the lease during 2008 if the landlord hadn't delayed reviewing the rent until the year end.

It seems crazy, but February 2008 was the review date specified in the terms of the lease, so the tenants are liable to pay the increase for the whole period even though the landlord didn't set the new rent until nearly a year later. If we don't ensure that arrangements have been made before we finally complete the lease purchase we could become liable to pay it.

Fortunately our solicitors seem to be confident that the sellers will lodge the payment with their solicitors without more delay because they're wasting money paying rent all the time that nothing is progressing and they must be as anxious to see an end as we are.

We're now very tentatively thinking of 21st August as the target opening date, and starting to order equipment. The basement at 188 is full-to-bursting with wonderful donated stock, so as soon as we have the keys it will be a frenzy of activity.

The shop will need lots of volunteers to give it a good clean before we can start setting up. If you could spare a few hours in the next month, please email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk

Piano for sale at our charity shop 188 Mill Road

Very many thanks to the kind person who donated this piano to our charity shop. Best offer over £150 secures. If you're interested, either drop in (188 Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 3LP) or email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk or phone 01223 212 644

Drat! Yet another setback with the new shop

Solicitors phoned today to say they'd just received the documentation concerning the "licence to assign" from the owner of the freehold (the Prudential). This is a legal necessity to give the current tenants permission to sell the existing lease to us and both the solicitor and I were pretty unhappy that they are only now — six months into the process — asking that we not only provide bank references, but also a guarantor of rent payment.

We offered proof that we have sufficient funds to cover lease payments to the current tenants right at the start, but this is completely fresh, and looks as if it may completely throw a spanner in the works. The Prudential probably hope that the National RSPCA will agree to underwrite our payments with their own funds — which legally I don't think they can as it would be diverting charity donations given for another purpose. Devoted as I am to the branch, I'm not prepared to use my house as a guarantee, and I don't think any of the rest of us should either.

I suppose this is happening because the Prudential are getting nervous about possible rent defaulting in the current economic situation. If something similar is going on with other shops it's not surprising that so many are empty around Cambridge.