Children’s clothes among items most needed at charity s

REGULAR customers at the St Vincent De Paul shop in Strabane are ensuring there has been no shortage of stock for others to purchase since services resumed a few weeks ago.

The shop is among the busiest charity outlets in the town and its manager, says they have been ‘very lucky’ with how things are going since they reopened.

Sonia Tinney runs the Vincent’s store in Strabane, she has seen the impact the pandemic has had on charitable donations.

“We have been very fortunate with the way things have gone,” she told the Chronicle.

“But at the moment we’re in desperate need of children’s clothing, good quality footwear and bric-a-brac like pictures, ornaments and tea-sets. The bric-a-brac is only starting to filter through in the past fortnight,” she explained. “With the shop being closed for so long, there was just no way for people to donate that type of stuff.

Supply

“All the shops both north and south in terms of normal retail were closed for so long. I think maybe there just wasn’t the supply within them for people to then donate to the likes of ourselves in the way that might have been the case in the past.”

With life gradually returning to normal in recent days, the hope is that the supply and demand which is so vital for charity shops will also return to the pre-pandemic levels.

Nevertheless, for shops like Vincent’s the need for donations is a constant one. They have regularly made appeals for donations and the importance of this is even more striking now considering the disruption caused by Covid-19.

“The task of making appeals for more items is an ongoing process for us,” she added.

“The fact that people are now coming back is a great boost and it’s good that people are happy and confident to be back out amongst others on the high street. We are happy customers are coming back and it has been very busy for us over the past month since we opened and then obviously with further easing of restrictions with the opening of hospitality.”

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