A Day in the Life of a St David's Shop Manager

I started working for St David’s Hospice Care in January 2017 as a mobile manager. After working in several different shops for 6 months I was fortunate enough to become manager of St David’s Hospice Cares Caerleon Village shop. 

My main role as shop manager is to generate income so that St David’s Hospice Care can continue offering their services. This income is achieved through accepting donations, sorting through those donations, presenting the donations, working with volunteers and by having excellent customer service skills.

"One of the reasons why I love being a charity shop manager is that there is no such thing as a typical day."

With the never knowing what stock might turn up on a daily basis, it certainly makes my job interesting. Every week we have an extreme range of items donated all the way from designer clothes, gold jewellery and vintage tea sets to broken photo frames, puzzles missing pieces and smelly old socks. 

With the help of my volunteers, we sort through all these donations good and bad to ensure that the shop is well stocked and presentable. Without the volunteers the shop wouldn’t run. Each volunteer brings their own skills and experience to the shop. As well as the hours they put in helping me create a successful shop they offer me support when a day has been challenging, wisdom, friendship, laughter and most importantly cake! 

I don’t just see myself as a charity shop manager. Working in, what we call ourselves the hub of Caerleon, I go above my job description. I am a tourist guide, a coffee shop recommender, a giver of dog treats, a friendly and sympathetic ear, a seamstress, a caller of taxis and even a fashion advisor. 

Caerleon is a special place to work. There is a real sense of community which we at the charity shop are at the heart of.

I cannot thank the team of volunteers that I have enough. We as a team have managed to increase the shops takings since I first started there 5 years ago.