Inside a Charity Shop: A day in life of Diane Wright

A day in the life of Diane Wright, aged 49, is an unique opportunity to penetrate inside
a charity organisation. She is an excellent mother, animal lover and Ebay seller;and
she finds the time of helping the commnunity by managing a local charity shop in Preston.

Timeline:

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Diane Wright, aged 49, at her charity shop

I get up about 6:45 am and the first thing I do is to take my little dog, Bobby, for a walk.

 He is a Cocker Spaniel and I do love him. We walk for about for 15 minutes, we both exercise. I come back, have a shower and get ready. 

 Some days I put the TV on, to watch the news in the morning, it tends to be ITV but if the commercials are one I flip to BBC.



I usually have cereal, especially Cheerios, for breakfast and then I leave the house at 8:30 am. 

I drive to work; it takes me about 15 minutes to get to the Salvation Army charity shop in Plungington Road, Preston. The first thing I do is to take the float out of the safe and put it in the till, put the lights on and vacuum. It’s just giving the shop a quick tidy before we open at nine.

I generally go through the donations, all the stuff is given, people walked through the door with. Some of the things come from the Salvation Army Centre, at Harrington Street.  




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Salvation Army Centre at Harrington Street, Preston

So on Monday mornings, I drop the paperwork off and pick up the donations and bring them into the shop. 

If I know the person I will go in my car to pick stuff up, especially if they are elderly and they can’t carry bags. 

We keep the donations in the changing room because we do not have a lot of space in the shop. I go through all the stock we have and put it out on the shop floor. Sometimes, I change the shop floor around it, depends what the priorities are.

I used to think at Christmas, by being a charity shop, it would boost the sales but it doesn't. It just tends to be the same all year around. However, we do get a lot of gifts and decorations at Christmas. 
People who buy a new Christmas tree will often bring their old Christmas tree in here. We don’t get much Halloween stuff in here, because we are a Christian charity we don’t celebrate Halloween. 

I am not part of the Salvation Army, but I enjoy working with them. They have certain rules: you can’t smoke, drink or gamble. They also go to Church every Sunday, but I don’t. 

About 12 I have lunch. I make my own sandwiches, mostly ham, to save some money. If you start eating out every day, it is two or three pounds so it can work out expensive. After lunch, I label the clothes and put them in the shop. 

Salvation Army Charity Shop at Plungington Road

I really love running this charity shop. Before I came here, I used to be a manager of a big retail store. It is completely different; personally, I prefer this store because you get much nicer people than you do in a high street store.
In a high street store, you do not get the same regular customers. We have some antique dealers who come in looking for the odd bargains. We also get a lot of women in buying clothes.

When I was store manager, the staff was horrendous. They would often phone in sick, they would do anything to try get out of work and they were getting paid. 
Here, everyone is volunteer and not one person has ever phone sick, not one person has complained about working.

I cannot believe the difference, and all of them are volunteering.

About two, I vacuum and clean up again, to make sure that the shop is tidy before I leave. After the shop closes at three, I go to the bank the money in town. It is not always the same day but I will do it today. 

I also do a bit of shopping what I do need for myself and then go home. 
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I've got a second job. I help my brother to sell things on ‘Ebay’ for a couple hours.

At the moment, my son is at home. He is in the army, but he is on leave so I will make him tea and dinner today. Then I’ll take my dog for a walk again. 

If I’m going out, I’ll just have a bath, watch TV and maybe a glass of red wine. I tend to play on my laptop a lot when I’m in bed and watching TV at the same time.
Sometimes I read a book, it all depends.