Shelves bare at op shop

EMPTY SHELVES: The jewellery shelves are looking a bit thin at the Iosis Turnaround shop prompting acting manager Elyned Rutter, centre, to donate in some of her own. The shop relies on donations and the cheerful support of volunteers like Denise Wild, left, and Doreen Rowland.

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An opportunity shop's name change resulted in a drop in donated items to its store because customers thought the shop was now privately owned.

The public became reluctant to donate items, taking them instead to other opportunity shops in the area, acting manager Elyned Rutter says.

But nothing has changed in terms of charity except for the name of the shop.

The former Baptist Action Community Store is one of a number of Baptist stores merged by Iosis as a way for it to raise funds for the services it provides.

Iosis is a non-profit body dedicated to giving families the support needed to create a safe environment for their children. It runs a family learning centre, a counselling centre, a development programme for men, parent support and coaching and a whanau development centre for women and children.

"It's come to a point where if someone comes in and drops their bag of clothes for donation you just want to give them a big hug and kiss and say thank you so much," Elyned says.

"Not having any goods in the shop means there's nothing to sell, making it hard to raise money for Iosis.

"The hospice gets a lot of items donated to them because they've such a huge profile. But we also need items," says Elyned. "At the moment we desperately need some jewellery to sell. Our glass counter's looking a bit bare.

"I tried filling it up with my own."

Volunteer Nigel Lloyd says the shop also needs popular book titles but preferably not cookbooks from the 1970s because those titles are hard to move.

"On a Friday especially we've people coming in buying books for the weekend. So it's actually quite popular."

The Iosis Turnaround shop is open Monday to Friday 9.30am to 4pm, Saturday 9.30am to 3pm.

Items donated should be in clean useable condition. The shop cannot handle electrical items.

- © Fairfax NZ News