A READING social enterprise, which is celebrating its 30th year of activity, is helping residents negotiate the cost of living crisis.
Christian Community Action (CCA) has four charity shops across the town, including on Northumberland Avenue, Whitley.
The outlets sell quality clothes, books and bric-a-brac at a fraction of their retail price.
A support centre at the Oxford Road branch helps those in financial need, asylum seekers and refugees get ahold of essential household items, including furniture and cooking utensils.
Whitley branch manager, Jo Kelly, said: “The cost of living crisis is going to hit everybody. We have a couple of weeks when it’s really busy, then a couple of weeks when it really slumps, so I think when people get paid they get what they can.
“I make sure there are plenty of blankets out to buy and the warmer tops. If you go into a proper shop, you’re going to be paying £35 for a coat, whereas here it’s a fiver. I even put a few on the pound rail.”
All items are donated directly to the shop, whose motto is ‘renew, rejoice and recycle’.
January will mark 12 years in the job for Ms Kelly, who takes pride in the quality of items on sale.
She explained: “At the end of the day, it’s a charity shop. I believe in old-school charity shops. It’s for people within the community who don’t have a great deal of money, that want something decent.
“Just because it’s a charity shop, and people might be on low incomes, doesn’t mean they want to wear rags.”
According to Ms Kelly, prices at some charity shops, particularly in the centre of town, are too high.
As a not-for-profit organisation, CCA puts all of its income back into the communities it serves, with a focus on funding the Oxford Road support centre.
The project assists those who require essential items, providing kitchen starter packs, bedding, tables, chairs and mattresses.
Despite helping those in need, the shop itself is not immune from the cost of living crisis.
Overheads include maintaining the vans which transport items, fuel and the salaries of paid staff.
Ms Kelly fears rising energy prices could have an adverse effect on the organisation’s ability to offer support to those who need it most.
Heading into the winter, she worries that energy bills will put pressure on the shop to break even.
Ms Kelly said: “I assume it’s going to get worse as winter comes in because we’ll have to put the heating on.
“We were told in the managers meeting we were doing okay until the energy prices went up, since they hit, we’ve just been clinging on.”
Sitting in the heart of Whitley and Whitley Wood, the shop is a focal point for the community, with customers regularly dropping in for a chat with members of staff and often bumping into fellow shoppers they know.
Ms Kelly explained: “You get some customers who come in nearly every day. There’s one lady whose house must be absolutely packed with stuff from here.”
“You get new faces, especially when you get mums whose children have just started school come in when they wouldn’t have come in before.
“Because I’ve been here so many years, children from mothers who came here when I first started, they’re now teenagers, so they pop in. I’ve noticed that, which is really nice to see.”
The Whitley branch manager encouraged members of the community to come to the shop and have a look around, also calling on those who wish to contribute by volunteering.
Opening hours are 9.30am-4.30pm on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, closing 15 minutes earlier on Tuesday and Friday.
Closing time on Saturdays is 4pm.
