Devon Air Ambulance opens shops next week
As Devon Air Ambulance prepares to open their shops next week, they explain the significant changes that have been made to the way you can shop and to their donation of goods process.
The safety of everyone including shop staff, volunteers and supporters is paramount and they must be ‘Covid Secure’ before finally opening their doors.
The Government announced that to ensure the utmost safety of everyone connected to the retail outlets, including those just visiting the premises, that FIVE mandatory steps must have been followed before they can resume trading or operating, thus making them Covid-Secure.
These included carrying out a full risk assessment of your operation, developing hand washing and hygiene procedures, helping people to work from home, maintaining a 2 metre social distancing rule where possible and where 2 metre distancing is not possible, making sure that additional measures are in place to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19.
Devon Air Ambulance now meets this criteria and is almost ready to open the doors of their 19 outlets across Devon, however, like many retail outlets there are changes in the way you can shop and the way to donate any unwanted items. For the first time they have introduced a new Facebook shop – one for each individual location, so those in the local community can browse items for sale and call at the shop to collect them.
They will also have an increased offer in their window displays where many more items will be displayed to choose from. As is the case in many shops, customers will not be able to browse the shelves as they have previously as a safe and controlled shopping environment could not be maintained if this were the case.
Chrissie Peel, Retail Operations Manager at Devon Air Ambulance told us: “We are delighted to be able to open our shops and welcome our supporters once again into an area that they feel safe and protected. We are looking forward to receiving their donations and giving them the opportunity to buy some amazing items. We have introduced some new ways to shop, particularly our Facebook shops which you can visit from the safety of your own home.”
She added, “We are also pleased to be launching our new eBay shop next week, new items will be added to that daily across many different categories, so lots to shop and a great way to support the charity”.
As with all charity shops, donations are vital to their success and contribute greatly to the cause. Those wishing to donate to Devon Air Ambulance will need to telephone their local shop when it opens to arrange a time slot to drop off their items. The Government has stipulated that donated goods must be set aside for 72 hours before they can be prepared for sale, to ensure minimum risk of contamination. This organised approach is necessary to ensure the shops don’t reach capacity too soon and be forced to turn away much-needed donations.
To stay up to date with the latest changes to shopping and donating items. Information isavailable on the Devon Air Ambulance website www.daat.org and will also be posted on their social media channels.
