The line-up of customers stretched down Magellan Street as people queued to get inside the Vinnies charity shop today. 

It was one in and one out as customers looking for a bargain were asked to sanitise their hands before a staff member allowed them to enter the shop.

Lucky Lismore

Sometimes, there’s a great benefit to living in a regional city like Lismore.

It’s the first week charity shops have opened their doors since Covid-19 regulations forced everyone to stay at home. 

Vinnies regional retail manager Kim Boyd said only a handful of the 240 Vinnies charity shops have been opened this week – with the Lismore store being chosen as one of the lucky ones.

Hand sanitising is mandatory before entering Vinnies.

When choosing which locations across the State should be opened, Kim said Vinnies identified sites where communities were in most need.

“Cold weather is hitting and the Lismore community has a high need for low cost warm clothes – and we have a massive stack of winter clothes to sell,” Kim said. 

“Lismore also has been deemed a low risk Covid-19 area – there have been no spikes in case numbers and we feel it’s safe to open the shop there.”

Kim said Vinnies stores will adhere to government regulations, covid-19 restrictions and Workplace Health and Safety for volunteers and staff. 

The Salvos opened its doors yesterday.

“We are bringing back staff and volunteers deemed less at risk – younger volunteers and people without pre-existing health conditions who are comfortable with coming back,” she said. 

“We also need to make sure we have enough paid staff to support the volunteers and we are sticking to social distancing and have a staff member on the front door.”

This week, the shop is opening from 10am to 2pm, and next week the opening hours will extend to 4pm. 

Kim said the plan is to open other Vinnies stores slowly and carefully, when it’s safe to do so. 

Salvos op shops slowly reopen.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army charity shop on Carrington Street has also resumed trading, with new opening hours and Covid-19 regulations in place.

From the looks of the happy customers lining up to buy clothes from the shop, it’s the beginning of shopping joy, for the first time in weeks.

The Salvos’ store has a larger shop floor and numbers of customers are being restricted to 25 in store at any one time. 

Salvos staff member Ian said when the shop opened its doors for four hours of trading yesterday, the shop made twice the revenue it had done on any normal trading day. 

The Salvos store in Lismore is one of only two charity stores in the chain which opened this week – the other one to open was the Casino site. 

The Salvos will be open Mondays to Fridays, from 10am-2pm

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