This week I visited an exciting new second-hand children’s clothes and toy shop in Exeter: Jelly, on Paris Street. It’s run by Exeter Community Initiatives, a local charity that helps people facing poverty and homelessness, but this is no ordinary charity shop!

 

With colourful branding, an attractive window display and Lush-esque signboard outside, you could easily think that this is a children’s clothing boutique rather than a second-hand shop. Inside the boutique feel continues, with eye-pleasing visual merchandising, and items tagged with the hand-stamped Jelly logo. Manageress Lydia O’Callaghan (bottom left in the photo collage below) explains:

‘Just because you are buying second-hand doesn’t mean you should have a second-hand service. You should be able to shop in the same environment that you would if you were to walk into Mothercare: you should still get that, regardless of the fact that we are selling discounted items and pre-loved stuff.’

 I love this ethos, and I agree, second-hand shoppers are not second-class citizens!

 

 

More than just a second-hand clothing and toy shop, Jelly offers a wider service to the local community. Lydia told me that its purpose was three-fold: firstly, fundraising (all profits go to Exeter Community Initiatives, which works solely with disadvantaged individuals and families within Exeter); secondly, providing affordable clothing; thirdly, acting as a hub of information and a place to come and meet, and fourthly, providing training for volunteers:

‘The idea of Jelly is that we not only fundraise for the charity, but we are providing affordable clothing as well, things that you might not normally fork out for, you can get here for a discounted price. It serves basically as a hub for local families to come where they know they can get information about parenting and local groups; we have the play area, a nice safe place they know they can come where their children can play, it’s free of charge, we have the breastfeeding area, and the baby change area. 

 

The other side of it is that we are providing experience for our volunteers, a lot of the people that I have on the team here haven’t worked before, or they haven’t worked in retail before, and so it is providing them with new experience or skills, and in the long term what we would like to do – if we can afford to do it – is have a proper programme where we can give people a qualification that they can take away, and build their CV with and help them get back into employment.’

 

 

Jelly relies on donations, and luckily so far the citizens of Exeter have been generous and the shop is stocked with really good quality items:

‘Everything is donated, the quality is really great. People have been really generous, we’ve had some new things donated, from individuals, but also from local businesses, like Saltrock, the surf brand. They donated us a load of new clothing which was really lovely, so that’s new stuff that is cheap and affordable.’

Hopefully this will continue, and Jelly can continue providing the fabulous service it does. Lydia’s main concern is that it reaches the people it aims to serve, who might be put off from entering the shop thinking it might be too expensive. It’s not!

I was so impressed by Jelly, and by Lydia’s fresh and engaging approach to running a charity shop. Whether local to Exeter or further afield, do spread the word, as this is a model that could be followed.

You can also follow Jelly on Facebook:  to keep up to date on all their exciting developments and news.

Linking up (a bit late) with Missie Lizzie’s Magpie Monday:

Thanks to the team at cork-screw for telling me about Jelly, and to Lydia for taking the time to be interviewed by me.