Charity shops will quarantine all donations for 72 hours when they reopen
CHARITY shops will need to quarantine all donated stock for 72 hours before putting it on the shop floor when they reopen in June.
The measure is just one being recommended by the Charity Retail Association (CRA) to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
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There are around 11,200 charity shops in the UK and they all closed on March 23, when Boris Johnson introduced the coronavirus lockdown and ordered non-essential shops to shut.
The lockdown has now eased slightly, and further relaxations are expected later this week including open air markets and car dealerships being allowed to open.
Non-essential shops are expected to open in England at the start of June.
In preparation for reopening, new guidance has been issued for charity shops by the CRA, whose UK members run around 8,800 shops between them.
Anything donated to a charity shop, from books and kitchen equipment to clothes and toys, will need to go into quarantine for 72 hours before it is sorted.
If it's not possible to quarantine stock, charity shop staff should sort newly donated items last and consider cleaning them.
Staff should wear gloves when sorting stock and while they won't have to wear face coverings, they can if they choose to.
Customers will also be required to use hand sanitiser before touching items in a shop, changing rooms will stay shut, and social distancing will need to take place within them.
There will be specific donation points created where items can be left, such as empty warehouses, rather than handing over donations to staff.
In some cases small shops will be used just for donations and won't be open for trading at first.
Charities will also be expected to hire refuse services to clear donantions which have piled up at out of town centres.
In a blog for the CRA, Jonathan Mail, Head of Public Affairs, said: "Once, charity shops reopen, it is highly likely that consumer behaviour will change significantly.
"In the short term, many consumers and particularly those with underlying health conditions are likely to be cautious about venturing into shops.
"Over time the number of people who feel comfortable can be expected to increase as people become more confident in returning to previous shopping patterns."
Although no dates have been confirmed for reopening, has reported that Barnardos will open on June 7.
The charity sector has been hit hard by the pandemic. Cancer Research UK has said it expects a 20 to 25 per cent hit to its fundraising income in the next financial year. It has also annoucned a cut of £44 million to research funding as a result of the virus.
While physical charity shops are shut at the moment, many larger organisations such as have online stores where you can buy donated items.
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