'We made charity shops look like designer stores'

Charity shop manager Ashira Zaneb decided to completely abandon the traditional layout of her store in Manchester for something resembling a designer shop.

The interior design graduate said she wants the shop in Northenden to become the kind of place she would choose to visit, and as a result customers have told her "they have never been in a shop like it".

It is part of a growing trend to rebrand the shops - which often dominate high streets depleted by established retailers facing spiralling overheads and fierce online competition.

Nora Masefield had no idea she was walking into a charity shop when she entered the doors of a newly-rebranded store in the square of the small market town of Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire where she lives.

The shop, called Attire and run by Blackpool's Trinity Hospice, has a prime spot for footfall and specialises in high-end menswear, books and DVDs.

Paul Guest, the hospice's head of retail and volunteer services, said: "It's quite urban. It's quite funky. So a lot of people like it because it doesn't look like a traditional charity shop."

An impressed Nora said, as she surveyed an interior which looked like it was set for a photo shoot for an upmarket style magazine: "I didn't know what it was at first, I was pleasantly surprised.

"It looks nothing like the average charity shop - they used to look like jumble sales."

Mr Guest said the aim was to create an "urban masculine" look for the shop, with many props on display "to keep that ambience".

Despite this, some say the prices are too high for a charity shop.

Student Sarah Bullough, 20, said: "I find it a bit pricey for clothes, although I know this area is pretty well-off - my friends and I couldn't afford the clothes".

She said, while brandishing a copy of Four Weddings And A Funeral: "We come in for the CDs, DVDs or books and you can get some good bargains".

Shop manager Ash Kochar, who has 20 years' experience in retail, said the focus on items such as books, CDs, DVDs and menswear is paying off.

"Although we are a charity shop, we have brought menswear and a bookshop to a town which doesn't have them any more - it's a totally different concept and people like it," he said.

Mr Guest, who was the architect of the new look shop, explained why the focus had shifted.

"Gentswear sells well, but the problem is we don't give it enough space because the bestsellers are ladies because of the volume.

"Menswear has a better average selling price. We had a lot of customers over the years who said we never had enough."

Trinity Hospice has rebranded its stores under the Attire name, cherry-picking the best stock from its warehouse for shops for women in Lytham and St Annes and menswear in Poulton.

"We've made it a destination shop with the menswear and books. Takings are up and having good stock attracts better quality donated goods," Mr Guest said.

Rick Hartley, retail and income generation manager at Age UK, Manchester, is a man on a similar mission to Mr Guest.

He said he was given a "free rein to be creative and a bit artistic" with his two shops - one in the desirable Manchester suburb of Didsbury and the other in neighbouring Northenden.

Mr Hartley said he decided his new glass-fronted shop in the second location was to be his "statement building".

Ms Zaneb, an interior design graduate, embraced the vision.

She said: "I just wanted to do something different to make it the kind of place I would like to visit.

"People tell us they like it and they have never been in a shop like it."

Ms Zaneb added: "My assistant and I are both in our 20s and we are so proud that profits have doubled as well."

Mr Hartley believes innovation is the future for charity shops but confessed: "I quite like cheap charity shops but what I've noticed is that the really cheap ones don't seem to last".

Meanwhile, Mr Guest is getting excited over his latest creation in the Lancashire village of Great Eccleston.

"We have to diversify because a lot of our customers are looking for the next best thing," he said.

In this case, the next best thing is a shop laid out around a particular theme.

"We have a standard shop at Great Eccleston but because of the way it is laid out, it's going to be like a Charles Dickens' old curiosity shop - I've had a preview and it looks amazing," he said.

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