30 August 2018

Representation

Our Oxfam shop
I have worked in our local Oxfam shop every Wednesday for over three and a half years now. A lot of the time I sort book donations out upstairs but I also check the morning's takings before taking that money up to the bank. There I often have to collect change. We need reserve supplies of pound coins and 1p pieces. Why is it that everything seems to cost £1.99 or £5.99, not £2 or £6?

I usually end my shift with a couple of hours on the shop floor sitting behind the till. You never know who will walk through the door. I must have seen hundreds of customers. We get our regulars. Little old ladies checking the clothing racks or brusque old men heading straight for the crime and thrillers section. E-bay sellers come in looking for bargains they can list at much higher prices. A secondhand jeweller comes in to see if he can find new stock.

Last week a family of dwarves came in - mum, dad and two dwarfish children. They were all very nice but small. Are the terms "dwarf", "dwarves" and "dwarfish" acceptable any more? I haven't checked my dictionary of political correctness recently. Perhaps the family was simply "vertically challenged" - yes that's it. They weren't dwarves at all.

In my estimation, 99.9% of the people who have entered the shop while I have been behind the till have been pleasant and well-mannered. They perhaps represent a cross section of English humanity in a northern English city. However, I realise that not everyone would choose to spend money in a charity shop so the sample may be somewhat skewed.

I have served Chinese people, black Africans, disabled people, people with learning difficulties, mothers with babies, fathers with babies, homeless people, tall men, cyclists, teenagers, students, professors, cleaners, ugly people, beautiful people, fat people, thin people. I have even served Australian and Welsh people! I swear that most of  humanity has walked through that door.

Compared with London or Birmingham, Sheffield is not a very ethnically diverse city. I would estimate that 85% of our customers belong to what you might call the host community -  white Anglo Saxons and mostly Yorkshire born and bred just like me.

They are decent people - not loud and boisterous but rather humble and thoughtful - aware of others around them. Slightly reticent. At Oxfam I am just a shopworker but they show me respect. They say "please" and "thank you" and they ask if they can use the changing room. I welcome them and thank them for visiting us. If they buy something, I often say, "Thank you for your support".

Only once in the last three and a half years have I experienced unpleasantness from a customer when a known drug addict/shoplifter came in. I watched him like a hawk, not saying a word to this skeletal individual in a baseball cap. He knew I was watching and finally he decided to leave, shouting at me "What ye ****ing looking at me for ye ****ing ***tard? I'm not nicking owt am I?". And then he walked out. I had still not said a word to him but if I had said a word it would have been "funeral".
Click

29 comments:

  1. I often think of you working at Oxfam on Wednesdays. I think it's great that you volunteer some of your time each week for a worthy charity. As to the addict, it's really kind of sad, but "funeral" will probably be an appropriate word for him soon. I don't think many serious addicts live to ripe old ages.

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    1. I enjoy working there and it has become like a hub around which the rest of my week spins.

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  2. Most people are pleasant and polite, especially if they are treated well to start with.

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    1. The way the news media and even TV drama speaks - you would think that we are all surrounded by nasty folk.

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  3. I sort out book donations too, for our library's used book store. It is a dirty job! And the crap that people shove off on us makes me think that they are using our book store as a dump. I have come to have a very dim view of the people who donate books, but once in a while we will get a gorgeous quantity of great stuff (usually children' books that are almost brand new) and my optimism regarding humanity is restored. And a month ago we got a pile of grungy old World War II history books that included a pristine first edition of Sylvia Plath's novel that is worth $150.00, so that made me happy, too.

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    1. Like you, I am always curious about what the next donation bags will contain.

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  4. Aussies, even! Wow! They even used to come into the local RSPCA Op Shop when I volunteered there on Tuesday afternoons, and sometimes on Thursdays afternoons, too, a few years ago.

    Political-correctness has gone overboard...it's gone past the point of ridiculousness. People are afraid to open their mouths these days...and not because they're fearful of swallowing a fly or two!

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    1. I put the Aussie note in specially for you Lee! In reality Oxfam has nothing against Australians. They are allowed in Oxfam shops like everybody else.

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    2. Silly them! It's at their own risk!

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  5. We live near Seattle Washington and I shop at thrift stores. So on our travels I also visit thrift stores. When we went to Scotland my husband hadn't brought a woolen scarf so we went from thrift shop to thrift shop and finally found a red scarf for him - one Euro I think. He used it all through our tour and ended up loving it. On the last day we walked to the bus to go to the airport and home when he realized somewhere along the way the scarf had disappeared. We searched the airport - not there. We had our guide ask at the hotel - no scarf. My husband mourns that scarf but I think it just didn't want to leave Scotland.

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    1. That's an engaging story Sillygirl. I am so sorry that hubby lost his red scarf.

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  6. Australians! Banish the thought!

    (I'm joking, Australians.)

    It must be a lot of fun to go through book donations. I'm afraid if I worked in a charity shop I'd wind up buying way too much stuff.

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    1. Quite profitable too I imagine. There are few receipts given for donations.

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    2. Trust is paramount. That is why Oxfam volunteers have to provide references and agree to a police check. Speaking for myself, my absolute watchword is "honesty".

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  7. I'm frightened to open my mouth these days for fear of using the wrong word. Many of the words I would have used in the past are lethal now. I'm not sure on the word dwarf, it seems to go along with gnome and elf in my mind so think it may be wrong. I'm sure you'll let me know.
    Briony
    x

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    1. I remember somebody correcting me for calling black people "black". She was being serious. She said that such a term would be offensive to many people of Afro-Caribbean heritage.

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  8. I think that if a person is a dwarf (ie is not just vertically challenged) it is acceptable to refer to them as such (definitely NOT a midget which is highly offensive). However why is it necessary to label such a person? You probably didn't label the ugly, beautiful, obese or skeletal people.

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    1. On the contrary, I "labelled" or better still described them as Ugly, beautiful, obese and skeletal.

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  9. Wot's this!! I'll have you know Aussies are well versed in being frugal, innovative and committed recyclers. No wonder Aussie travelers frequent the Oxfam shop when in your neck of the woods YP - making the spending money go further.
    Charity shops are a great resource here in Aus. In my small regional town we have three and one of those is open 7 days a week.
    I'm often reminded of that song Second Hand Rose.. as most of my furniture collected from the 70's is rejuvinated. My dining chairs I bought for $5- (about 2pound) each and they were in a sorry state. So bad my hubby put them in the chook pen for roosts..telling me they were beyond hope. Then I saw a picture of my Edwardian chairs in the Governor Generals residence - My Chairs!!! They were promptly recovered..chook poo assisted lifting 7 coats of paint, with a lot of nasty stripping and repairing they were resprung and covered and have graced our home for 40 plus years - I think I got my moneys worth :)

    Good on you YP for giving so generously of your time and effort. Without the volunteers commitment of regularly turning up the outlet would probably not be there.

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    1. Thank you Elle. With the Aussie comment I was simply attempting to wind up my Queensland sparring partner - Lee. Good on you for rescuing those chairs. I hope you bought some new chairs for your hens.

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  10. I think your basic attitude says it all. If you know how to treat the public you will be rewarded with pleasant interactions. Politeness goes a long way.

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    1. I think the point I was trying to make is that in general English people are very nice though they are not always painted that way.

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  11. I wonder whether you have ever met a customer from Germany at the shop.
    Most people don't annoy others on purpose; more often than not, it is simply thoughtlessness when they appear incosiderate of others. I encounter such behaviour every day when using public transport; people waiting right in front of the doors of an arriving train instead of stepping aside to let people get off first before they themselves get in; chatty groups gathering right at the top of the stairs leading to the platforms, and of course the classic at the supermarket: folks leaving their trolleys in the middle of the aisle while they take their time choosing their preferred brand out of the 50+ different kinds of shampoo.
    Some days it really rattles me, other days I can shrug this off and not waste a second thought on it, while still trying not to behave that way myself.

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    1. You have pointed out some selfish behaviours that also irritate me Meike. And yes - we have certainly had a few German people through the door when I have been behind the till.

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  12. I have done 6 yrs plus now in our local Oxfam bookshop...it is just books and music, with the " standard" shop being 2 doors down. I am always on the till and I also check the takings twice a week, and go to the bank...though as our local NW closed in April, I now have to go to the Post Office! They are threatening to only take " complete bags" of coins, which will cause all sorts of problems! I have always believed that the reason for 99p on the end of a price is so that the cashier has to ring it through on the till so as to access the 1p change, and therefore can't just pocket a straight amount !

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    1. Sounds like we are living parallel lives Frances. I was disturbed to learn this week that the lowest price label for a non-fiction book in our Oxfam shop is to £2.99 from now on.Is this the same for you?

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    2. I hadn't heard that, but then I am not involved in pricing. Will check next week.

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