85) The Second Hand Shop
The most regular source of income for The Child Welfare Society was the second hand shop that was run by Sheila Bruckman. Once I had settled into our new house I volunteered to do a duty one morning a week. I was allocated Tuesday mornings and I was on duty with Phyllis Vinnicombe who worked every morning and Lilly Bodbe who was a full time worker.
We sold anything and everything, but mostly clothes, toys and books. The shop was very well run and nothing was ever wasted. There was a pretty elaborate system for pricing and marking all the goods so that we could always tell how long an article had been in stock and things that had not sold in three months could be reduced by half. If they still did not sell they were then reduced by half once again. After that they were put into a “Bargain Basket” at practically give away prices. Only after being in the “Bargain Basket” for three months they would then be disposed of. Even then they would not necessarily be thrown away, sometimes they were passed on to an orphanage or some other worthy cause. Sheila would make regular visits to a leper colony to give them things that we could not sell.
One morning not long after I had started there a young African man came in and was walking around the shop looking at everything. He was wearing a large lady’s hat. It was a white tulle creation with a large blue flower on the brim. Phyl recognised the hat as one that she had put into the “Bargain Basket” the previous week. She was sure that he was trying to steal the hat so she kept a close eye on him. After a little while she could not stand the tension so she went up and asked him for the 20c for the hat. He seemed a bit puzzled at her request but he smiled widely and went on examining all our stock. He moved from the clothes to the ornaments, and Phil followed him and asked once again for her 20c. Again he smiled and moved on to the bookshelves. By now Phyl was determined that the shop lifter would not get away with the great robbery so she followed him and told him in no uncertain terms that she wanted payment. I was behind the counter having a good laugh at Phyl trying to deal with her cross dressing, smiling thief. Just then Lilly came from the store room at the rear where she had been busy ironing some of the latest additions to our stock and saw what was going on. She laughed too but told Phyl that the young man had bought the hat the previous afternoon so he had not stolen it. Poor Phyl was so embarrassed and started to apologise for her mistake, she begged for forgiveness but the young man just went on and on smiling and did not say anything. At that Lilly just doubled up. She whispered in my ear, “He is a deaf mute he can’t hear a word Phyl is saying”. When we had calmed down a little we managed to explain the situation to Phyl but it took us a long time to get over the giggles and we often remembered the day that Phyl accosted the “deaf mute, cross dressing shop lifter” as he became a regular customer and as he never knew what Phil had accused him of he must have been very pleased and a little puzzled that she was always so helpful and friendly towards him.
Some people thought it was not the ‘in’ thing to buy cloths from a second hand shop even though some of our stock was nearly new and of very good quality. We had some women who would come in pretty regularly and buy clothing “for my maid”. One woman even said that her maid was the same size as her so she would try on the cloths first before taking them home “for the maid” One day after she had left with a couple of purchases Phyl remarked that the blouse that the woman had been wearing was one that she had bought a couple of weeks ago “for the maid”. It was one that Phyl herself had donated to the shop so she recognised it.
We did not want to embarrass anyone so we just played along with the pretence.
Getting stock was one of the hardest tasks. The public were very good but they did tend to forget about us and had to be reminded, so we had to keep ourselves in the public eye. I made the mistake of telling Sheila that we should write letters to the newspapers. She thought that it was a great idea and promptly gave me the job. Every two or three months I would write an article reminding people to clean out their cupboards and send us anything that they did not want. The newspapers were very good to us and did not just print them as letters to the editor but printed them as news articles and so they were more noticeable. I would write the articles but someone in the newspaper office would make up a heading for them. I remember one of the articles asking for more donations of men’s clothing and the headline was “Gentlemen – Where are your clothes?” and another article to tell how much ladies clothing we had was headed “Ladies outstrip men once again”. I not only wrote articles asking for donations but also to advertise the things we had for sale. We did a very good trade in second hand books and had a wide range of subjects. Once we were given a complete set of Walter Scott novels that I thought might be quite valuable so I rang a second hand book dealer in Johannesburg who I had bought books from and asked him what the set could fetch. He not only told us what they were worth (a lot more than we were going to charge for them) he also offered to buy them from us. After that when ever we were given anything that was a bit special we would ring him and he would give us a better idea of its worth. He would buy a lot of our books and give us very good prices as he knew that all our profit went to a very good cause.
The shop got a lot of nice ladies clothes but men’s and children’s items were always in short supply. Obviously women would get rid of clothes that were a little out of fashion so that they could buy new but men did not think that way and would hold on to all their old favourites until they were too worn for us to sell them. Children grow out of their clothes quite quickly but they are also so hard on them that by the time they had got too big the clothes were in such a state that their mothers were too ashamed to give them to us for re-sale. But we did a very good trade in school uniforms as new ones were so expensive that second hand ones were a very sensible purchase.
The people of Witbank were always very generous to Child Welfare. We rented a shop at a nominal rent, all our stock was donated and most of our staff were volunteers so we had a very high profit margin. People would bring in large plastic bags of donations and it was always interesting to see what we had for sale. The stuff in the top of the bags was usually good quality things that we could sell but the lower down the bag one got the more tatty the items became. Sheila hated us to throw anything away so even if we could only get 5 cents for it she knew that all the 5 cents mounted up and she felt that there was a buyer for everything and she kept all us volunteers on our toes too. Sometimes people would bring in toys “for the little children” and we would have to explain that we did not give the things that were donated to needy children but sold them to raise money for the needy families in our area.
We sold anything and everything, but mostly clothes, toys and books. The shop was very well run and nothing was ever wasted. There was a pretty elaborate system for pricing and marking all the goods so that we could always tell how long an article had been in stock and things that had not sold in three months could be reduced by half. If they still did not sell they were then reduced by half once again. After that they were put into a “Bargain Basket” at practically give away prices. Only after being in the “Bargain Basket” for three months they would then be disposed of. Even then they would not necessarily be thrown away, sometimes they were passed on to an orphanage or some other worthy cause. Sheila would make regular visits to a leper colony to give them things that we could not sell.
One morning not long after I had started there a young African man came in and was walking around the shop looking at everything. He was wearing a large lady’s hat. It was a white tulle creation with a large blue flower on the brim. Phyl recognised the hat as one that she had put into the “Bargain Basket” the previous week. She was sure that he was trying to steal the hat so she kept a close eye on him. After a little while she could not stand the tension so she went up and asked him for the 20c for the hat. He seemed a bit puzzled at her request but he smiled widely and went on examining all our stock. He moved from the clothes to the ornaments, and Phil followed him and asked once again for her 20c. Again he smiled and moved on to the bookshelves. By now Phyl was determined that the shop lifter would not get away with the great robbery so she followed him and told him in no uncertain terms that she wanted payment. I was behind the counter having a good laugh at Phyl trying to deal with her cross dressing, smiling thief. Just then Lilly came from the store room at the rear where she had been busy ironing some of the latest additions to our stock and saw what was going on. She laughed too but told Phyl that the young man had bought the hat the previous afternoon so he had not stolen it. Poor Phyl was so embarrassed and started to apologise for her mistake, she begged for forgiveness but the young man just went on and on smiling and did not say anything. At that Lilly just doubled up. She whispered in my ear, “He is a deaf mute he can’t hear a word Phyl is saying”. When we had calmed down a little we managed to explain the situation to Phyl but it took us a long time to get over the giggles and we often remembered the day that Phyl accosted the “deaf mute, cross dressing shop lifter” as he became a regular customer and as he never knew what Phil had accused him of he must have been very pleased and a little puzzled that she was always so helpful and friendly towards him.
Some people thought it was not the ‘in’ thing to buy cloths from a second hand shop even though some of our stock was nearly new and of very good quality. We had some women who would come in pretty regularly and buy clothing “for my maid”. One woman even said that her maid was the same size as her so she would try on the cloths first before taking them home “for the maid” One day after she had left with a couple of purchases Phyl remarked that the blouse that the woman had been wearing was one that she had bought a couple of weeks ago “for the maid”. It was one that Phyl herself had donated to the shop so she recognised it.
We did not want to embarrass anyone so we just played along with the pretence.
Getting stock was one of the hardest tasks. The public were very good but they did tend to forget about us and had to be reminded, so we had to keep ourselves in the public eye. I made the mistake of telling Sheila that we should write letters to the newspapers. She thought that it was a great idea and promptly gave me the job. Every two or three months I would write an article reminding people to clean out their cupboards and send us anything that they did not want. The newspapers were very good to us and did not just print them as letters to the editor but printed them as news articles and so they were more noticeable. I would write the articles but someone in the newspaper office would make up a heading for them. I remember one of the articles asking for more donations of men’s clothing and the headline was “Gentlemen – Where are your clothes?” and another article to tell how much ladies clothing we had was headed “Ladies outstrip men once again”. I not only wrote articles asking for donations but also to advertise the things we had for sale. We did a very good trade in second hand books and had a wide range of subjects. Once we were given a complete set of Walter Scott novels that I thought might be quite valuable so I rang a second hand book dealer in Johannesburg who I had bought books from and asked him what the set could fetch. He not only told us what they were worth (a lot more than we were going to charge for them) he also offered to buy them from us. After that when ever we were given anything that was a bit special we would ring him and he would give us a better idea of its worth. He would buy a lot of our books and give us very good prices as he knew that all our profit went to a very good cause.
The shop got a lot of nice ladies clothes but men’s and children’s items were always in short supply. Obviously women would get rid of clothes that were a little out of fashion so that they could buy new but men did not think that way and would hold on to all their old favourites until they were too worn for us to sell them. Children grow out of their clothes quite quickly but they are also so hard on them that by the time they had got too big the clothes were in such a state that their mothers were too ashamed to give them to us for re-sale. But we did a very good trade in school uniforms as new ones were so expensive that second hand ones were a very sensible purchase.
The people of Witbank were always very generous to Child Welfare. We rented a shop at a nominal rent, all our stock was donated and most of our staff were volunteers so we had a very high profit margin. People would bring in large plastic bags of donations and it was always interesting to see what we had for sale. The stuff in the top of the bags was usually good quality things that we could sell but the lower down the bag one got the more tatty the items became. Sheila hated us to throw anything away so even if we could only get 5 cents for it she knew that all the 5 cents mounted up and she felt that there was a buyer for everything and she kept all us volunteers on our toes too. Sometimes people would bring in toys “for the little children” and we would have to explain that we did not give the things that were donated to needy children but sold them to raise money for the needy families in our area.
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