Years ago, Market Street must have been a vibrant mix of independent retailers selling a wide range of food, specialist goods, household furniture and items, cafes, and clothing.
Fast forward to today and you’ll now find two shops on Market Street that pay you for your clothes! Yep, you can bag up those old jumpers that you’ve never liked; throw in those jeans that always were a bit too tight and weigh them in along with anything else that just isn’t you any longer. Throw them in a black bin liner, take them to the shop and get paid about 60p/kg.
Now such shops aren’t quite probably what Mary Portas would put forward as a way of enticing premium retailers to Market Street. I know that the Hoylake Village team have mentioned the shops on their facebook page but what do you think of them? Are they a handy, easy way to raise some cash (for yourself or a good cause) and a useful, local (recycling) service or would you prefer some other niche retailer that sells you things in these two previously empty shops? If you’re not keen on them, would your view be different if they still offered the same service but had more attractive shopfronts? Have you say in the comments below – it’d be great to hear from some local shopkeepers too.
By the way, the above photo was kindly sent in by Paul Doleman and it’s one of three views of Market Street over different decades. Here’s the other two:
and:
I’ve often wondered where the middle one of these three was taken from…a ladder?
If so, no-one seems in the slightest bit interested!
Looking at the wide road in third photo reminds me of the time when a bus could stop to pick up its passengers and the rest of the traffic in Hoylake kept on moving……….progress hey? 🙂
I dont have a problem with the shop but do we need two
?
Gill I agree with you . Two is one too many.
(In the case of new Barber shops probably 3 is too many) A second third or fourth similar business opening make a likelihood of all of them closing through splitting the number of available customers.
Recycling is always a good thing yes- but id rather let someone be able to buy these second hand clothes preferably from a charity shop so that the person and the charity both benefit. .i don’t know where these recycled clothes end up. If they are to be used again by people in need I’d say its wrong for anyone to be profiting from it.
Do they pay rates for these shope because if they do I can’t imagine they will make enough to pay them and won’t last long.
From what we hear the Charity Shops are not getting the stocks they used to get and will be losing out. Everywhere you go on the Wirral these shops are popping up. They appear to be full businesses so should be paying full rates, utilities etc so I agree the chances of a profitable survival are slim.No-one goes into business unless they make money and as you say where are the clothes going??
I really had no idea that cash4 clothes is such a huge company! Yes they ARE taking away from charity shops
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/Fundraising/article/1136612/cash-for-clothing-stores-threaten-income-charity-shops/
If you say that’s good because you don’t like charity shops think again- it’s the charities themselves like British Heart Foundation, Age Concern , Hospice Shops – Oxfam and many others which will lose out especially our own charity shops. I don’t want money for my old clothes I’d rather give than sell. I think this trend highlights what a money grasping and uncaring society we have become.
There’s one of these shops virtually next door to Wallasey Town Hall, run by a man and wife from Upton, under the auspices of the Round Table. They pay 40p per kilo for clothes and other items, will come round and collect if you have a lot and are ethical in their trading…I’m only sorry I’ve forgetten the name! Go try them out maybe?
None of them are ethical . Charity shops will be closing down because some people would rather have that 40p than give away freely to under privileged people. It’s those people who rely on charity shops for their clothes and especially the charities that will suffer.. As for the Round Table in Wallasey – well good for them to be making money out of this . So do they give these clothes to the poor or do they sell them ?
Rather than make comments on people selling their clothes rather than giving them to charity we should be thinking about the reasons they cannot afford to just donate them to charity.
Charity shops are know big business with the top bosses earning a very high salary.
The prices charged in theses so called charity shops often do not reflect the fact that they are supposed to service the people with very little money to clothe themselves.
Charity for a lot of people now has to begin at home.
Can I just make the point that the Charity shops are not there to “service the people with very little money to clothe themselves” the whole point of a Charity shop is to raise money for the particular Charity.
If you donate items to a Charity shop, you do it to support the chosen Charity, not to clothe the poor!