The opening of a new Barnardo’s superstore in Bournemouth has been described as a “special” occasion.
Barnardo’s new charity superstore at Mallard Road Retail Park, the first of its kind in the south of England, opened its doors to a queue of more than 50 shoppers on Friday morning.
At 10,000 square feet, the store sells everything from clothing and accessories to furniture and electrical white goods and is the charity’s third superstore in the UK.
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Mallard Road’s latest shop will employ 18 people. Volunteers are urged to get involved with the charity which helped more than 382,000 children and young people last year.
Store manager, Steve Lambert said: “Volunteers are massively important to us. We are quite happy to have any volunteers from any walk of life. This includes students doing the Duke of Edinburgh award in schools, as well as the retired and people with special needs.
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He added: “Since Covid, the world is a different place as people look to more sustainable futures and lifestyles and a store like this helps massively.
“Barnardo’s is great because we aren’t helping some billionaire’s dream of going into space. We’re helping some of the most vulnerable people in our society – what can be better than that?
Work began on the superstore four weeks ago. Mr Lambert described walking into the empty shop as “daunting” but said it has been “really good fun getting to where we are today.”
The opening day was met with an influx of customers and had staff from other stores helping out with the big day. A donation station is also located at the back of the store for people wanting to donate their goods to the charity.
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Barnardo’s marketing director of trading companies, Mark Gregory said: “It’s a great location here in Bournemouth. There is a mix of retailers, and the size of the area gives us the expanse of size that we need. The launch has been a huge success.
“What we have noticed is how inspired our customers are. They’re not used to seeing Barnardo’s with this expanse of space so seeing them be inspired by it is fantastic."
Barnardo’s new superstore is open every day until 6.30pm, except for Sunday when it closes at 4pm.
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