Hi guys.
Oh, I'm eating again.
I've got Turkish delight ice cream from down there, and three tubs of candy floss to kick off this evening.
We were a bit busy this morning, so sorry we were late opening up, and I've only just got to Caerphilly shop.
Cosmic Caerphilly we're calling this.
So I'm very sorry about that.
I'm going like Brad Pitt.
Have you seen the movies I was eating?
I'm like that now.
I'm like, nom, nom, nom.
Um, sweet tough will be the death of me, I tell you.
So, it's nice and sunny over there.
We're thinking of putting like cafe tables by here.
In the window.
It'll be a nightmare out there cos it's on a bit of a camber.
I don't think you'd want to sit out there while you're doing all the building work anyway.
When it's finished it might be nice though.
Somebody broke in the other week, won me, and went up into Pulsar's nightclub and videoed it.
I see it on TikTok.
Do have a look at it.
Yeah, so we had a few things to do this morning.
So we're here tonight because obviously we need to clean and price everything that came from Bristol.
I made a start.
Look at the lovely stuff.
I haven't got tons of it out from Bristol.
Look, a little packet of toys, a little like M&P toys, you know what I mean.
I'll freak them out for free for the same thing.
The lamp's nice, isn't it?
I'm on.
So, we're going to be here till at least 9.30.
A nice little bunny.
I don't think I'm a bunny, you know.
I think that's the little dressing table.
Oh, I haven't got scissors.
I'm still cutting my labels with a thing.
A knife.
It's actually much, but I've put a blanket over it.
So we've got to get these clothes hung up tonight.
It's the 14s, the 12s, the 10s and the smalls.
The rest are rammed.
These are good rails, these are.
I've pushed them in the back there.
So the one pound clothes are at the back.
Ready to go.
The shoes are a fiver, unless otherwise priced.
Well, we'll be relaxing now.
Maybe 1.25 today, because we're on 75% off.
Start putting the mugs on here.
The smaller ones in the casualty bay.
We've got a plumber in my washing machine, but I don't think he's doing that tonight.
Beautiful decanters we're adding.
Lovely gloves.
I think they're off your mum, Kate.
Thank you very much.
Thank your mum for us.
I don't know if she's on our Facebook.
If you want to volunteer up over tonight, for you to wrap up at nine tonight, we've got to get all this priced and out.
When Dan was over the donation centre, he found clothes, baby clothes, ready in bags.
That Jan had already sorted, God knows when, but they're already over there, so he's got to excavate them out.
And Royal Mail, stop hanging onto my hangers.
You've got them.
And you haven't dropped me off a letter to say you've got them.
Just drop them off.
I need to get these baby clothes up, because I've got people coming in asking for them.
So yeah.
Suitcase.
Oh, suitcase.
We've got more suitcases than lampshades, honestly.
If you want a suitcase, you need to go read the Blackwood.
I'm not sure if we've got some in Risca.
Blackwood, Hugh, or...
what's the other one?
Blackwood, Pontypool.
Suitcases.
Like suitcase will.
That's lovely, isn't it?
That makes you think.
Or like you put it on a wall.
So I've got Blackwood team tonight now.
They're coming down to help me out.
If anybody else wants to come over, they can.
We're going to be using at least...
well, they'll be using line 30.
I'll probably pack up then.
I want to try and get everything hung up so I can put these hangers away.
We've got fantastic space here to store hangers ready for the next shop.
Because I want to see how many glass cabinets I can get in here now, down the middle.
Oh, I've started doing the books for Dawn.
We've brought some over.
I haven't got set opening times yet because I'm juggling this one and risk-a-roo.
So we've got a smaller bookcase given to us luck.
So by the time he screws them on now tonight, they're going to be...
you know, environmentally I'll probably be happy about them by year, but they're never happy about anything, are they?
So why start now?
You know, it's not wide enough anyway for disabled access for a wheelchair.
It wouldn't be wide enough anyway.
The toilet is, I think.
But I haven't got any disabled access.
But I need a riser anyway because I can't push up from my knees sometimes and if they're really bad and the injections are worn off the last thing everybody wants is to pull me up off the toilet.
So...
Yeah.
Shall we go?
Pull my hair for now.
I haven't sorted the books.
They are priced but they're ready for Dawn to come down and do.
I can walk through there, and I'm not a skinny mini, but I can walk through here but I don't think it's...
because it doesn't look... it looks like it's been cut off in here.
And that's why you go with these older stores is that they're not disability compatible at the moment, aren't they?
I'll just say no anyway.
By the time we get everything up and out we might say, well actually the bookshelves will work better by here.
At the moment I've got the toys in there maybe the bookshelves will work better in this alcove.
They've got quite a big kitchen, but that's my washing.
I'm not going to show you, but I'll show you.
The CCTV is already in that.
But what I'm thinking is we're going to get a lot of donations in this shop.
I know you are, and you're going to be swamped and you're not going to be able to get them out.
So we're going to have to uplift some of them.
And take them to the bigger shops.
I'll start a new one.
Someone said to me once, do you ever just refuse the donations?
No, we just open another shop.
That's what we do.
So I think you're going to need that space in there to put the donations for them to be picked up to go to the donation centre.
Or leave them there until we can get in in the evening and work them.
I think.
And then through here,
through the kiln.
I don't know if you can see anything through there.
You might be able to see a bit.
It's our back garden.
So out there we have our little allotment in pots.
I've got two now.
We've got one in Risca and one here.
So we need people now to come and tend to the pots.
There's no digging, right?
Because we don't want to be digging up people's land, right?
It's easier to put it in pots.
It was all in pots when we had Big Risca and we just picked it all up and put it all on my drive and everything survived.
So...
it's easier to do that.
Pots are easier if we've got somebody with disabilities anyway because we could pick them up and put them on a table for somebody who's got disabilities to work with.
I know we have got disability access around there.
But it wouldn't be...
that's not for customers to just wander in.
That's going to be for staff.
And then...
we will just put the...
The cone is a bit soft.
I've got the crunch factor and the cone girls.
Right.
But we're looking like things like beans.
Peas.
Snack peas are nice, aren't they?
We like snack peas.
And some lovely strawberries down Big Risca, remember?
They had those plants from Morrison's.
They were good.
They still go in.
But I need somebody in to tend to those.
I've got a manager who mind for this shop.
I need to get her out of the house.
But she's not going to be able to do 7 days a week or 5 days or whatever.
So we're going to need at least another volunteer manager for this shop.
We pay our volunteer managers £40 a day in stock.
And you don't have to take it in this shop.
Because if you work in your shop all weeks, £40 is a lot of money in our shop.
I mean, that's 40 clothes items, isn't it?
So that's a lot of items, isn't it?
You can't have 40 clothes every day.
You might want to go to Pontypool one day on your day off.
You can transfer as long as you let us know that you're not taking your allowance.
Sometimes my 16 year old does that because the clothes in Blackwood are a bit more trendier than what I got in Risca room.
So you come up to Blackwood shop.
He works in Blackwood shop anyway, but he'll say, can I take all my wages, like, you know, all my allowance at Blackwood shop.
And then he can have a nice jacket or something like a nice puffer jacket or something instead, or a couple of trendy t-shirts rather than taking it all in Risca room and having old ladies clothes.
It's a lovely shop, this one.
It's got such a lovely atmosphere, this shop.
From the minute we walked in here, we could tell, you know.
I mean, we'd already sold on it anyway.
We were like, well, if he's going to give it us for that price, we'll have it anyway when we came in.
So there was only a problem, a couple of broken tiles, I think, and I was like, oh, we'll have to fix them because they'll whine about them.
But I think he's got space, so we'll just drop him off and we'll just bash him in.
There's only two, I think.
Sometimes it's easier, see, than ringing your landlord.
Like, if you had a problem, it's not worth ringing your landlord for.
It's easier to get Dan to do it, and he knows what he's doing.
If there's a problem, if it was an electrical problem, then we'd have to ring the landlord.
But if it's like a problem that Dan can fix, he just does it.
Because it's quicker for us.
Erm...
Oh, I know what he hasn't done.
He's got fixing to do over Pontypool and he's forgotten.
We've forgotten.
We've got fixing to do over Pontypool.
Really sorry, Pontypool guys.
We've totally forgotten.
We've had a lot on the last couple of weeks.
A lot on, again.
I'm wondering, if I get my big ladder and get them signs down, well, if I get my big ladder and coordinate Daniel getting those big signs down, whether Ellie could paint them for us?
Because they're just going to get skipped, aren't they, up there?
What do you think?
You know, because they're nice big signs, aren't they?
She could paint them for us.
Just otherwise, it's a waste, isn't it, you know?
I'll have a chat.
I'll see what the...
I don't know if they've got a security guard in there or anything.
I don't know.
I haven't seen anybody about.
I haven't seen anyone about at all.
I'm going to jump into action now in a minute, girls.
Watch me now.
I'll be like a bullet out of a gun now.
I'll be so quick.
I've got my candy floss, inject a bit of sugar into myself.
See if I can get myself going.
See if I can get myself up and running.
Tired I am.
Well, fatigued, I think.
I forgot my IN tablets today.
I'll probably unmount them.
I don't know where my next check-up is now for my HP and everything.
I'll have to check.
Check where my check-up is.
I've got some hooks at the top there.
Because I was like, oh, I could do with some hooks in there.
Oh, we got them.
Brilliant.
So they're already in there.
So we can do that.
We'll get everybody on pricing.
Some of this got to be clean.
Priced.
And then if we can get everything out priced of the bric-a-brac.
Which I think we will.
Even if we won't have enough shelves, we can just put it back in the boxes priced.
We can clear this main bit.
Because I couldn't leave a volunteer here.
I couldn't leave a volunteer here with this slot here.
Like this.
And then dive between risk-a-roo and here, back and forth, keeping an eye all day.
I couldn't do that.
A, because I got a 16 year old in risk-a-roo.
And B, because obviously this could fall or whatever, couldn't it?
So, what I need to do is get some volunteers, get this cleared and then get some volunteers in here to man it.
And then I can dance between the two.
And risk-a.
We need some more in risk-a.
They are struggling to keep up with the donations in Pontypool.
I don't know what to say really.
I think we will have to take on Pontypool phase 3 as decided.
And crack on with that, somewhere down the line now.
Give ourselves this month to get over moving in here and everything else we got going on.
And then we go from there.
Another shop has popped up in Blackwood, but I just don't think it's going to work for us.
They are all too small.
They are all going to be too small.
And it's not on the high street.
It's further down.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Big decision to just move a shop.
It's not easy to move a shop.
Especially with all the stock we got.
And that's why we will stay on 75 for a bit.
To whittle a stock down in Pontypool.
Because they got loads.
And then whittle it down in Blackwood as well.
To see if we can get less stock.
Some of the equipment can come over here.
Like we can put the green rails out there.
I'm thinking.
But you need to attach them with a bicycle thing.
To make sure they don't slip.
But of course we can only do that when we got the decent weather.
We are a little bit tied up again now.
Because we need to get somebody to run Blackwood while I'm running this one.
And get a volunteer sorted in here.
So that I can release Dan and Chloe down to the donation centre.
So they can crack on with a rack in.
To make space for anything I haven't got room for in Pontypool or Blackwood.
I think we got another 18 months of Blackwood.
But I don't think we are going to be staying there for 18 months.
Because you know.
We've been.
Well I've been since November without the electric.
He's only just come back on.
And luckily that National Grid fixer is here for us.
But like I said it's not good.
If you haven't got a landlord that's not playing ball.
It's not very good is it?
We...
This landlord was like oh yeah but I've reduced the price so we won't bother you I said.
We don't bother you.
Unless there's something that I need to bother you with.
For example if we had a shite fountain coming out of the toilet.
Yeah?
And the first thing I would do is rod it anyway.
Before I'd even bothered ringing a landlord.
I'd rod it because we got rods.
We'd be there, done that.
And if we can't solve it then that's when we ring them.
Or if it was something like electrical.
And Blackwood was electrical panel.
It wasn't a bulb or a starter.
It was electrical panels and we couldn't do anything with it.
But it's no good when you've got a problem like that because that's when you get environmental health on your back there.
And they're like oh well what's happening with this?
What's happening with that?
You're like oh god.
You know?
And I haven't got time to be having conversations with them about nothing.
So there are a couple of options on the high street.
I've told a dear of shops.
I mean you know one shop on Blackwood high street wants £2,800 a month.
We're like the casino left.
The casino left the building.
Who do you think is going to rent the building for £2,800 if the casino left?
The bankers left.
The money laundering shop down the bottom that's been there for years has only ever sold one dress.
They sold out the bloody clue.
We had left the tags on because they didn't even know how to take the tags off.
You know?
Who do you think is going to rent these shops at £2,800 a month?
What planet are you on?
When was the last time you walked up and down the high streets and looked at what shops were there?
Vape, barber, sweet shop charity shop.
Vape, barber, sweet shop, charity shop, James baby bank in the middle.
Think.
You need to think.
I might try and get a hold of the actual landlords because they're all being rented by agents at the moment.
The agents are supposed to tell them what offers they've been given but I don't know if they have been.
Because some of those shops have been empty a long time on the street.
They're just going to sit there.
You know?
And you've got charity shops actually closing down at the moment.
Because they can't afford to keep running because they're not making enough money.
So before long it's going to be vape shop, sweet shop.
You know, you've got hairdressers closing down.
You've got beauty shops closing down.
Wake up.
You've got cafes closing down.
There's not many sustainable businesses left.
Ours is a sustainable business.
But you need to be realistic about your rent prices.
We've told them all this.
We've told all our landlords this.
We cannot afford an increase.
And we cannot afford to go higher because we're here running a food bank.
The profits once the rent and the bills are paid the profits need to go back into the food bank and food prices have gone higher.
So they've all gone, those prices have gone higher.
The electric is one of the biggest prices at the moment.
But you've only got to have your lights on, haven't you?
And there's a lot of research going into lighting.
And I think that's what didn't help Blackwood shop very well was when we were out of lighting into areas for so long and they wouldn't do anything about it.
And then tried to charge us £800 and say no, it's going to cost £800.
And the guy said to me, they're not, they're £8.99 on Amazon.
Cheek in a...
Anyway...
Anyway, if you've got a shop on Blackwood High Street let me know.
There's a couple that's come up.
There's one that I can't find any details on.
Well...
We'll have to have a look.
But there's another one that's come up.
That one swum by and they used to be a dentist.
And they've gone.
A dentist closing down.
That's a sign of the time, isn't it?
Everybody going to Turkey, that's why.
Probably too cheap.
It probably is cheaper to go get your fillings filled in Turkey.
The more it is in this country.
So yeah.
I need a scissors because we've only got a knife over here.
I've got all of them now and now Blackwood team.
Bring me a scissors.
We don't like the window display yet but we're just putting it there at the moment because well we could have some extra display stuff now over here.
We'll have a look.
I did have some glass shelves that I was going to buy.
Some retail shelves.
And then he was like, oh no it's just 250 for this lot.
Oh no.
It's not.
You've got up to 250 for certain of them.
I try it on all the time don't I?
So I haven't got those but I think we might keep those rails for the pound clause because we can get a lot on there.
And maybe just have two stands with the designer clause here.
On the posher ones.
The ones that will start from like £10 and up.
So if they've got £10 on them this week mine will be £2.50.
Got that little men's rail out the front there.
That's good.
A lot of fellas woke up and down this road I noticed.
So good to have your men's rail outside I think.
Because sometimes they see the baby stuff and perhaps not the kids stuff and they don't really come in.
Or the women's stuff.
We've got a little bit of room to put some stuff outside.
Some narrow stuff outside.
There's parking restrictions on this road as well guys.
So make sure you're reading the parking restrictions if you come up here.
I should do free parking shouldn't I?
You know.
Pontypool does don't they?
Is it free income brand?
Is it all free income brand?
I can't remember.
I know the one at Biastas is.
But I don't know if they're all free.
There are a lot of people walking past.
It should be good now I think because people are starting to look for the baby clothes now.
So we need to get them in.
Because people are looking for them.
The thing is if they're going to make the effort to come up here we need to have them up here don't we?
Possibly by next week because Royal Mail are hanging on to my hangers guys.
We'll have them note to three.
Three to six.
Six to twelve.
Twelve to eighteen.
Here.
Alright I'm going to have to message them now to remind them about my scissors.
