I just want to address this comment, Daniel's message to me that happened... something that happened to do with Risca and the other shops.
So there was a lady that was talking to Daniel because we were looking on the CCTV for this person who nicked the stuff and I couldn't work out whether it was Emma or somebody nicking stuff.
Another charity shop up the road refused to take her stuff because she wanted to keep her bag and said that they had to leave it in the bag for health and safety reasons.
Now, so she's brought it to us and Daniel's taken out the bag.
However, if Daniel hadn't been you, if it wasn't me, Sammy or Daniel, then technically the volunteers are supposed to leave it in a bag.
It's a security reason.
It's not health and safety, it's security.
Unfortunately, we found that volunteers do steal stuff.
You know, we found out the hard way.
So one of the policies that we have put in place is that when donation bags come in, they are to be weighed, tied up, weighed.
If they're open bags and you can't sort of tie them up, like the shopping bags, they have to be put in a clear bag, weighed and then the weight needs to be logged in the back of the bag and they have to write the weight on the bag.
So we know for a fact if anybody has taken anything out of that bag.
Okay, because every single donation that we process is now processed and has been for at least two and a half years at least, I would say, without checking on dates on CCTV.
Okay, because there's only certain members of staff that process the donations and our senior members of staff that's been with us a while.
The reason behind that is because of the theft we've had in the past and we are responsible for your donations which come in to help our public entity, to help people.
So the policy that we've put in place is they come in, they get weighed, they get sealed if we're not on site and we're not dealing with them straight away.
For example, I know Sammy didn't have the weighing scales down here and she had boxes of stuff in and she actually wrote a list of what was on the boxes as well because she didn't have the weighing scales at the time.
So it could be that you've gone into another charity shop that has a theft issue.
I'm not saying they have, but they've got the same policy as us.
They've gone, no, you leave it there, you do not take it out of that bag whatsoever until the manager and main staff is back.
And the thing is, it doesn't just protect the customer and the donator, it protects the member of staff that is legitimate and is truthful because if there's two or more staff in here then any one of those could be accused of stealing something out of the bags,
couldn't they?
Now we're lucky we've got CCTV in every single room of our shops so we can see what's going on in every single shop.
Okay, I can tune in and I can say to Daniel, wake up, you've fallen asleep out the back, get up and go out the front, you've got a customer.
I can do that now, I can log in to any of the shops today and see what's going on.
Even when the shops are shut, I can go in there and see what's going on.
But it could be that that person was turned away because they didn't have the senior member of staff there that goes through the donations.
But what we do is we've got plastic bags that go over the bags so you can see what's in there.
Because see they could go in there and you could have money at the bottom, you could have jewelry, well you could have anything.
It doesn't matter if you steal jewelry, money or a t-shirt, does it?
You've still stolen it.
You could empty the bag and somebody else could come along and steal something, couldn't they?
And then other people are implemented in it.
So I think what's happened there, and I said it to Dan because Dan was like, he refused to take the donations off him because they wouldn't take him out of the bag.
And wouldn't leave the bag.
And I was like, yeah, but if you think about it, that's what we do.
I've often given the bags back to customers, we often do.
And if we sat there working the donations, it makes no difference because we're not going to steal them.
You know, that's not what we're about.
So, but if we weren't going to work them, and we've done it before, we've done it before with like the boutique bags.
We've bagged them up, all the expensive coats and things, and we haven't got any room to put them out because we've got millions of stuff, as you know.
And we've written the weight on it.
So we know in 18 months time, if we go in that bag, if something's been taken out of that bag, whether it's been ripped open by a customer and pulled out of it, or whether somebody's untied the knot and taken it out.
Then we've got a time scale to where we need to check into the CCTV.
So it could have been that that is what has happened in the other shop.
Okay, so if you go into a charity shop, try and leave your bag, right, because a lot of them are facing the same problems as we have.
And the thing is, we know a lot of the charity shop area managers and managers because we liaise with them and they give us stuff they don't want.
And they have seen what we've gone through and it's probably made them think, well actually, Jane have said this has happened to her, maybe it could have happened to us.
Maybe it is happening to us.
I know, let's do the same as what Jane is doing.
That's a good idea.
Because they come in, they get weighed, they get bagged.
If anybody opens the bag, anybody sneaks anything out of the bag, they'll know because the weights will be different.
And that's the best way to do it.
And environmental health and other places, charity and standards and council and other places have been impressed by that.
And also the fire were very impressed because we could tell them exactly how much stuff we have in the building because it's weighed.
Not that it makes a difference because everything is flammable, unless it's soaking wet, it's going to be flammable, isn't it guys?
But everything is weighed so therefore they know exactly what is in the building.
Not in each room, but in the building at any one time approximately.
Because obviously we sell stuff and I don't weigh the stuff when it goes out.
So if somebody is buying a pram and a bag of clothes, fill a bag for five, I don't weigh it when it goes back out.
But we do write down what we've sold.
So that we've got a record.
Everything.
We were given the advice to do it when we first started by trading standards and that's what we do.
And these are our books.
And all of these books are kept.
And then at the end of it, my mother is a better figure than me.
Then she'll go through the book and she'll write everything she needs to write and stick it to the front of it.
And we've had issues where we've had to go through things.
So we've done it in a different kind of pen.
People have put down this staff have had it look.
Free nappies.
We've gone through and we've had to do a count.
This is when Lauren stole the money.
Remember her father paid it back.
Thank you to her father.
Very kind of him to do that.
We've gone through.
I mean you can see look.
We don't take thousands of pounds with us Steph.
You can see that.
We try and do it as cheaply as possible.
There we are look.
See.
John have had some in there look.
But you can go through.
Look we've got their staff.
Everything is written down in there.
Everything.
I'm not sure what's in the back.
Don't cut nothing out.
Stuff that's been damaged look.
We write it down.
Anything look.
Because damages.
People who's bought stuff.
People who's had stuff on allowances.
And they also do timesheets.
I'm going to have to cover this as well.
Because we can prove then if anybody's got any problems with this idiot online.
They can prove exactly what hours they've been doing.
And you know the dates and the times are on there.
So therefore if HMRC was to say oh we're doing a massive overhaul of your shops and staff.
Say oh we'll use the timesheets.
Check in on the CCTV to make sure it's correct.
You know job done.
I mean right now the government want people to go back and volunteer.
They don't want people not to be sat in the house being ill.
They want people out.
They're not going to stop anybody from volunteering.
They'd rather people out and about for their mental health than sat in the house doing nothing.
So yeah.
That's just a couple of things I thought we'd just you know.
I haven't done much of a live today guys.
Because I haven't been very well this morning.
I don't know.
Backed up again.
Oh god.
Backed up.
And then he come out and he was like.
I know you probably don't know this sorry.
But it was like.
It was like.
You know when you brew beer and you get like a scum.
I was like.
Oh my god.
I don't even drink beer.
I don't drink.
Really really I drink.
I think I usually have a Bailey's on Christmas time.
And when we went away.
Last Christmas somebody came back with a big cocktail with loads of stuffing.
Fruit and fancy bits and straws.
I said I want one of them.
Dan went and got me one but he didn't come back like that.
So I don't know what they ordered.
But I didn't have the same thing.
And it was.
It was mega strong.
Whatever it was.
I couldn't drink it.
Neither could Danny.
Unfortunately we give it to the guy on the table next to us.
It was blue.
Bright blue.
But I don't know what it was.
So.
Yeah.
I know that you needed to know that.
But there we go.
There we go.
That's why I was late this morning.
Then I forgot the keys.
So.
Tons of donations to work but I'm not.
I'm just doing little bits today.
I'm not feeling too good.
Not feeling too good.
So we've sold the one van.
We've got a lot of interest in the red van.
Nobody committing.
Sofa's gone.
That went last night.
After somebody else came to view it and didn't want it afterwards.
Something else I'll address now while we're on the video of address and stuff is.
We write antique or collectible.
Right.
So I've written like vintage glassware on that.
Okay.
For example.
Can you see it?
That decanter.
Right.
I've written vintage glassware on that.
So somebody has disputed that something was new.
They've come in and they've bought something that said antique vintage on it.
Which means it was 20 plus years old.
Because vintage is up to 10 years old.
Over 10 years.
Sorry.
Or from a certain period in time.
And antique is 20 years plus.
That's the legal requirement.
Okay.
By trading standards.
And they've bought something and then they've come back.
I don't know if they've bought it in there at the shop or they've asked for it and we've got it out.
And then they were like oh no I thought it was brand new.
And we're like well no it's got antique written on it.
So I just wanted to clarify that.
If it's antique it's going to be 20 plus years old.
And if it's...
Oh hang on I've got to go.
It's my CCTV man.