Are You Being Served?
Hospice South Auckland’s Retail Shops generate over $500,000 a year in profit that goes directly towards the operating costs of the Hospice.
This important fundraising activity is becoming even more essential to us in today’s difficult economic climate as general donations and fundraising income decline.
The Retail Shops (8 outlets in total including our warehouse) are run by a small team of paid staff who are ably assisted by our wonderful volunteer workforce – some of whom have volunteered in our shops for more than 15 years! Nearly 200 men and women donate their time and work extremely hard every week to keep our shops and warehouse open. Sadly, therein lies our problem. With 8 outlets to operate and a level of business activity that is steadily increasing, we are severely under-staffed.
While 200 people sounds like a lot, our business requires many more to function properly. In some instances, we are having to shut some shops some of the time as we do not have enough people to keep them open. A good Hospice Shop needs 40-50 people to run smoothly. Our shops have an average of 27 people so we require an additional 15-20 people per shop. That’s up to 160 people that we need to get on board to help us which will be no small feat to achieve!
As a comparison, other similar Hospice Retail Businesses based in Auckland such as West Auckland Hospice and North Shore Hospice have an average of around 45 volunteers per shop. On a volunteer per shop basis, we rank at the bottom which, considering our shops are some of the biggest and the busiest in Auckland, just goes to show how very hard our volunteers work, and how desperately we need more people to help.
We are actively seeking new volunteers to come and help us in our shops. You don’t need any retail experience. You also don’t have to give a lot of time – even just 3 hours a week would be a great help to us.
Working in our shops is great fun and there is never a dull moment! You’ll make new friends and all in the process of helping one of our essential fundraising activities.
To find out more about becoming a retail volunteer, you can pop into one of our shops (addresses listed below) or contact our Retail Services Manager on 640 0243.
Matt Adams
Retail Services Manager
Volunteers at the Otahuhu shop.
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