Wales Air Ambulance to re-open its Wrexham charity shop in September

Wrexham’s Wales Air Ambulance charity shop will re-open its doors to the public next week.

The store, located on Henblas Street, was forced to close its doors in March due to the Coronavirus pandemic,

It will open for the first time in six months on Tuesday 1 September with the new opening hours of 11am and 4pm (Monday to Friday). This will allow staff to deep-clean before and after they open each day.

This is the third charity shop that the Wales Air Ambulance has reopened. In July, the lifesaving helicopter charity reopened the doors to its Cwmdu store in Swansea, a month later it welcomed customers to its Swansea Central Shop, with both being a huge success.

The charity will monitor the number of people in the shop at any one time and will open with strict guidelines. Customers will be asked to follow social distancing at all times and follow a one-way system.

Customers are also being asked not to touch anything unless they plan on purchasing the item.

When at the till, customers will be asked to stand on the marked line whilst being served and to use contactless or card payment where possible.

There are also hand sanitising stations available for people to maintain their hand hygiene.

The Charity’s Head of Retail, Andrew Lawton, said: “We are delighted to be able to reopen our first North Wales charity shop.

“During the pandemic, Wales Air Ambulance has seen a significant decrease in funds following the closure of charity shops and cancelled events.

“Our two Swansea shops are doing extremely well, and we hope the Wrexham store will be just as successful. We hope to gradually open our remaining shops across Wales in the coming weeks and months.

“The safety of our staff and customers is of paramount importance to us and we want to reassure our supporters that we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to ensure the store is safe.

“To be able to allow the shop to continue to stay open we are asking customers to please stick to the strict guidelines. This is to ensure their safety, as well as the safety of our staff and volunteers.

“We’d like to thank our customers for their patience, understanding and support whilst sticking to the government guidelines. Without you, our lifesaving service would not exist.”

The charity has also made some changes regarding the donated items they receive and their delivery service. These are as follows:

Donated Items:  Unfortunately, the Wrexham Charity shop can only take a limited number of donated items at this time. This is due to limited space in the shop and the need to isolate donated goods for a while to avoid potential cross-contamination.

Deliveries: Unfortunately, the Charity is only able to undertake a limited delivery service at this time. Any deliveries will be to the curbside only, and not into homes. Personal collection from the shop is the preferred option, where possible.