By Hannah Chan, Intern

Fifteen minutes before Shop+ officially opened at Red Cross House on a Wednesday morning, a long, snaking queue had already formed. Patrons were waiting in anticipation of SHOP+’s opening with the red baskets in tow.

The moment the doors of Shop+ opened at 11 am, everyone rushed in and zoomed straight in for the item that caught their eyes. In sheer minutes, the shop was abuzz with happy shoppers.

Formerly known as Shop@RedCross, SHOP+ is Singapore Red Cross’ (SRC) very own thrift shop. First set up in 2007, the thrift shop was primarily manned by volunteers during the initial days. Donations from individuals and corporate partners were sorted and priced by the volunteers.

Fast forward nine years, in July 2018, Lewis Sng, Senior Project Coordinator was running the operations of the thrift shop with another colleague.

Revamping SHOP+

After John Tan and Muhammad Danial Bin Fadilah joined Lewis in the Social Enterprise (SE) team of SRC’s Partnership and Development department, the trio revamped the charity shop to better capture market share.

As the brains and brawns behind SHOP+, the trio saw through the transformation of the charity shop - they rebranded Shop@Red Cross to Shop+ and renovated SHOP+ at Red Cross House. They sourced sponsorships of retail furniture such as display counters, shelves and retail wagons to enhance the professional image of SHOP+ and categorised the merchandise to enhance the shopping experience of the patrons.

However, the process was not a walk in the park.

“It really wasn’t easy taking public transport all the way to the sponsors’ factories, requesting sponsorships of retail furniture that we required,” said John.

Spearheading other initiatives

Besides renovating the physical SHOP+, the SE Team also transformed the packaging of the items; from manually stringing items with written tags previously to sticker price tags for greater efficiency in pricing the merchandise. A volunteer leader, Gerard Thong, sponsored packaging to bag accessories and costume jewellery, which enhanced the appeal to shoppers.

To enhance the sense of belonging, identity and camaraderie among the SE staff and volunteers, the trio secured the sponsorship of uniforms emblazoned with the SHOP+ logo.

In a bid to boost productivity, the SE Team also enhanced the capacity of SE volunteers by conducting regular volunteer training on the operational guidelines, the use of the cashiering system, the use of price tag guns and pin guns, as well as soft skills such as customer service and conflict management. 

The trio also curated the products by disposing obsolete and slow-moving items, and lowering price points to more reasonable levels.

As highly priced items could not be sold at optimal profit margins due to the profile and preferences of customers at the charity shops, the SE Team launched the Pop-Up Initiative aimed at marketing electronics, perfumes, cosmetics and accessories such as branded sunglasses to office workers. The trio pitched this project as a hybrid corporate social responsibility / staff welfare initiative to corporates and organisations, and brought this concept to organisations such as the National Environment Agency, KPMG, Parkway Pantai, Aviva and TDCX Singapore.

Even with these initiatives in place, they cannot rest on their laurels. Every Tuesday, the trio and a volunteer will pack themselves at the back of a goods van and head down to donor organisations to collect in-kind donations.

Tuesdays are dedicated to collecting donated items from the corporates. They do this every Tuesday, rain or shine.

They would then transport the items back to the warehouse at Red Cross Training Campsite. The logistics that are required weekly can be physically taxing. John recounted that on one occasion, it took three trips to collect all the donated items from the corporate donors to SHOP+ at Jalan Khairuddin.

The staff went through a lot together to transform the charity shop to the SHOP+ it is now. As a result, they have forged a strong rapport and camaraderie with one another and are committed to achieving goals together as a team.

From their experience, sorting through the donated items could turn out to be tedious and unpleasant. Once, they opened a suitcase of perishable raw food that had turned bad, and the pungent odour was so revolting.

Besides that, the team also received some interesting items. During the interview, John shared with us one such experience. “We received a large shipment of Halloween masks with all of them looking very different. We used them as decorations.”

Notwithstanding these challenges, the trio keep encouraging each other.

“It’s hard work. However, I make it a point to motivate the team. Without self-motivation, the going will be tough,” explained John.

The motivation that keeps them going is the understanding that funds raised from the sale of these items help uplift the lives of Singapore’s most vulnerable.

“When I joined the Singapore Red Cross’ SE team, I knew that all the work sustains essential services for our beneficiaries, thereby benefiting humanity. I do not want to give up what I’ve been doing,” said Danial, who had transferred from TransportAid to Social Enterprise.

Kudos to John, Danial and Lewis for their tireless efforts!