Charity Super.Mkt, which has been based in Media City UK since November 2023, is closing this Sunday and is offering a massive reduction to stock prices – with everything down to £3.
The Quayside charity pop-up was the first of the charity’s shops to open in the North since it started at the beginning of 2023.
Since it opened in Salford, Charity Super.Mkt has sold more than 8,000 items, raising in excess of £64,000 in that time.
Co Founder, Wayne Hemingway MBE, emphasised the importance of recycling fashion through donating and buying clothes from charity shops.
He said: “Every time you buy something from the Samaritans, for example, somebody is sat on the other end of a telephone helping somebody who might be having trouble with their life – you don’t get that if you shop in Primark.
“That’s the power of charity retail is that every pound you spend is a good pound.”
In Charity Super.Mkt’s first year of operating, it has managed to raise a staggering £1.65 million and prevented more than 53,000kg of clothing from going to landfill.
During the charity pop-up’s stint in Media City UK some of the proceeds have been donated to local Greater Manchester charities, including St Vincent de Paul, Traid and All Aboard.
Wayne expressed the desire to start Charity Super.Mkt and continue the pop-ups comes from wanting to help the environment and others – and urged public to consider doing their bit too.
“Statistics show that most people have clothes they don’t wear anymore or have too many clothes in their wardrobes and if that’s the case then when you go out shopping, take it and drop it at a charity shop,” he said.
“Surely being a human being has got to be about making things last and which ultimately protects the environment and the world that we live on.”
Since the charity started last year, it’s had pop-ups in 15 different shopping centres across the UK.
“What we were trying to prove, and what we have proven, is that charity retail fashion can exist next to high-street stores in shopping centres,” Wayne said.
But Wayne stressed that proving this would not have been possible without help from others.
“We need generosity from the public to buy, we need generosity from volunteers, we need generosity from people to bring in their clothes and donate, but we also need generosity from the landowner and the shopping centre owner – and Media City and Peel have been brilliant,” he said.
The pop-up will officially close on Sunday 28, but it won’t be the last time that Charity Super.Mkt is in Manchester.
“We’ll definitely be back for We Invented The Weekend, we’re doing a massive Charity Super.Mkt in front of the BBC,” Wayne said.
