Julia’s House is preparing to re-open its flagship superstore at Creekmoor’s Neighbourhood Centre on Monday 15 June. The new opening hours will be Monday to Saturday 9.30am – 4.30pm and Sunday 10am – 4pm.

Tracy Stanley, retail manager for the hospice charity said, “While we’re obviously delighted that the time has come when we can re-open, we are of course extremely mindful that this will be a very different shopping experience for our customers, donors, staff and volunteers. We want to take this opportunity to highlight the measures we have put in place for the safety of everyone who visits or works at Creekmoor. We have strict cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures, have carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment which is available to view in store and online, and have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the two-metre social distancing advice is in place throughout the shop.”

Changes have also been made to the charity’s donations policy.

“We will have a contact-free donation process through our back loading bay, to ensure the whole process is managed in a safe environment,” Tracy explains. “At this time we ask that all donations are pre-booked by calling our Creekmoor warehouse on 01202 601998 to arrange a date and time slot between Monday and Saturday only. Unfortunately we will be unable to take any donations that are not pre-booked, and will only be able to accept four bags at a time as each one needs to stand for 72 hours before we can unpack it. All donations must come in bags or boxes which do not need to be returned to the donor.”

Creekmoor, the south-west’s largest charity shop, will be the first of 12 Julia’s House shops to re-open.