WELDMAR Hospicecare outlets have begun to reopen after being shut for almost three months and measures have been put in place to keep customers safe while they shop.

Weldmar Hospicecare saw its first branch reopen on Monday 15 June in Dorchester. Social distancing and safety measures have been added to keep customers and staff safe and to ensure that Government guidelines are adhered to.

Gavin Anderson-Terry, director of retail at Weldmar, said: "We've created a queuing system outside of the store which we've opened in Dorchester. We are limiting the number of customers that come in at any one time and we've got a member of staff managing the door to enforce that. We have also got hand sanitiser for people to use when they come in and a one-way system to reduce congestion.

"Our staff are equipped with all of the standard personal protection equipment (PPE), such as masks, gloves and aprons, and we have screens up at the tills."

Weldmar Hospicecare has 26 shops across Dorset, however, they will only be able to open 13 of them over the next three weeks because of the current social distancing guidelines of two metres. If that distance gets reduced to one metre, they will be able to open another six of their stores.

The charity has also had to change the way it processes donations to make sure that items for sale are safe.

Gavin said: "We have to store donated items for 72 hours before we can process them and we are only going to allow donations on two days a week to get the shops a chance to rest the items before they can go onto the sales floor. This will also apply to items that customers have returned for a refund."

He added: "Having our shops closed for so long has impacted us massively. We need to raise £18,000 a day for the services we provide in Dorset and with the shops being the largest income stream for our revenue, that has been massively effective.

"Before we could open, were down to about 10% of what we need in terms of fundraising. We know that money isn't going to come back to us and we've got to look forward now and get back to that £18,000 a day. By the second week of July we should have half the stores open.

"It is a major relief to get the doors open again so we can start taking some money and run our services."

For more information on the shops which will be reopening and the dates they will be open from, visit https://www.weld-hospice.org.uk/shopping/weldmar-hospicecare-shops/.

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