Dundalk Vincent’s charity shops reopen with strict new regime

Protocol documents, PPE and clothing quarantines have all been among the logistical challenges faced by Dundalk man Peter Jackson, regional retail manager with St Vincent de Paul, as he prepared to open the charity’s shops this week.

St Vincent de Paul announced last week that it was to open 100 of its 234 Vincent’s shops across the country yesterday, June 8, including Dundalk’s Clanbrassil St and Castletown Road outlets as well as the shop in Dunleer. For now, the Jocelyn St shop will remain closed.

“From the day this was announced on the 14th of March we have been as thorough as we can to ensure that we can get the shops open as soon in order to generate money for our visitation conferences,” Peter explained to the Democrat this week.

For some, the opening of these shops is a chance to bag a bargain and a symbol of normality returning but for St Vincent de Paul, it is the renewal of a vital source of income.

“If we don’t have any donations, we don’t have any shops and we can’t make money for our visitation conferences,” Peter states. The visitation conferences are the individual committees that distribute funding in the local communities.

“Their work is at the heart of St Vincent de Paul and last year €98m was spent by these conferences across Ireland.

“So much good work is done in communities but you don’t necessarily hear about it,” Peter says, underlining the core principle of confidentiality in SVP.

With two of the three Vincent’s shops in Dundalk opening yesterday, Monday, there has been a daunting list of logistics to sort out before the doors could be unlocked.

The organisation created its own back to business protocol, a Covid-19 policy and all staff will sign a self-declaration form before they come back to work to say that they haven’t been in contact with anyone with the disease.

Managers have undergone an infectious disease course and the certificates will be on display in stores. Sneeze screens, gloves and masks for staff and volunteers and hand sanitisers at entry points are all in place.

Pre-Covid-19, up to 250 bags of donations were being made through the Clanbrassil St store every day.

When the shop opens this week, donations will be processed in a very different way.

“In Clanbrassil St, we will receive donations at the back of the shop, someone at the back door to make sure that people are not going to be queuing with donations,” Peter explained. Donations will be placed in a van and taken to the Jocelyn St shop where they will be stored in quarantine for 72 hours based on World Health Organisation recommendations.

“After 72 hours we can be 100 percent sure that the virus is dead,” Peter states.

Customer numbers will be restricted to all stories and signage will be in place reminding people about social distancing.

“The main thing is that we want to keep everyone safe, both our staff and our customers,” Peter explains.

The sad reality is that more and more people will be calling on SVP for help in the coming months as the economic impact of Covid-19 hits home.

“We are going to be busier than ever both in visitation conferences and in our shops,” Peter states.

“There’s going to be a difficult couple of months ahead to make sure we don’t put anyone’s health in jeopardy and make sure we get a few quid in for our visitation conferences.”