Another charity store opens in Jing'an
A new community-based charity store opened Tuesday at 916 Jiangning Road.
Zhang Yichi, a nearby white-collar worker, donates an unused pillow.
A new community-based charity store opened on Tuesday in Jing’an District.
The store, on 916 Jiangning Road, is the second street store opened by online charity shop Buy42 in Shanghai.
The first, opened in June on 1132 Xinzha Road, has started to make a profit, and a third such store, in the Daning area, will open soon, said Jiang Yujie, chief operating officer of the website.
“The store allows residents to do charity on the doorstep,” said Shen Hong, director of the office of the Jiangning Road Community.
The Jiangning operation, described by Jiang as the flagship store, covers nearly 400 square meters.
“Nearly 90 percent of the goods, from clothes to accessories, from toys to home appliances, are brand new, donated by companies like Internet giant Alibaba, high-street brand Zara and the Groupon website Pinduoduo,” Jiang said.
She added: “They are sold at 50 to 70 percent of their market prices.”
The store is set to run from 10am to 10pm to cater to varied schedules of different population groups.
“I couldn’t wait to shop here,” said an elderly resident surnamed Fei. “I came in morning but was told it would open on afternoon. So I came here again. I bought an automatic egg beater. It was only priced at 39 yuan (US$6),” she said.
Customers pick out clothes at the store.
Police official Song Tao spent 69 yuan on a giant beer doll for his wife. “It touches comfortable and clean. It’s really a bargain,” he said. “My wife just gave birth to our first baby. And she loves beer dolls. It will be a good gift for her.”
Buy42, 40 percent of whose staff are disabled, has two disabled people working the Jiangning Road store.
One is a retired military man who injured his eye in excises. The other, who is hearing impaired, runs the website operation.
Sales revenues will be used to cover the expenses of the store operation, train the disabled employees and also to help the needy people, the store said.
