Crowd welcomes new Salvation Army charity shop in Aldershot

A crowd of local residents gathered this week to welcome the new Salvation Army Trading Company charity shop in Aldershot, which officially opened at 10.30am. Lieutenant-Colonel David Shakespeare, Assistant Divisional Commander for The Southern Division of The Salvation Army performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony and welcomed shoppers inside.

The new shop, which is located at 28 Union Street in Aldershot, was busy with customers from the moment it opened. Lieutenant-Colonel David Shakespeare, commented: "The charity shop is located on the street where the market is so quite a crowd were outside the shop for the opening. The shop is very contemporary and showcases the diversity of the mission and ministry of the Army."

Salvation Army Trading Company’s area manager Jane Rice was delighted with the support the shop received from the community. She said: “People were waiting at the door for us to open and have been flooding in all day. The community in Aldershot is very strong and I think our new charity shop will quickly cement its place here.

“The shop’s team of staff and volunteers made sure we had a great variety of bargains on sale for opening day, and we can’t thank the public enough for their generous donations. Bags were very popular with our shoppers - we have almost sold out of every handbag we displayed on the shop floor!”

Jane is keen to encourage anyone who’s looking to volunteer to come to the shop or visit the website for information. She says: “We’ve had lots of interest in volunteering opportunities already. We can’t run our shops without the support of our brilliant volunteers so I’d encourage anyone who’s interested to come and see us. If you think you can spare any time at all, from a few hours to a few days a week, you will be helping to make a huge difference.”

The Aldershot Salvation Army shop is located at 28 Union Street, Aldershot, GU11 1EW. The shop team can be contacted on 01252 316144.

Profit from the sale of donated clothing contributes to the valuable work of The Salvation Army, which includes homelessness and addiction services, care for older people, help at emergency incidents, support for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales, a Family Tracing Service and much, much more. Over the last five years alone the Salvation Army Trading Company has donated over £35 million to the charity.