We are sad to announce our Watford One shop located on the Lower High Street has closed.
The shop has played a huge role in the history of our organisation. The original fundraising appeal, to establish a hospice on the site of the derelict Peace Memorial Hospital, operated from the space above the shop at 174 High Street in Watford in the early 1990s. The shop unit itself later became not only the first Peace Hospice (as it was then) charity shop but the first ever charity shop on the High Street in Watford. The shop was a big success and played a vital role in raising the funds needed to establish Peace Hospice.
Since then our shop network has grown considerably. As a merged organisation we now have 33 shops across Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Every shop plays a vital role in raising the funds needed to support our range of services for local people living with a life-limiting illness.
No longer the poor relation of other High Street shops, charity shops are today run as efficient, modern, agile retail businesses. Our retail & trading department is run by a dedicated team of experts who use their experience and knowledge to maximise the performance of every single shop, to deliver almost a third of the charity’s income each year.
Over recent years, footfall and sales at the Lower High Street branch have been falling which means the shop is no longer supporting the charity in the way we need it to.
Staff and volunteers who have given years of loyal service to the shop have been offered new opportunities at other branches nearby and the shop’s manager will be moving to our Tudor shop to take on a new challenge there.
Deborah Gould, our Director of Retail, says:
“We’re very sorry to see this branch go as it has been so instrumental in the success of the charity as we know it today. We’ve had many loyal customers, members of staff and volunteers over the years and I’d like to thank each and every one of them for their support.
“As times change, so too do our charity shops. We have recently launched our first community superstore branch in Rickmansworth and have been updating many of our shops in recent years to make them fit for the future. Our top priority will always be generating the funds needed to provide our vital services to local patients and families, and my team and I are dedicated to building the right portfolio of shops and online retail to allow us to do just that.”
Customers of the Watford One branch won’t have far to go, with their next nearest Rennie Grove Peace shop being located at 100 The Parade, near The Pond.