Debi Slinger
Red Cross has 30+ Op shops in Victoria alone each with their own way of presenting their wares and layout of the store. The Croydon Red Cross Op Shop is by the far the best one in this busy town that is home to three other Op Shops.
Located in the Main Street in the middle of the shopping precinct, it’s hard not to be lured into the store with the lovely mannequin displays in the window and vibrant colours oozing from within. Nearly all the clothes are racked in colour rather than in size, which is my favourite way of shopping because there are colours I know I won’t wear.
Even the shoes are displayed with a theme and at the time of writing this which was in the middle of the Spring Racing Carnival, there are some clever displays of bags, shoes, clothes, accessories, hats and belts.
Red Cross claim that they save 450 tonnes of clothing from landfill per year! Woah! If that’s what just what the Red Cross does, think about the other collective organisations such as Vinnies, Salvos, Brotherhood of St. Lawrence and Sacred Heart Mission. If they all didn’t charge so much for basic items I believe they would have more visitors and a higher turnover of stock. The Salvos store in Chapel Street is always busy and the prices a little cheaper than other stores but $ 10 for a saucepan? Get real. Anyway, back to the Croydon store: funds raised help Red Cross’ well known humanitarian activities around the world and we’ve all seen the work they do when there is a crisis -truly a great organisation.
A little note about this Op Shop – prices are creeping up. What I would’ve bought for $ 5 two years ago is now $ 10 – $ 15 which is starting to put it into the field of the other larger Op Shops mentioned previously in this post. The quality of their clothes are better but frankly, I struggle with paying $ 30 for a handbag that retails for the same price. In saying that, this is clearly the most outstanding Op Shop in Croydon.