Well the summer seems to be over, but the shop keeps going. Here is the news....

1. Big Thank You to David and Jenny
2. 150 Club winners and “re-investing”
3. Call for volunteers for Sundays
4. Winter stocks
5. Crop for the Shop
6. David and Jenny Heinzelmann. After around five years (nobody can remember what happened before then), David and Jenny are giving up their Saturday performance in running the shop for us. It has been a wild ride, especially with the unpredictable nature of David’s hatwear, but they have done a magnificent job of keeping us open every Saturday during that period, with remission only taken while they went on holiday. We know that customers loved them and they will be sorely missed. David was single-minded in getting the shop to take £500 or more each Saturday and they have grown our business on Saturdays by a considerable amount in the five years – well done.

Jenny is going to continue opening the shop during the week in the early hours but David is sailing off to retirement. We send them both our best wishes for the future with their grandchildren.

2. August was a good month for the Russell family! The winners of August’s 150 Club draw were:

Pat Easthope, Helena Russell, Caroline Shaw and .... William Russell!

In September‘s draw, the winners were:

Jenny Lawson, Kevin Clarke (yippee), Shirley Wittering and Carol Deed

Congratulations to all.

We are starting to collect entries to next year’s draws so you will be badgered into buying your lucky ball number quite often now. It’s probably best to give in early and invest your £15 for next year now. Good luck to all.

3. How about helping us out on Sunday mornings? You too could be a volunteer on our rota for opening Sunday mornings between 8.30 and 12.30. It is easy enough once we’ve spent a morning training you and actually it is quite enjoyable. It doesn’t matter whether you are a single volunteer or a couple, we can use you in our rota – you will need to do a Sunday morning about once every seven weeks, but obviously the more volunteers we have the less each has to do! It is vital to the shop that we use volunteers on Sundays, otherwise the shop would have to pay staff and it would not be anywhere near profitable on Sundays. If you are interested, please talk to Kevin or a member of staff.

4. It will soon be getting cold. Time to stock up on those winter items like coal, kindling and window de-icer. We can also get logs. If you want these heavy items to be delivered, let us know and we’ll get round to it in a day or so.

5. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their garden produce to our “Crop for the Shop” effort. I know from personal experience that it hasn’t been the best growing season but some of you have had good success and we’ve had apples, plums, damsons, beans, berries, rhubarb, beetroot and other stuff I can’t remember. They always sell well due to the freshness and local nature of the produce. Thanks again.

Kevin Clarke
TVSA