All clothes donated are sorted in the Traid warehouse in Wembley, when visiting the warehouse we learned the process of the clothes being sorted. Items are sorted by there quality , premium, high street, basic or reject. This then determines where the clothes will be distributed to, if the clothes are classed as waste they will be either brought by distributors in third world countries or sent to landfill. The managers of each of the charity
shops visit the warehouse weekly to pick the best pieces for their shop. They know their customers and what will sell in their store.
While at the warehouse we started sorting items ready for our pop up shop. We noticed the high amount of donations being high street and basic, if we merchandise these well I'm sure we will still sell them, but if we really want to draw people into our store we need some key premium pieces to catch our consumers eye.
The success of our pop up store will also rely on the way the store is marketed prior to the event. We need to attract our consumers by informing them about all the details of event and a sneak peak of what is in store. Strong images that showcase some of our best pieces should help entice customers.
Its important that the charity's values stay prominent and the consumers understand the meaning behind the pop up. The consumers need to leave feeling as if they have given back and understand the benefits of this, this should encourage them to shop again with Traid.
We also visited the Traid store in Shepard’s bush, we went to investigate the store layout and factors from the store we could use in our pop up. We spoke to the store manager who explained each store is very different to appeal to the target audience. Different stores will carry different types of stock, in some stores vintage clothing is in high demand where as some store premium clothing is most wanted.
Traid