It’s been confirmed that Ruddington’s newest charity shop – which only opened its doors in March 2018 before being forced to cease trading due to the pandemic – will remain shut permanently.
The Children’s Society Shop at the corner of High Street and Easthorpe Street had only been up-and-running for two years when the first Coronavirus ‘lockdown’ happened – shutting it “temporarily” – however it hasn’t traded again since. As previously reported, the manager Stephanie Reed was subsequently redeployed to look after the Arnold shop – leaving our village branch facing an uncertain future.
Now, after being ‘in limbo’ for over a year, its premises have been emptied, the charity’s name above the door has been scrubbed out, and an advisory notice posted in the window that the shop will not be reopening.
Antony Richards, The Children’s Society’s regional retail manager, confirms: “The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to present significant challenges with our re-opening in Ruddington. Following a period reviewing all of our options in Ruddington we have made the very difficult decision not to re-open.”
He adds: “We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our supporters since we opened our Ruddington shop in early 2018. Customers and donors can still support The Children’s Society by visiting our nearby Compton Acres shop which will remain open.”
Of course, our village still has two other charity shops – The Honeycomb Christian Charity Shop on Church Street and The Nottinghamshire Hospice Shop on High Street – which villagers can continue to support with our custom and good quality donations.
When RUDDINGTON.info finds out what’s happening next with the now vacant corner shop unit, we’ll let you know.
