Animals in Need

I have gotten quite a good few items from here but it is the manager who let’s the shop down. I have wanted to report this lady so many times but I have heard (from the managers of other charity shops who listen to customers grumbles about her) that the manager reads the letters complaining about her and disposes of them. I have found that this lady is rude, arrogant, opinionated and will not help you in anyway. Examples are. A table set was spotted by someone and asked if it could be held for 24 hours so they could arrange collection. She was told. No that they would have to travel to melling to collect it as of sold and not collected it would have to go there regardless of the fact that had it not sold it would still been sat in the shop. It had already been in the shop for 4 weeks. One more night was not goin to hurt it. Within a week items were seen in the shop with sold on them for 2 to 3 days. The other day my friends daughter spotted two fae ornaments that were made by an artist friend. The «nice» lady that works there asked the manager what she should mark them in the book as and the manager replied «crap». My friends daughter was still at the till paying and said «these are actually done by an artist friend of mine and he is very famous among the world of fae and Elgin folk» to which the manager whispered under her breath but a very loud whisper «a likely story» again my friends daughter was stood literally next to this woman. The nice assistant was clearly flustered by this and said to my friends daughter «enjoys your purchase» to which she replied «yes I will do ty. Even if it is crap». The flustered assistant hastily replied «she was only joking».
Another time she yelled at a child who literally caught a lamp from falling to the floor. She accused him of messing with it even though there were many witnesses who said he stopped it from falling. No apology was given and he was told to wait outside the store.
The manager also gossips about customers even if they are in the store! and also undermines the other staff. They will make a discussion and she knocks them right down even if what they do is right.
The other shopkeepers in Formby, especially the charity shop next door all say they hear at least two complaints a day about her
When she isn’t in the shop it’s a lovely happy atmosphere bit when you go in and smell the dog you know that she is in there and your heart drops. That’s why I’ve given it the mark I have.

I was attracted to this charity shop as it has a great range of cat-​ornaments in the window, amongst other interesting specimens.
Once inside I had a little wander around rows of shoes, bags, clothes, books, DVDs and ornaments. This is an interesting place to rummage because you never know what you may find. I picked up a delightful little mirror, which is very vintage and reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.
Suffice to say it is very cheap in here and there’s a varied range of interesting items on offer.
The staff are lovely and I had a delightful chat with one of the volunteers working there.
Animal-​lover or not, Animals in Need is a great little store in which to find random bits and bobs.

When doing the charity shop circuit around Formby village as I often do (of course I have friends!) I almost invariably miss out Animals in Need. It’s a great shame because while the content of the other charity shops in the village has become very similar (to the extent where I managed to come across the same Primark t-​shirt in three different charity shops in the space of a week) this little trove seems to get a huge amount of interesting stuff donated. Maybe it’s to do with the sort of people who would rather see their old clutter sent to an animal charity but the bric-​à-​brac and nic nacs here are particularly odd. Mirrors with alpine scenes etched into them; bronze Arabic-​looking coffee pots; and model ship after model ship. It goes without saying that I almost never buy anything from here (with the exception of a set of 1987 Oktoberfest beer steins for 50p each — bargain!) but it’s consistently an interesting place to have a little rummage.