Mary Portas Queen of Charity

There is a perception that charity shops can smell a little and that sometimes the clothes are not clean.

For some, they are just the place to dump your unwanted possessions.

Mary Portas, retail expert and columnist is famous for turning around the fortunes of retail giant Harvey Nichols. More recently she turned around failing independent retailers in her series Mary Queen of Shops. Dispensing no nonsense advice with a sugar free coating has become her trademark.

In her new series Mary Queen Of Charity Shops, Mary attempts to turn around the fortune of charity shops.

Recently it has been reported that the number of people visiting charity shops has increased, they are a still an under used resource.

We are more aware our affect the world around us and in a recession, charity shops make great sense. It’s instant recycling and raises money for charity and it’s a great place to get a bargain. But how many people would admit to going to a charity shop? As Mary says

They’re where clothes and bric-a-brac go to die and I’m making it my mission to breathe new life into them and to make them a shopping destination.

Mary is also opening her own charity shop to support and highlight the work of these shops. Mary’s charity shop in the Westfield Centre will support the charities helps in the series.

Mary has given herself a huge task trying to change most of the nations shopping habits. I hope that she succeeds and may be it is time for charity to really become fashionable.