London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Brent Cross: Charity department store opens in 'UK first'

Brent Cross: Charity department store opens in 'UK first'

What is billed as the UK's first multi-charity store has opened to shoppers.

Charity Super.Mkt at Brent Cross Shopping Centre sells donated clothing supplied by 10 UK charities, including Barnardo's and Cancer Research.

It comes as second-hand fashion is gaining in popularity amid the rising cost of living and a higher demand for sustainable shopping.

The pop-up store, which is staffed by volunteers, will be open for a month at the north London shopping centre.

Other charities contributing clothes include Age UK, All Aboard, Emmaus, Havens Hospice, SCT, Marie Curie, TRAID and Shelter.

The department store is the brainchild of Wayne Hemingway, founder of the Red or Dead fashion brand, and Maria Chenoweth, the CEO of TRAID (Textile Reuse and International Development).


Wayne Hemingway and Maria Chenoweth hope Charity Super.Mkt will help to change the way people think about second-hand fashion

Ms Chenoweth said they were inspired to organise the project because charity retailers "weren't getting the recognition they deserved".

She said this was a result of second-hand fashion being "hijacked" by bigger companies to appeal to socially conscious shoppers.

Mr Hemingway said that another key motivation for opening the pop-up store was to combat the "old-fashioned attitude" that High Street charity shops were a "sign of decline".

"When you look at the demographic of people who are shopping in charity shops, it's the people who are leading the way in thinking," he said, adding that 65% of people across the UK wear second-hand clothes at least once a week.

Charity Super.Mkt sells second-hand clothes from charities such as Emmaus and TRAID


Ms Chenoweth also argued that stereotypes about charity shops needed to change.

"It's not a place of musty old clothes any more, it's just a place of normality," she said, adding that post-pandemic, some charity brands had seen a 20% increase in sales.

Mr Hemingway said this rise in popularity was partly down to young people looking to "supplement their income", after seeing lots of them buying items in Charity Super.Mkt in order to resell them online.

He said that charity shops provided a useful "side-hustle" for "entrepreneurial" young Londoners, who "won't be able to afford a house until they're probably in the 40s, if at all".

Charity clothes sales rose by 20% after the pandemic


He said it was a "win-win" situation for young people trying to pay the rent and the charities they were buying from.

Ms Chenoweth argued that the increase in demand for second-hand fashion was not just down to the rising cost of living, but was "mainly driven" by shoppers' concerns about sustainability.

Isaac, 24, and Lauren, 22, said that this was their main incentive for visiting charity shops.

Isaac and Lauren said they enjoy shopping more when their money is going to charity


Lauren said that buying second-hand clothes "feels better", because "you get great quality and you're giving to charity at the same time".

Isaac agreed, adding that it "keeps clothes in use for longer and "the money's going to a good place".

Anita said Charity Super.Mkt stood out from the charity shops she had visited before


Anita said that she was drawn to the pop-up store while shopping in Brent Cross because it looked different from the typical High Street charity shop.

"It's nice and clean and tidy," she said, adding that her daughter was a keen charity shopper: "My daughter's in uni, she always goes to charity shops,

"I thought: 'I have to tell her about this!'"

Fabia's outfit is completely second hand


Fabia, from Brighton, has long been a fan of second-hand fashion, and proudly mentioned that her outfit was completely made up of clothes from charity shops.

She said that she enjoyed going to charity shops because "there's more choice".

"It's individual and different, you can find things in charity shops that you can't find in High Street stores," she added, saying she wants a store similar to Charity Super.Mkt to open in Brighton.

The founders want to take Charity Super.Mkt "on tour"


After learning that the pop-up store was previously a Topshop, Fabia said: "When big stores close down in shopping malls like this, it leaves a big gap," adding that it would be "wonderful" if disused shop spaces across the country were used in a similar way.

The founders of Charity Super.Mkt share her hopes, and told the BBC they planned to take Charity Super.Mkt on tour, visiting cities across the UK.

Mr Hemingway said his "dream" was for the store to become like "the fair coming to town", saying that he wanted it to be an "exciting" experience for shoppers.

Charity Super.Mkt will be open until 27 February.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×