An imaginative Exeter entrepreneur who has had to evolve her businesses to keep financially afloat is now changing direction once again to create what she believes is Devon’s first American-style thrift warehouse.
After becoming infuriated by many low value secondhand items donated to charity shops end up in landfill instead of its shelves, Carmen Croxall has been inspired to transform her business the Play Emporium – a vintage funfair and play facility- in Marsh Barton into a thrift shop selling a diverse range of secondhand items, including clothing, craft supplies, jewellery and toys.
Carmen, who is known for her seasonal displays at her rented home in Exeter, including a life-sized gingerbread house that went viral in 2022, is closing the children’s play centre after only seven months of it being launched. In October, she opened The Secondhand Craft Shop CIC in the same warehouse as the Play Emporium to make use of spare space downstairs and offering a place for families to buy secondhand craft supplies.
In its first month of opening, the income of the not-for-profit business superseded that of Play Emporium, making £4,000 in its first 12 days. Carmen said that running a secondhand shop has been experience which has ‘opened her eyes’ into the world of waste and misconceptions about recycling.
To her surprise, charity shops have been donating bags full of items they have ‘rejected’ but she has been able to find new homes for the items. The Play Emporium, based in Unit 2, 8 Marsh Green Road North, will close on January 18 and the Thrift Warehouse will open on February 15.
All items will be sold by weight at a flat rate of for 1p per 1 gram with six key categories – small children’s toys, craft supplies, home decor (not DIY), hobbies, clothes including fancy dress (not shoes, soft furnishings, curtains, towels, underwear or bedsheets), craft books and children’s books.
The Tiktok/ social media content creator said: “The inner bargain hunter in me finds this a very difficult concept to swallow as I think of how cheap everything will be, especially knowing the amazing quality donations we already get. But my premise will be to stack it high and sell it cheap knowing the point of the activity is recycling not profit. As long as we cover the bills it will be okay.
The current Secondhand Craft Shop and Thrift Warehouse in Marsh Barton, Exeter
(Image: Carmen Croxall)
“If something valuable comes in then it can still be bought for its weight, but only one per person per day, and it will be stored in a special area.
“My biggest fear is resellers. I really want this to be a community resource and not somewhere people buy items to sell on. There will be no skimming, or first dibs from staff either and we will not sell online unless it is a purge sale where we sell job lots to reduce surplus stock that has been around a while rather than selling individual ‘new in’ items as a profit making experience.”
Carmen, who previously ran Christmas SelfieLand in Exeter and company The Prop Factor, says that her business has now been renamed The Secondhand Craft Shop and Thrift Warehouse, until February.
She says she has already gained an intriguing insight into the world of charity shops which many people are unaware of.
Carmen said: “A fair few people who volunteer for national charities told me they have a minimum price policy where items were not allowed to be sold under a certain amount. The threshold varies from 99p to as high as £5.
“Charity shops are so limited on storage space, shelf space and people to sort donations that they don’t even recycle the surplus items; they go straight to landfill. I have been told their donation rooms fill up so quickly they end up cherry picking items, sometimes not even opening the donation bags if they get ‘a feeling’ there is nothing in it.
“I’ve found great things in every single bag donated to my second hand craft shop and so far I have been able to put out for sale about 95 per cent of the items aside from some that smelt like cigarettes and some fabric that wasn’t in good condition.
“Good items are being thrown away because the effort of donating them is becoming hard work. There is too much stuff and not enough people and agencies to sort it all. I am guilty of throwing away perfectly good items myself for the sake of my sanity when having a clearout.
“The bottom line is charity shops are not recycling centres. They don’t have the resources because they need to be profitable for the cause they are raising money for.”
The foyer of the current Secondhand Craft Shop and Thrift Warehouse in Marsh Barton, Exeter
(Image: Carmen Croxall)
When it comes to craft donations, Carmen says charity shops don’t tend to accept them.
She said: “Charity shops won’t take craft donations as a general rule, especially if the items are loose. It’s a misconception that scrapstores, schools and clubs are happy to take craft items as they, like us and charity shops, have a finite amount of storage.
“My local Scrapstore is currently full and can’t take anymore stock. Trying to give stuff away free such as on Facebook marketplace, the admin and underappreciation are massively off putting.
“I have tried to sell craft items at car boot sales and in my own warehouse clearance sales and they never sell, again because of the likelihood of someone who wants, for example, blue buttons for a craft project shopping at that exact car boot sale on the day I am selling it is statistically very unlikely.
“I had huge, huge donations of craft supplies from peoples’ life legacy collections of hobbies and something I didn’t expect at all which was people in their 60s and 70s coming in and giving me their entire craft collection because they don’t want their children to throw it away when they’re gone.”
Ahead of the opening of Thrift Warehouse, Carmen is appealing for stock which can be donated at the shop’s premises which are open seven days a week from 10.30am until 7.30pm. For more details please click here.