Roaring trade for Shrewsbury charity card shop sharing season's greetings
A festive charity card shop has been doing a roaring trade since returning from lockdown as Salopians spread season's greetings.
Now the Shrewsbury Charity Christmas Card Shop in St Mary's Church is urging folk to snap up their cards while they can in its final week of trade this year.
The shop, which has run annually for the last 52 years, welcomed Shrewsbury mayor Gwen Burgess for its reopening after closing for lockdown.
Secretary Chris Sower said it seems more people are buying cards this year, possibly due to people being able to see less of each other as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
More Covid-19 coverage:
She said: "We opened at the end of October and should have been open for six weeks. We only managed 10 days and then lockdown came. We've reopened now until Friday, December 11.
"The sales just before lockdown were amazing and since we reopened it's been absolutely fantastic. We had people outside queuing to come into the shop.
"It's been the busiest I can remember since I became secretary in 2009.
"This is the last week. We're open from 10.15am until 4pm."
She added: "There are 30 charities this year. Normally we have 40 but 10 didn't sign up this time because of Covid. Among the local charities that we're selling cards for are Severn Hospice, Lingen Davies Cancer Appeal and the League of Friends (of Royal Shrewsbury Hospital). We're also selling them for Guide Dogs, the Alzheimer's Society and Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
The shop is run entirely voluntarily. People come from all over the place, not just Shropshire. I don't know if that will be the case this year with Covid, but sales have been going well."
