Shop Q&A about shops reopening We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our Island community since we started to reopen our shops. Due to the sheer amount of donations we have been receiving, and the need for us to keep them in quarantine for 72 hours, we have had to introduce a booking system for all new donations. They must be taken to our Newport Warehouse on Riverway industrial estate, as our shops simply don’t have capacity to accept and store donated items under the current guidelines. We are working seven days a week to quarantine, sort and distribute everything we receive to our shops so that they can be sold, however, space is limited. To book a slot to donate your items, please call 217291. We are not able to accept any walk-in donations until further notice. Please arrive promptly for your slot, due to parking and access restrictions at our warehouse. We thank you for your understanding and patience. When are your shops and warehouse reopening? We are delighted to welcome you back to our Mountbatten shops, which have now all reopened with extra health and safety precautions which aim to keep you and our teams safe and well. You can find out more details about our shops in the links below: Please note, we cannot accept donations in any of our shops, please take them to our Newport warehouse. Warehouse, Newport - OPEN ** This is our main donation point ** Mountbatten Newport, Lugley Street Mountbatten Cowes, High Street Mountbatten Freshwater, Avenue Road Mountbatten Ryde, High Street Mountbatten East Cowes, Ferry Road Mountbatten Shanklin, Regent Street & Mountbatten Ventnor, Pier Street Mountbatten Bembridge Lane End Road & Mountbatten Wootton, High Street What donations can you accept at the warehouse? Donations must be booked in as we are unable to receive walk in drop offs due to the huge volume of items being donated. Please call 217291 to book a slot. We are able to accept high quality donations of clothes and bric-a-brac at our warehouse. Please contact our warehouse team directly on (01983) 217291 if you would like to donate large items, in particular items of furniture such as beds, sofas and bedroom items, so that we can ensure we have space to accommodate them. What times can I drop off donations at the warehouse? Our warehouse will be open between 10am and 4pm, seven days a week. However, please note that, in order to clean and sort items, our team will need to close the warehouse for a break during 12pm and 1pm. How do I get to the warehouse? Our Mountbatten Warehouse can be found at Riverway Industrial Estate, 16a, Riverway, Newport PO30 5UX - nearly opposite the Royal Mail depot. Please note that there is very limited parking; the industrial estate can be quite congested with traffic, and there are double-yellow lines outside our warehouse. We are very busy with people dropping off donations. Please remember to book your slot by calling 217291. What are you doing to protect shoppers, volunteers and staff? As with all shops, it is a slightly different shopping experience. When you visit any of our shops, you will be asked to use the hand sanitiser provided before entering. There will be plenty of signs and floor stickers to show you around our new one-way systems and shields at our counters have been installed to protect you and our teams. There is also be a limited number of people allowed into our shops at the same time, to allow us to maintain the social distancing rule. For example, only six customers will be allowed at a time in our Newport warehouse. We very much appreciate your support and understanding as we make things as safe as possible for everyone. I have lots of donations ready to give. What shall I do with them? Your donations are incredibly welcome and we are so grateful to you for hanging on to them during the lockdown. You no doubt are keen to get the space back in your home! Your donations of high-quality clothing and furniture (please see list) mean that our support for Island patients and their families - when they need it - most can continue. We ask that you bear with us for just a short while longer. We ask that you book a donations slot by calling 217291 and take them to our Mountbatten Warehouse on Riverway, Newport. This is because we will need to quarantine donations for 72 hours before they can be sorted. Unfortunately we cannot accept donations at any of our shops. Please do not leave any donations outside of our shops as this can land us in trouble! Will you be able to collect furniture and large items? We anticipate being very busy with donations to our Mountbatten Warehouse as we start to reopen our shops. Therefore, we are not able to resume our collection service just yet as all hands will be needed on deck! However, please do hold on to your kind donations and we will let you know as soon as we can come and collect them on our website and on social media. What condition should donations be in? There are some ways you can really help us, as we start to reopen and likely become very busy! By asking a few questions before donating, you can help cut down on our waste costs which means more can go towards direct patient care. For clothes, ask yourself: Is the item clean? Is it damaged in any way? Is the fabric bobbly? Would you buy this item? For electrical goods, ask yourself: Is the item in good repair? Is it dirty? Does it work? For furniture, ask yourself: Is the upholstery ripped or stained? Does it have a fire label still attached? Is the item complete? (unfortunately, we cannot accept flat-packed furniture) Is it clean? (e.g. have the drawers been wiped down?) Is the wood scratched or damaged? For toys and games, ask yourself: Are all the pieces there? Are they broken? Are the boxes badly damaged? Does children’s equipment conform to British Standard? Is it damaged? Are the harnesses intact? Is it complete? We’d be so grateful for your support with this! Thank you. What items can’t you accept? You can find a full list of things we can and can’t accept on our website Will volunteers be able to return to your shops? Volunteers are really important to the running of our shops, and we are working hard to bring as many back as we can. With government rules in place, such as social distancing and the shielding of vulnerable people, we will sometimes be restricted over how many volunteers we can safely allow in our shops. We continue to communicate directly with our shop volunteers to let them know how we hope to return to as much normality as possible. Any volunteer who is unsure about what this means for them should contact us directly by phoning (01983) 529511 or send an email.