PDSA

I’ve got to talk about this place. Charity shops are charity shops and we generally take our surplus clothes and home furnishing to the one that we feel an affinity for or indeed one that is closest to us. Until very recently, I didn’t have anywhere to donate to in the city centre (now we have Marks and Spencer and their Shwop boxes where I have donated several times already!) so every time I go through Harborne for the dentist, I drop off whatever I have accumulated. Each time I go to the different charity shop and this time I wondered into PDSA. Obviously it’s a great charity anyway that looks after animals who need vets but what I love is that they give you a membership card. With this you only need to sign once and every time you produce it, you utilise gift aid meaning the amount you give increases as the charity gets tax relief on it.

Another of Harborne’s very many Charity shops. This place is at the mid-​point of the high street so if you plan on doing the whole lot in one go, this might be a good place to call it half-​time and have a bite to eat in Café Express across the road.
As with all charity shops, this is a fairly mixed bag of clothes, books and records, toys and bric-​à-​brac. You might be lucky and find a bargain, you never know. Personally speaking I’ll always have a soft spot for this particular charity shop as it was here, at some point in the late 1990s, that I picked up a mint condition vinyl copy of Don’t Stand Me Down by Dexys Midnight Runners for a glorious £1. As such each time I go in the shop these days I head straight for the records, but lightning has thus far failed to strike twice. I live in hope…

This used to be my favourite charity shop in Harborne — but in recent years they seem to have branched more into gifts and merchandise. Whilst I love cute animals as much as the next man I’m not sure I want to own stuff covered in the them but if you need a kitten calendar or a key ring in the shape of a paw then you will love this place. They also have a pretty good range of bric-​à-​brac, nice handbags and a bargain rail where you can sometimes pick up something for a steal. Staff in the shop are absolutely lovely and they always play quite nice music in there (Al Green today) too.