Charity Super.Mkt to open in Cabot Circus in Bristol

A new charity department store will open in a city centre this summer.

The Charity Super.Mkt, founded by designers Wayne Hemingway and Maria Chenoweth, will open at Cabot Circus in Bristol, allowing different charities to sell clothes there.

The shop will open with a launch party on Thursday evening, with people having to bring a clothing donation to enter.

Mr Hemingway said: "We wanted to get charities into places where they had never been before."

"You don't see charities in prime locations like Cabot Circus, that doesn't happen," he added.

He said he hoped the store would attract a young demographic.

"Bristol is probably the most sustainably-thinking city in the UK and its well-known as a place where young people love second-hand clothing," he said.

He added he hoped it would change the perception of charity shops "from a sign of decline to sign of the future".

"You do that by going to unexpected places," he said.

Mr Hemingway, who founded the brand Red or Dead, has strong links to sustainability in fashion and started in the business selling second-hand clothes.

Mr Hemingway's co-founder Maria Chenoweth, who runs the charity TRAID, which stops clothes ending up in landfill, told BBC Radio Bristol the Charity Super.Mkt had been a "great success" at other locations, including Glasgow, London and Reading.

She explained the pop up store would be in the old Hollister building.

Mr Hemingway said they tried to "get into Bristol for some time".

While all of the pop-up stores have so far been temporary, he said: "Bristol is right at the top of our list is to look for somewhere that's permanent."

The Charity Super.Mkt opens in Cabot Circus at 17:00 BST on Thursday.

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