# A load of hot air? Follow charity shops' lead

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/03/20/load-hot-air-follow-charity-shops039-lead/
- Published: 2008-03-20T22:50:13+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Dominic Murphy writes in today’s Guardian lamenting the number of shops that leave
their doors open, throughout the day, with their heating on full blast. In [Shut that door!](http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/20/energyefficiency.carbonemissions)
he says that “estimates suggest around £300m annually is wasted by shops because
their doors are left open – many could slash their energy bills by 20-25% if they
closed them”.

I too find them an ‘eco-irritant’, assuming that they’ve probably got better things
to do than heat the great outdoors. If they’ve got money to burn perhaps they could
apply it to reducing prices or paying their staff or suppliers a little more. It
seems retailers believe that “people are less likely to come into the store if the
door is closed.”

Yet it crossed my mind that I don’t ever recall a charity shop adopting this open-
door policy. You can imagine I’m a little biased in favour of the charity sector,
but can you think of a charity shop that operates all day with its doors open, heat
escaping into the great outdoors?

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No, I didn’t think so.

Perhaps it’s because charity trading operations are truly focused on the bottom 
line. Blowing hot air outdoors is just not an option for them. Maybe it’s the large
number of older volunteers in charity shops for many of whom waste is not only daft
but almost unthinkable. Or maybe it’s plain old common sense.

So, when you hear someone complaining that charities should adopt more businesslike
habits, spare a thought for the humble charity shop. Somehow these institutions 
manage to survive and prosper by trusting shoppers to be able to push open a closed
door when they want to, and by choosing to heat only their own premises and no further.
Radical stuff!

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