13/02/20: Vision Foundation

Geranium Shops for the Blind, High Street Kensington, is now Vision Foundation: London's sight loss charity.

17/12/19: CDs return! #2 (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

Went in Geranium Shops for the Blind, High Street Kensington. As with Dogs Trust, they have inexplicably started selling CDs again. Snapped up Easter by Patti Smith for just 50p.

14/11/19: No More CDs #2 (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

Went to one of my favourite charity shops today, Geranium Shops for the Blind in High Street Kensington. The CDs were all gone. I asked the lady in charge and she said that they no longer stock them because “They don’t sell.” That’s not strictly true. They do sell because I must have bought 50–100 from that shop myself. Then again, that was over a period of a year and a half. Not exactly a big income for the shop at 50p a go.

It’s all about space. However cheaply they sell CDs, they can make more money using that part of the shop for selling clothes. If that’s better for the charity I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much.

Books and DVDs are clinging on.

13/08/19: No more CDs (Cancer Research)

Cancer Research on High Street Kensington have stopped selling books and CDs to make space for Christmas cards. A real shame.

27/06/18: My new favourite charity shop (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

Geranium Shops for the Blind, High Street Kensington. There was a huge cow sitting on a chair.

07–08/06/18: Stack of 50p CDs (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

I was in High Street Kensington and tried the Oxfam. The CDs were priced at £2.99. I know it’s High Street Ken, where different rules apply and all that, but that still seems excessive for a CD these days.

Better bargains were to be had (just a few metres away and across the road) in Geranium Shops for the Blind, where I was able to buy the following CDs for 50p each:
• Booker T. & The MG’s – In the Christmas Spirit
• The Who – Tommy
• Marillion – Misplaced Childhood
• Mark Knopfler – Local Hero (the film soundtrack)
• Paul McCartney – Back in the World Live (a double set)

They also had a Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg album I would have liked, but it had the wrong disc inside the box. When I told the three kindly old people behind the till about this, the man tossed the mismatched items straight into the bin. (Let’s hope the correct disc doesn’t show up in another box and prompt a similar query from another customer.) There was a fee for using the card machine unless I spent £3, so I bought a £1 book to take the overall total to £3.50 – Michael Moorcock’s “Sci-fi Masterwork” Dancers at the End of Time.

I was so pleased with that little lot that I went back the next day and bought another CD – Ultimate Prince (a 28-track 2-CD compilation of hits and rare tracks released soon after his death in 2016.

When I was at the till getting ready to pay for Prince, the nice old lady said they had some other CDs and pulled out a large plastic bag for me. I went through those (along with another woman, who also seemed suddenly keen to rummage and possibly as thrilled as I was) and bought the following 50p bargains:
• The Beatles – Revolver
• Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.
• Simon & Garfunkel – Greatest Hits
• Donna Summer – A Love Trilogy
• Donna Summer – Once Upon a Time
• The Bangles – Everything
• Tears for Fears – The Seeds of Love

I’m not sure I really want the Tears for Fears album, but clearly I had got slightly carried away in the excitement. Likewise, it turns out I already had the Bangles CD. But despite that, this was my best charity shop experience since Emmaus at All Saints (see HERE).