Pros
Running a shop can be very enjoyable. You get a lot of freedom to make decisions, it’s basically your own business and you can run it however you think will raise the most money. It’s wonderful to get to know lovely volunteers from many different walks of life.
Cons
The workload is astronomical and the wages are not enough to survive on. The company refuses to hire paid shop assistants, which every other major charity has, so every shop is chronically short staffed. This puts a lot of pressure on the few volunteers we have. A huge amount of money is wasted on overpaid “work from home” head office staff who do absolutely nothing all day, and an endless chain of pointless senior managers and directors who just drive around the country taking photos to put on Facebook. It’s well known that senior management sees the retail side of the company as a massive inconvenience, and refuses to invest any money to fix staffing problems, dilapidated buildings, and ancient IT equipment.