The Guide to Major Trusts 2025-26. DSC (Directory of Social Change)

Mary Portas to open Save the Children shop in Edinburgh

Mary Portas. Photo: Save the Children

TV retail advisor and Save the Children Ambassador Mary Portas is opening a boutique style charity shop for Save the Children in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

“Mary’s Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children” will open on 21 November to take advantage of the pre-Christmas season, and, housed in a former HBOS Bank building, will sell a range of designer clothes at bargain prices.

Portas worked with Save the Children earlier this year when she overhauled their shop in Orpington, Kent as part of a three-part TV series, ‘Mary Queen of Charity Shops’.

Advertisement

Great Fundraising Organizations, by Alan Clayton. Buy now.

The programme culminated in a designer ‘pop-up charity shop’ in Westfield Shopping Centre in London, which, with the help of Grazia magazine, raised a £109,000 for the charity in just three weeks.

Some of the stock in the Stockbridge boutique has been donated by celebrities such as Jamie Oliver, Peaches Geldof and Lauren Lavern. Grazia magazine will be topping up the rails with designers items.

Mary Portas said: “This is a shop for everyone and we want it to be a place that will inspire Edinburgh to give. The designer bargains in our charity shop will be fantastic and the store has the potential to attract people from across the whole of Scotland. We want to create a real buzz around second hand shopping and make the old fashioned charity shop a thing of the past”.

This will be Portas’ first permanent charity shop, and she has four more in the pipeline across the UK. Her retail strategy agency Yellowdoor will be responsible for the shop refit.

Save the Children will encourage Edinburgh businesses to hold a Donate Don’t Dump Day – or ‘D-Day’, where staff can bring unwanted clothes to work and Save the Children will come and pick them up.

Loading

Mastodon