Development looks to have claimed another victim and this time it is independent charity op-shop Mayflower Nearly New in Gerringong which is set to lose the depot which houses its overflow of stock.

With almost 50 years of servicing and supporting locals with donated items and having stepped away from being under the Uniting Church umbrella, it appears there is no love lost when it comes to real estate.

Jennifer James, of the Mayflower Nearly New store, explained to The Bugle that the Uniting Church is pulling down the old hospital on Belinda Street to be developed into independent living units.

“They own the land and of course, we own the shed and they [Uniting Church] are not renewing the lease,” she said, who has had experience working in the clothing store ‘A Breath of Scandal’ in Sydney.

“The lease expires [for the depot] next June.”

The current store, which is located on Fern Street next to the Butcher and displays the processed goods from donations, is approximately 35 square metres.

“If you can see the size of this shop, we can’t even fit two people in the back room - we can’t have this as a depot,” James added.

Mayflower Nearly New’s Isabella Campbell said around a dozen ladies turn up every Tuesday morning to help sort out the donations for sale.

Because of the generosity of the Gerringong locals and surrounding townships, not all that is donated makes it to the shopfront.

“What we can’t give to the shop here has to go somewhere and we don’t want it to go into a garbage bin anywhere,” Campbell said.

“We give to the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse – we send all our material to them because they make bags that go overseas.

“We also give to Animal Welfare [League] if there are blankets that can’t be sold.”

Looking around the shop, the majority of the items are clothing with some preloved books, but there is a lot of antique ‘bric-a-brac’.

“If somebody gives us antiques and we can’t sell them, we pass them on to our museum in Gerringong here,” James said.

Over the past six years, the ladies from the shop projected the potential donations to various community organisations and charities has exceeded $300,000.

Campbell and James, along with some elders from the Uniting Church, are on the committee which decides where the money is distributed.

“It is a real hub for the grandparents, [they] come here in the school holidays to stop the children from getting bored,” James said.

“A lot of jigsaw puzzles – it is a community place.”  

The ladies of the Mayflower Nearly New store said they once received 75 wedding dresses, all brand new, which did not take long to waltz out the door, but a silver jug takes the cream.

“It’s a little cream jug that we believe came off the Orient Express, but we didn’t want to sell stolen goods, so we passed it on,” James said.

For anyone who has any information on a new depot for the Mayflower Nearly New store speak to someone in the Fern street store or email [email protected]