The Empty Shop

The festive season is fast approaching and we find ourselves starting to trawl the shops for gifts to spoil our family and loved ones. During these shopping sprees some of you may have come across the Empty Shop in Sandton City, which was set up from the 29^th October – 16^th November, and wondered what it was all about?!

The Empty Shop is a concept which forms part of an award-winning global CSI campaign pioneered in São Paulo, Brazil.

The concept for the store is very simple: donate, style and empty.

Instead of buying and taking items out of the store, the pop-up empty shop invites everyone to contribute their pre-loved clothing, shoes and accessories which are then transformed daily on mannequins with styled looks. Every evening the store is then emptied and ready to receive new donations the next day. The items are then all donated to a charity of choice – this year, Sandton City chose HospiceWits.

The campaign aims to build awareness around poverty and the under privileged, and I think placing this store in the middle of a high-end Shopping Centre is a clever and interesting way to encourage people to make a difference and donate.

Unfortunately, my bad timing meant that I arrived with our bags of clothing on the last weekend it was running so I am only able to write about this now. The reason, however, that I want to share this with all of you is that it’s expected to be set up again in 2015 – this gives us all some time to properly sort out our wardrobes and create a “donate pile” for this awesome and unique concept that gives back to our less fortunate community.