Neighbours Aid pops up in Nambour after flood setback
Neighbours Aid Op Shop has opened a pop-up shop at Nambour Plaza
Nambour’s beloved Neighbours Aid Op Shop is back—temporarily—after flood damage forced the charity to close its Howard Street store last month (March).
The not-for-profit has opened a pop-up shop at Nambour Plaza, between Priceline Chemist and Nextra, while restoration work continues at its usual premises. The move comes after asbestos was discovered during repairs, slowing the recovery process.
“As you can imagine, that has increased the work involved,” said Ange Jones, Administrator for Neighbours Aid. “But we were missing being a part of the local community—and had several customers tell us they miss being able to wander through our store—so we opened up a pop-up shop.”
The temporary space, which officially opened on Friday 28 March, is staffed by the regular Nambour team and some of their dedicated volunteers. It offers a curated selection of clothing, shoes, bags and accessories, with more stock added regularly.
The response from the community has been swift and heartening.
“Even while we were setting up, bringing racks of clothes in, we had members of the community coming in, looking through the clothes and commenting on being so glad that we're there,” said Ms Jones. “We even had our first sale only three and a half hours after getting the key!”
She said the whole idea and set-up came together in less than a day. “It was suggested, our Operations Manager found the spot on her lunch break, and we were selling the next day.”
Neighbours Aid expects to stay in the Plaza location until the end of April, depending on how long repairs to the Howard Street shop take.
“We are so grateful to be back in the Nambour community again but can't wait for our shop to be open again and operating at full capacity,” Ms Jones said.
• For more information or to support Neighbours Aid’s mission of helping children and families in need, visit: www.neighboursaid.org. Phone: 07 5476 2383