Bag a bargain at new Gran Alacant second hand furniture store and support the Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre.
A newly opened charity shop at Gran Alacant has just been converted into a furniture store selling only high-quality second hand home furnishings at affordable prices.
Run by the Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre, all sales will help cover the ongoing feeding and care costs of the centre’s more than 90 horses, ponies and donkeys rescued from abuse, neglect and abandonment.
Centre co-founder Sue Weeding said the new store, located behind a much smaller existing rescue centre charity shop, is dedicated solely to furniture and is easy to navigate with displays organised by rooms.
“I felt that there were people out there who would gladly donate unwanted items of furniture if they knew someone would come and pick them up,” Sue said. “And on the flipside, there are always people looking for good-quality furniture at good prices to kit out their home. It’s furniture for the whole house so people really can save hundreds of euros by shopping here.”
Donations of good-quality furniture to stock the store are gratefully welcomed. The rescue centre has now expanded its free pick-up service for large donated items to cover much of the Alicante region.
The shop also offers a delivery service for large items purchased in-store.
“The shop space used to be a bank so a few weeks ago me and five volunteers went in and knocked down the bulletproof cashiers’ box to open up the space and then fixed it all up,” Sue said.
“It was a lot of work but we really feel this is the way forward for our charity shops. We’d like to open up more furniture stores and expand down to Benidorm if possible.”
The horse rescue centre, which relies entirely on donations, requires at least €4000 a week just to cover the ongoing equine feeding and care costs, with specialist veterinary treatment and rescue operations presenting an additional cost.
“At the end of the day, we have to be inventive because of our increasing numbers of rescued horses, ponies and donkeys, which we must keep taking in as we are currently the only option for police. We’ll soon be up to 100 equines and we have to find ways to continue to care for them professionally. The shops are the only way forward,” Sue said.
Anyone interested in making furniture donations can call Sue on 652 021 980. The centre is also looking for volunteers to help staff the shop, with experience in sales an advantage.
The Gran Alacant store, staffed entirely by volunteers, is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm. The shop is located at Ave Holanda, next to the DialPrix supermarket at Gran Alacant.
The Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre, located just outside Rojales at Partido Lo Garriga, 59, opens to the public on the first Sunday of every month between 1pm and 4pm. Free horse tours run throughout the afternoon and refreshments are available in the café. For more details and directions, please visit www.easyhorsecare.net
