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Episode 3

Retail guru Mary Portas aims to prove that charity shops can be heavyweights on the high street. Mary tries to convince celebrities to ditch their cutting-edge outfits.

Mary is on the final leg of her campaign and she still has a mountain to climb. With four weeks until she hands the shop back to the charity, Mary needs to work fast to show why her ideas can benefit any charity shop.

Mary turns her attention to shoppers, and knowing that London Fashion Week is where trends are set, Mary and her volunteers set up shop at the heart of the shows and make it their mission to make the next day's papers by convincing celebrities and fashion editors to ditch their cutting-edge outfits in favour of some of Mary's charity shop finds. Erin O'Connor and Peaches Geldof take up the challenge and the paparazzi duly gather.

Mary launches D-Day, a campaign aimed and getting better donations into charity shops, with volunteers from MIND, Barnardos and The North London Hospice. Back at her own shop, Mary ditches the words 'charity shop' for the all-new rebranded Living and Giving Shop, and her final push to breathe new life into her charity shops is complete when she goes out into the local community to offer local designers the use of her shop for a 50/50 profit split. Mary's revolutionary ideas are proving to be a step too far for some of her volunteers and with weeks to go, Mary is forced to talk tough to try and get them back onside.

Five months of Mary's charity shop reforms come to an end, but has she achieved her goal and proved charity shops can compete on today's high street? All is revealed when she meets with her bosses from Save the Children to find out if she has hit her 2000-pound-a-week target and if they are willing to take her ideas and roll them out across their chain of 125 shops.

1 hour

Last on

Sat 11 Jul 2009 01:05

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Credits

Role Contributor
Participant Mary Portas
Executive Producer Becky Clarke
Executive Producer Patricia Llewellyn
Director Barnaby Coughlin

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