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Welcome to Croydon ARC
Croydon Appliance Reuse Centre (ARC) is a charity that was set up to help families on low income by providing low cost quality furniture and domestic appliances and by providing a training facility for unemployed or disadvantaged people. We source all the products we sell from generous donations from members of the public and from the commercial services we provide to local councils and commercial organizations.
Our name comes from the work we do to take old unwanted appliances, that people donate or dispose of via their local councils as a result of upgrading to a newer models or other reasons, to test and repair them as necessary in our own workshops and then make them available to our customers in our shop. Whilst the founding ideas was to reuse appliances we now include furniture, entertainment and IT equipment. Perhaps ARC should now stand for Awesome Reuse Centre!
By repairing appliances, PCs and furniture and giving them a new lease of life we are also making a significant contribution to the environment by impact diverting tonnes of material very year from landfill.
While we enjoy generous support from Croydon Council and CitybridgeTrust, we earn most of our income from the waste and WEEE collection services that we provide to a wide range of industries and local authorities.
A brief over view of Croydon ARC's services includes
Sales
We operate a large showroom at our facility in Grafton Road which is open to all members of the public where we sell domestic appliances, furniture, office and IT equipment at low prices to assist those in need or on low incomes.
We have a good selection of most of the basics that we all need to live in comfort including electric cookers, washing machines, tumble driers, dishwashers and fridge freezers and furniture including beds, wardrobes, tables and chairs, sofas and comfy chairs and a wide selection of cabinets and chests of drawers. We also stock TVs, VHS players, DVD players, smaller domestic appliances and computers and printers.
Customers who are receiving benefits such as full housing benefits or job seekers allowance receive a 20 % discount on marked up prices (Except for items less than £10).
Our Workshops
We have one of the best-equipped domestic appliance repair workshops in the country, and our skilled engineers refurbish the washing machines, fridges and cookers that we receive as donations or from collections for the local councils to the highest standards. Here we make the most of the high number of excellent appliances that may otherwise have been scrapped, and return them to full working order each appliance pis provided with a 6 months guarantee.
Donations
We are pleased to accept donations of appliances, furniture, PCs and IT equipment etc from members of the public and from businesses. These donations help us to carry out or main aims of providing those on low incomes with appliances and furniture at low cost. By doing this we also reduce the amount of material going to land fill. When it is impossible to repair an item to a good enough condition to be re sold then we ensure that it is recycled properly though authorized recycling processors.
Commercial Services
We provide bulk waste and WEEE collection and recycling services to a broad range of industries and to several local councils. These range from individual projects to clear a 200 + room hotel of all furniture during an upgrade and refurbishment program to regular contracts to provide collection services for local councils to remove unwanted appliances and furniture from domestic households within their boroughs. If you are a business with an office clearance or bulk waste clearance project that you need help with or you have a problem meeting your WEEE responsibilities then please contact us.
Our staff are experienced in carrying out collections and removals and as licensed Wast Transporter and an accredited AATF we can ensure that all material is processed in line with the latest regulations and all documentation and reporting in completed.
Training and Work Experience
As part of the original motivation for setting up Croydon ARC we not only wanted to provide low cost appliances and furniture for those on low income we also wanted to help people more directly.
To deliver this we work with Croydon Social Services, Croydon Volunteer Action and organizations like Mencap to provide work experience and training to both long term unemployed people to assist them getting back to work and to those with mental or physical disabilities helping them to gain skills and confidence so that they can get into full time employment and feel that they are contributing to society. Many of our full time staff started off working for us as volunteers.
Gloria providing great customer service to one of Croydon ARCs' customers. Gloria started as a volunteer with us in administration roles and is now a full time employee and runs the Sales Office and Showroom.
Volunteers
If you have an interest in helping others and have skills that you think would be helpful to us please contact us to see where we have opportunities for volunteering.
We have recently had a volunteer start with us to repair and refurbish the wooden furniture that we receive as donations but which need a little TLC before we can sell them to our customers.
Other areas where we have volunteers include:-
- Drivers and assistants for our collection and delivery services
- Sales / showroom personnel to provide our customers with friendly and helpful customer service
- Administrative assistants to answer customer calls, book collections and deliveries and to enter customer orders etc. on our computer systems
- One area where we would be very interested to have a volunteer would be to assist us in our warehouse and stockrooms particularly if you have fork lift driving skills.
CALL US TODAY
020 8662 8002
Showroom open:
9.00am to 4.00pm - Monday to Friday and until 7.00pm on Thursday
Next page: About Croydon ARC