Cosgrove's charity shops were set up in November 2000 by a group of dedicated volunteers who spent many hours choosing the correct location of our shop.  It was decided that number 5 Skirving Street, Shawlands, was the ideal location for Cosgrove's first venture into the charity shop world.

After the success of our first shop, we decided to open another charity shop in a small property across the road at Number 16.  In 2007, we received funding to set up our unique supported employment project and so Number 16 became its base and was staffed by service users who were supported by Cosgrove employees.  As time moved on and the shops and supported employment project continued to be success stories, we decided to open a third, larger, shop at Number 4 Skirving Street. 

In 2010/2011, the shop at Number 16 was closed and we re-designed the property at Number 4 so as to increase our floor space and make this the new home of supported employment.  The benefit of this was that the increased space allowed the project to be opened up to more people, in addition to having retail space within the shop we were now able to create a community cafe and the renovated basement space could now be used as an onsite training room providing a quiet space for learning.  The supported employment project enables our service users access to realistic work experience in both a café and retail environment as well as providing the opportunity to gain national qualifications – all of which can lead into paid employment.

Cosgrove’s supported employment project works closely with both Glasgow City and East Renfrewshire Councils’ Education Departments to provide training for young people who have a range of learning disabilities as well as people from mainstream educational facilities who require additional learning support. 

We currently have 5 paid staff and 28 volunteers working in our shops selling a huge variety of items: bric-a-brac, furniture, soft furnishings, pictures, clothing and electrical goods. They have often been described by customers and visitors alike as Aladdin's Cave as we are constantly changing our stock so that we are offering our customers little gems every time they visit!

Donations can be made to our shops in person by handing them in or we can also organise pick-ups in our van. For enquiries about donations or volunteering please phone 0141 632-1441.