Name: Rik Child
Company: I’m the director of Furniture Now! in the Phoenix Industrial Estate.
What do you sell? We sell good-quality second-hand furniture, which is affordable to unwaged local residents, as well as fridges, freezers, gramophones, kettles etc. I’d like to stress that everything we sell can be bought by anybody: we ask those who can afford to pay more, to do so. We’re a charity, but we don’t raise money for other causes: we plough it back into the business.
Any other sides to the business? We also run the local recycling unit which deals with the whole of Lewes, Kingston, Ringmer and Rodmell, and run courses in furniture refurbishment for what the government calls ‘socially excluded’ people - those who for one reason or another need a helping hand.
Why do you sell what you sell? I guess there are two sides to that. The first is to get furniture to people at prices they can afford. The other is to keep stuff in good condition from ending up in landfill sites.
Where do you get your goods from? It’s all donated by people who no longer want it. As long as it is re-usable we take it away from their houses for free. The number to call for this service is 487377.
What’s the most expensive item in your shop? There’s a really beautiful old walnut-finished wardrobe that has recently come in which might fetch about £100 or more. But that would be less if someone couldn’t afford it and really wanted it.
And the cheapest? A stool or a chair would cost £3-4. We come to all sorts of agreements with people.
And the strangest? Once we had a globe which opened out into a drinks cabinet.