The Street Store is a pop-up store for the homeless, that can be created in any community around the world, where the homeless shop for free.

However, we aren’t a clothing drive, so we don’t take donations ahead of the pop-up. We want people to meet and to interact – so the world’s haves can meet the have-nots and they can remember that both sides are human.

Our posters, guidebook and presentation document will download to your computer. You will find PDFs (which can be printed immediately) and InDesign files (which are the editable so you can add your company’s logo.) You can only open these if you have InDesign – let us know if you need help!

Once you have planned your Street Store, you send us the details, so we can put everything on our site.

Please drop us a mail on hello@thestreetstore.org and we can chat about translating the posters into your language!

Please like our Facebook page where we add all our events. Then you can find one in your community and chat to them directly. You can also find a list on our website, here.

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After you’ve taken the pledge and received our files, you need to organise your store. Once you have all the details, please email the following to hello@thestreetstore.org so we can create your event:

– Name of the town and city for the title

– Name of hosts for the title.

– Date

– Time of opening and closing

– Exact Address

– A description of who you are and why you are doing this. As well as any partner or sponsor info that you need to share.

Please click that you’re attending on the event and then email us on hello@thestreetstore.org so we know.

Please remember to take photos at the event and upload them to your Facebook Page, as well as a story about how the day went.

Creating singular Street Store pages is not allowed. This is because there is one official Street Store and the rest of the hosts, host in their personal capacities.

If each and every person hosting a store created their own, we’d ultimately have a mishmash of hundreds of Facebook/Twitter/Web pages that dilute the original, creating a lot of confusion.

Also, as anyone can create a store, we don’t anyone to worry that they can’t as there already seems to be an official Street Store in that region.

We create official event pages for each of our hosts, which they use to generate exposure, give information and direct people to donate, engage and volunteer. It gives credibility, and also allows us to share with the whole of our community, not just yours.

It can take a few days to receive the files! If it’s been more than a week already, please retake the pledge as it may not have gone through.

To ensure that your Street Store is a dignified experience for those in need, we recommend using clothing that has been gently pre-worn and is still in good, usable condition. Torn, damaged or heavily soiled clothing is not suitable.

We find that men’s clothing is always in high demand, especially smaller sizes, and men’s shoes, therefore we recommend that you aim to ensure adequate amounts of these items. We suggest calling this out in a campaign ahead of the donation period.

We don’t take financial donations on our website at present. If you want to donate funds, please consider donating directly to a homeless shelter as The Street Store is purely based on clothing.

• Gently worn clothing for all ages and sizes
• Warm winter items (jackets, scarves, blankets)
• Shoes in wearable condition
• Bags, backpacks, belts and accessories.
• Men’s items, as these are always in high demand

• Torn, soiled, or damaged clothing
• Items requiring dry cleaning or repair
• Unmatched items (e.g. single shoes)

There are several ways to volunteer at The Street Store.

You can volunteer in the setting up and taking down of The Street Store.

You can volunteer prior to The Street Store by assisting with the sorting and packing of the clothing into sizes for men and women.

You can volunteer to set up The Street Store and ensure the clothing is displayed appropriately, ready for the shopping experience to begin.

You can also volunteer as a shopper assistant who guides people in need through The Street Store and assists them in finding clothing suitable to their size.

In order to volunteer, look for the next Street Store taking place in your area and contact the relevant team to find out what kind of assistance they need.

You can find out everything you need to know about how to host a Street Store on our Host A Street Store page.

Phone a few printers in your area – they can either help you or point you in the right direction. Sometimes they’ll even sponsor you, and then you can post about them on your official Facebook event.

This depends on how big the area is that you’re using. In a 50m space, we use 20 poster sets (hanger and shoe box) for male and 20 poster sets for female with a 4 or 5 informative posters in between.

All of the posters are both in InDesign and PDF format. The PDF should always open, the InDesign files are for editing purposes.

If you don’t need to edit them, any printer can use the PDF to print. If you do need to edit them, either ask a friend with InDesign, or if the printer is kind enough, they can help too. If need be, you can send us the changes that you need to make and we can help you out as well!

The more Street Stores the better. Each one helps a different homeless community.

Not at all! You are not obligated in any way.

When you take the pledge we send you a guidebook on how The Street Store works. That’s where a lot of questions will be answered. If you still have questions, feel free to get in touch.

If you read the guidebook it and decide against hosting a Street Store, it’s ok! You’re not obligated to hosting one.

The Street Store runs as an open-source, volunteer-based initiative. To make a Street Store happen, the following services are needed:

• Storage facilities for the clothing.
• Logistics services to transport the clothing to The Street Store at the hosted venue.
• Campaign partners (i.e. retail or commercial partners) who could offer donation points, assist with printing collateral and run a campaign to drive clothing donations to The Store.
• Donation point partners, who can offer a place where people can donate clothing. This would then be collected and sent to the storage facilities.

If you’d like to discuss any of these partnership opportunities, please send an email to hello@thestreetstore.org