Shopping for deluxe items comes guiltfree at the Retails Store, where profits go to finding homes for animals in need

If you're tripping over unwanted gifts, old clothes and other stuff at home, why not pack them off to the doghouse? The Retails Store on Sukhumvit Soi 71 was set up to raise funds for the Soi Cats and Dogs organisation (Scad) by its founder, Briton Sheery Conisbee. Here, shoppers can sift through a mountain of items donated by sympathetic Thais and foreigners, with all profits going towards finding homes for abandoned cats and dogs around Thailand.

"Conisbee launched the shop after seeing the suffering of mangy stray dogs in Bang Saray village, south of Pattaya," says store manager Jirapat Mongkolsoot.

The original Retails store opened in the Ratchadapisek area in 2002 before moving to bustling Soi Sukhumvit 71 last month. The format has remained the same though, with all kinds of used products on sale from Bt50 to Bt50,000.

"Our stock is mainly donations by expats and we make sure the stuff's condition and quality is good," says Jirapat.

Take your pick from wooden cabinets, dining tables, chairs, sofas, beds, big teddy bears, glittering glassware, classylooking ceramic ware, jewellery, hardwood wardrobes, clothing, wooden boxes, suitcases, comfy pillows, shelves, portraits, napkins and table runners. Much of it looks new or hardly used. A bookshelf in one corner is lined with more than 100 novels and pocketbooks for Bt50 apiece. 

 People with a petshaped hole in their lives should make their way to the hideaway behind the store, where about 20 adoptable cats and dogs are waiting to make new friends.

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Was that a 'miaow'?

>> Retails Store is at 289 Soi Pridi Phanomyong 42 on Sukhumvit Soi 71 and open Tuesday to Saturday from 9 to 5.

>> Call (02) 713 2635 or (02) 713 3354 or visit www.ScadBangkok.org.