Brand new consciously designed charity superstore that has all the heart

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) will open its brand-new store concept ‘Store of the Future’ on Thursday 1st May in Edinburgh’s Straiton Retail Park.

The BHF has always been committed to driving sustainability. Whether that’s saving 54,000 tonnes of goods from going to waste each year, including 186,000 sofas and armchairs, selling over 11,000 tonnes of preloved clothes, or using energy efficient lighting with its stores across the country, for example.

Now the charity are taking the next step in that journey. The new design elements of the store include a cash desk made using waste textiles sourced directly from BHF shops, clothing hangers produced using ocean plastics, flooring produced from recycled materials and an entire lighting system that was produced via a 3D printing process using recycled plastics. 

This is the first BHF shop that the ‘Store of the Future’ concept is being trialled in.

The 7,000 sq ft store will showcase a range of preloved clothing, accessories, homeware and books. Value and choice remain at the heart of BHF’s retail offering and customers will be able to discover more for less every day.

The store’s front window has been styled using one-of-a-kind upcycled pieces by actress and British Heart Foundation Retail Ambassador Kimberly Hart-Simpson using preloved items from BHF shops. The store will also feature upcycled furniture from design students at The University of Edinburgh.

The store has its own defibrillator attached to the external wall, helping to protect hearts of the community. The BHF is also investing over £60m into pioneering research in Scottish universities and all the money raised in this new store will help continue funding this lifesaving work.

Professor Matt Reed from the University of Edinburgh will be attending the opening of the new BHF store.

He is leading a BHF-funded clinical trial to test whether a potentially game changing advanced heart monitoring patch can better diagnose heart rhythm problems in people who attend A & E with unexplained fainting. This is just one of the many groundbreaking studies the BHF is funding in Scotland.

Allison Swaine-Hughes, Retail Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This Store of the Future concept is our next step we’re exploring for our retail estate. As the UK’s largest charity retailer, we remain committed to reducing, re-using and recycling our resources so that there is no avoidable waste. We are testing new ways in which we can be better for our customers, donors and the environment, all while continuing to raise vital funds for our life saving research.

Shopping with the BHF isn’t just about saving money, it’s about saving lives by helping to fund research into heart and circulatory disease and saving unwanted items from going to landfill, which we know is also motivating shoppers to choose to shop with us. We look forward to welcoming everyone through the doors very soon.”

The British Heart Foundation Edinburgh Straiton store will open at 10am on Thursday 1^st May 2025.