Our 750 UK shops and stores are temporarily closed

Our network of 750 UK shops and stores will be temporarily closed from Thursday 19 March as we seek to protect staff, volunteers and customers from the spread of Coronavirus Covid-19. 

We’ve made the decision in line with the Government’s latest advice and in response to the emerging evidence that people with many heart and circulatory diseases are at greater risk of complications if they develop Covid-19.  

Allison Swaine-Hughes, Retail Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We’ve made the decision to close our shops and stores for at least two weeks from Thursday 19 March due to the ongoing impact of the Coronavirus. 

“The British Heart Foundation exists to support the millions of people in the UK living with heart and circulatory diseases and it’s clear some people with these conditions are particularly vulnerable to complications if they develop Covid-19.

"As significant numbers of our volunteers, staff, customers and donors are in a high-risk group or are directly affected by heart and circulatory disease, it’s only right that we close our 750 shops and stores. Without the invaluable contributions of our staff and volunteers, it is not possible for us to operate normally.  

“As a result of this decision, all of our collection services have been suspended with immediate effect and we would ask that people do not leave donations outside BHF shops as we will have no way of collecting them in the coming weeks.  

“We are hugely grateful to all the hard work and support of all our shop teams, customers, suppliers and supporters and will continue to review the situation. We hope to re-open all shops as soon as it is safe to do so.”  

Enhancing support for people with heart and circulatory disease 

The BHF is now focusing on supporting people with heart and circulatory diseases as they face an anxious time self-isolating or following the Government’s advice on social distancing.  

Allison added: “It’s vitally important we can support people with heart and circulatory diseases at a time that many will be worried about their health. We’d urge all of our supporters who might have concerns to visit our website for more information, and to continue to support our work to improve the lives of people across the UK.”  

Questions about shopping with us 

What will happen if I’ve booked a collection, or plan to book a collection?

We are unable to now accept any donations or collect any items. If possible, please retain any items until our collection service resumes and shops reopen. Once back up and running we will be hugely grateful to receive them.

What if I'm waiting for a refund?

Due to the current restrictions on access to our offices we are currently unable to process refunds through cheques as normal. We are working hard on a solution – in the interim, if we have not already contacted you, please let us know if you are expecting a refund and once we are able to process these we will be in touch with more details.

Will the BHF’s eBay shop still be open?

Our eBay Store is now closed. This will be for an initial two week period, and then we’ll decide what happens next based on the latest advice from the UK Government. To make this as worry free as possible, we are still supporting our eBay customers via our Customer Service Centre and you can still contact us via eBay using the contact seller option. We’ve extended our payment T&C’s and are happy to accept payment once our office is due to re-open. We’ve also extended our in-house returns policy to allow returns after 30 days. 

For more information please contact our customer services team on [email protected].

Can I still shop online?

Our online shop is temporarily closed to help reduce the risk of infection and pressure on our partners for non-essential travel and activity. We will update this page as soon as we are back up and running. Thank you for your support.

What if I've made an order on the website?

We are still supporting our online customers via our Customer Service Centre. We’d like to reassure our customers that any orders already placed with us will be fulfilled within the usual delivery time frames, this includes our medical devices and defibrillators. We’ve also extended our in-house returns policy to allow returns after 30 days. For more information please contact our customer services team on [email protected].