Croydon’s Salvation Army op-shop is filling its photo frames with pictures of celebrities

A humble Croydon op-shop is gaining a cult following and boosting its sales with its quirky take on celebrity-spotting, with Keanu Reeves and Leonardo DiCaprio among the stars to draw a crowd.

Croydon Salvos shop’s Simon Austin and Alison Johnson are celebrating Keanu Reeves this month.

A Croydon op-shop is developing a cult following and boosting its sales with a quirky ongoing stunt.

The Salvation Army’s store on Main St has been filling its photo frames with pictures of a new celebrity or public figure every month.

Manager Simon Austin said the initiative started a year ago when a shopper donated thousands of rare photos of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

“They were really outdated and no wanted to buy them, so we went, let’s put them in photo frames,” he said.

“And now people are like, who are we going to do next?”

Croydon Salvos’ rotating celebrity pics have a cult following. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“We had someone donate their family photos thinking we’d put their photos in frames, but we didn’t do that.”

Mr Austin said staff chose a new celebrity that aligned with the Salvos values every month and he then got photos to put in the frames.

One photo is kept by the store at the end of the month for a wall of fame in the staff tea room.

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Actors Jeff Goldblum and Whoopi Goldberg, former newsreader Lee-Lin Chin and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have all previously been featured.

This month’s star is actor Keanu Reeves — after plenty of requests from shoppers and store assistant Alison Johnson, who’s a massive fan of The Matrix star.

“He always seems like such a down-to-earth guy, a cool celebrity and gives so much money to charity,” Alison said.

“We’ve even had a guy dress up as Neo (from The Matrix) and come in and buy as many photos as he could find,” Simon said.

Fans can snap up photo frames and check out all the different pictures at Croydon Salvos at 104 Main St, Croydon.

Details: 9724 9444.

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