Celebrities including Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman and Nicola Coughlan feature in a comical promotional video ahead of the 2022 opening of the Choose Love Shop.
The shop, located on London’s famous Carnaby Street, sells essential supplies and life-changing interventions for refugees and displaced people around the world.
In the clip, Hassan Akkad, filmmaker and Creative Director at Choose Love, introduces the public to the concept of the store and its “not so helpful” employees.
“Every Christmas we take a few celebrities who haven’t been booked for a panto or a Christmas special and give them something useful to do,” he says.
Cumberbatch is seen struggling with the job of being a cashier, while Colman is confused by the technology of the online store, and Coughlan uses the store cupboard as a green room.
Other famous faces appearing in the clip include comedian Nish Kumar, Vick Hope, Deborah Frances-White, and Aiysha Hart.
Dawn O’Porter, co-founder and long-term supporter of the Choose Love Shop said: “The Choose Love Shop is now a staple of the festive period.
“Especially now, while we’re all reading the newspapers every day and wondering what we can do to help, buying from the Choose Love Shop offers people something that can make a real, tangible difference.”
The Choose Love shop first opened in 2016 and offers punters the chance to “shop ‘til you drop and leave with nothing”.
Everything shoppers buy – from hot food to emergency housing and more – is given to refugees and asylum seekers, and can be bought in the name of a loved one for a Christmas gift.
Previous famous employees have included Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Carey Mulligan, a mannequin cameo from Noel Fielding, and Lena Heady who served coffee to queuing customers.
According to Choose Love, this year the refugee crisis has reached new records, with more than 100 million people estimated to be displaced worldwide.
The charity has added new items to help address some of these crises such as Disability Support, Heating Fuel, and Evacuations.
All funds raised through the shop go to supporting displaced people from all over the world, including Afghanistan and Syria, as well as supporting the Ukraine Emergency Response, which the charity began earlier this year, now working with more than 70 organisations to help the people of Ukraine.
The Choose Love Shop opens on November 3 until December 24 2022 and is located at 15-17 Foubert’s Place, in central London.
Since the charity began in 2015, it has helped almost four million refugees and displaced people and worked in over 30 countries with grassroots organisations.