It's the first day of December and Movember so wives and girlfriends across the land are heaving a sigh of relief as their significant others shave off some of the strangest moustaches seen since the seventies.

Our very own Hairy Desperados have now been restored to their usual clean shaven good looks. With your help they've managed to raise £1207 for Movember, which will be used to support testicular and prostate cancer initiatives. Altogether Movember has raised over £14 million in the UK alone, and over £63 million worldwide.

We just want to let you know that as of today we will no longer be opening late on weekdays. This is necessary to ensure we have enough staff answering phones at the busiest times of day. While we regret any inconvenience to people who prefer to contact us during the evening, it is essential that we answer the phones quickly at peak times. Anyone calling outside opening hours will be able to leave a message requesting a call back the following day.

Well, we're in the final week of Movember. While the Hairy Desperados have managed to grow some quite magnificent moustaches, they seem strangely excited about shaving them off again. Maybe they don't like being pointed at in the street or maybe they just want to be able to kiss their wives and girlfriends again without them complaining of stubble rash. Whatever the reason, they've all been great sports

Since the story of our recovery of stolen laptops first appeared in the press last week it has taken on a life of its own and received widespread media coverage in the national and local press, radio and TV as well as being mentioned on many websites. We have noticed that some of the versions of the story raise questions about whether Mike Birtwhistle's company laptop contained any customer data at the time it was stolen, and want to set the record straight on this issue

Several weeks ago the owner of Stores Direct, Michael Birtwhistle, was burgled during a family holiday in Tenerife. Two MacBook computers were taken, belonging to Michael and one of his daughters. Michael went through the motions of reporting the crime without expecting to see the laptops again, and tried to make the best of what remained of the family holiday. The laptops have since been recovered through the ingenuity of David Duffy, our managing director, a story now receiving national press coverage.

We've now reached the halfway point in the Movember facial hair fest, and our Hairy Desperados have already raised over £700 for testicular and prostate cancer initiatives. It has now become a matter of pride to be pointed at in the street for sporting a bizarre beard. Those whose beard growth is visible have updated their Movember galleries so you can see the glorious progression from normality to downright weirdness.

Having got away with drawing a fake moustache on the boss's picture and circulating it around the internet yesterday, we decided to go a step further and turn him into the official Stores Direct Movember poster boy. We'll be putting this up at our showroom in Elland to raise awareness and encourage shoppers to donate. Thanks to everyone who has donated to Movember, no matter what team you support, and thanks to Dave for being such a good sport!

David Duffy - the Melchett of Stores Direct

Movember has begun, and men all over the world are putting their facial follicles into service growing beards and moustaches to raise money for prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. I'm pleased to say most of the Stores Direct men have joined up under the Hairy Desperados team banner and sworn off shaving until the end of November. They have bravely chosen to face and overcome difficulties such as itching faces, repelling women at nightclubs, making their teenage children (more than usually) embarrassed to be seen with them and generally looking a bit of a plonker.