Mary Queen of Charity Shops

[Sherbert37]

Anyone watched it? I love Mary and her no nonsense approach to retailing. Some of the volunteers were amazing. Yuk at what they found in the bags.

[fishie]

it is fascinating. so much also that the charity has signed up to it enthusiastically, but the shops dept is loathing her.

[squeaver]

Yes I have a secret crush on Mary.

Funnily enough the most effective thing she can probably do to make people change their donating habits is make this programme. So good on her.

[squeaver]

Yes fishie, dh and I were hooting at the poor Area Manager bloke. You could see the thought bubble: "how the hell did I get landed with this??"

[squeaver]

Don't know why I felt sorry for him, actually. He was a plonker.

[littlelamb]

Yes I watched it. I can't believe what some people donate I have a black bin bag full of toys I have cleared out today to take down tomorrow. I have sat and cleaned them all and made sure they are all together and made sure it's stuff that I would buy if it was in the shop. I love charity shopping but god they do have some tat. The best ones often are the ones run by old dears as you can really get some gems. But having such an old workforce is probably why there are so many that price anything vaguely 'trendy' at more than it cost new. I've thought of volunteering, but I'm not sure I could deal with peoples old pants

[fishie]

mp "i want a shop manager"
shops bods "no, too expensive"
mp "it will pay for itself" (not sure it will on her sums)
charity "lo, you will have a shop manager"
mp: stomps all over eop and recruits.

[squeaver]

Yes that bit was odd. I think it's just a ruse to get old Graham the job tbh.

[changednam]

I thought she was a bit out of touch in some ways though - for instance the sandwich server might not have been her taste, but someone may have bought it to use as a bbq tongs or something.

My dad shops in charity shops and doesn't mind if the stuff he buys is unfashionable either - as long as it's good quality.

He's recently been sporting a leather jacket which would have done nicely on Ashes to Ashes.

Anyway back to Mary, I wonder if she's expecting to change the shop into a boutique with the latest fashions? It'll be interesting to watch next week.

And the area manager was definitely a plonker - I wondered if he might be an alcoholic - he used to work in the off licence trade and if he'd been so great at it, why wasn't he still there?

[WhoDidThat]

The shop is on my High Street and a little while ago I noticed it had been radically redone and looked amazing, not at all like a charity shop. Inside it looked like a posh boutique ...... and quite spacious and empty.... but then most of the stock was still old tut but with one rail of gorgeous designer wear. There were some lovely fittings with shoes and bags beautifully displayed and then you had a look and realised they were just crappy and battered but they looked good from a distance. It was a bit odd really.

I don't know if it got picked up in the prog but the main reason why that charity shop is never going to do very well is that there are a total of 11 charity shop in that High Street and this is at the very end, furthest away from all the carparks too so it doesn't get the same passing trade. I love the charity shops and go for a rummage but generally find that I miss that one out because i can't be bothered going all the way down to that end.

Mind you, I bet it is heaving after all this publicity!

[oysterpots]

Anyone know where the Kate-Moss-and-Madonna's-favourite cupcakes were from?

[EffieGadsby]

I think they were Candy Cakes - they looked a lot like these anyway. www.candycakes.com/

[oysterpots]

Aha! That's them! They don't look so great on the website though... was going to steal decorating ideas

[EffieGadsby]

They might have had another brand too, as they had some very dainty looking cupcakes in addition to the brightly coloured ones by Candy. I was thinking they might have also sold Primrose Bakery ones www.primrosebakery.org.uk, who make much prettier cakes, and is supposedly popular with slebs.

[squeaver]

The MIND charity shop near me has just had a refit and now has a sign up saying "this shop features on Mary Queen of Charity Shops". Also lots of signs saying "Donate; don't dump" which I think is quite a neat slogan (Mary's I'm sure).

Before it does appear, I'd like to put on record that I only ever hand in good quality items. No skanky pants from me!!

[Lilyloo]

uuh did people really donate pants ?

[squeaver]

Oh yes. Including ones with sanitary towels still in place.

[Lilyloo]

[dmo]

that stiff jacket dh and i are still laughing about it

and the people who go into charity shops just to change their underwear and leave their old stuff in the changing room

[MargaretMountford]

have just watched this on iplayer - I love Mary Portas !
I also rather liked Brenda

[Fimbo]

Oh I am so looking forward to his tonight, straight after the Holby wedding on BBC1 too.

My hairdresser is the spit of Mary.

[auntyitaly]

Apols to all if I am hijacking this hagiography of our Blessed (definitely not a Virgin) Mary, but has anyone - on or off TV - yet made the point that charity shops are in crisis....

Donations are down because of the recession. The quality of donations has plummeted - more people ebay the good, saleable stuff (rise of unemployment etc), and the rest is, increasingly, very dead Primark (rise of discount chains).

And, as many of us here have pointed out, shoppers are getting wise to the oft-hilarious overcharging. Charging more for a withered Tesco T-shirt than it cost new four years ago cannot go unnoticed even by those who aren't as savvy as us lot for lon. How is Mary going to fix that?

[ruddynorah]

love this show, also the i'm running sainsbury's one is good.

we give good stuff to charity shops. all dd's old clothes, good quality not the stained stuff, has gone to them. and we spend in them too. tons of books for dd. she got a swimming action man last saturday for 50p.

[misdee]

do remember also, that clothes that arent suitable for selling, are sold to the ragman. the british heart foundation shops sell stuff to the ragman, inc old shoes. dh has a good laugh when he works there, as some things people donate are very odd, or skanky, but they just have a ragbin.

i will be volenteering there once dd4 is more settled and i can leave her longer than 20mins at a time.

[squeaver]

Loving Brenda and Jean tonight.