Charity shop prices

I was long ago price away from most charity shops here, they're just too expensive. The Cancer Research is still ok, but even their clothes prices are creeping up.

Our local Heart Foundation charges £30 for delivery alone, even if you only live round the corner. Ridiculous. I saw a tatty old bookcase in there the other day and they wanted £80. It didn't even stand up straight! And it was chipped and stained. I could get a new one for less than that and get free delivery!

Charity shops have become extortionate. I understand that they are there to make money for the cause, but they won’t make that money if they continue to disrespect their customers by charging ridiculously high prices for old worn clothes. It’s not good enough to keep hiding behind the excuse that it’s more important to make money for a cause. They get all their stock for free by kind hearted patrons. Unbelievably some charity shops are pricing second hand items higher than it is to buy them new.

Our Salvation Army shop sells first to the dealers and resellers - three at least - saving the best stuff for the professionals before the public see it.

They’re very keen on maximising profit, refusing discounts to the local poor. The staff are all paid.

They don't pay people to do that

I worked for a local hospice charity for a couple of years. I remember a little worn crombie coat we put in the window. It was so beautiful we asked £100 (new £750). We got so many complaints it was too dear (although our average house price is £850k) we withdrew it and put it on eBay. Result, £209.

I’m in the NE and mostly the prices aren’t bananas. I have seen things being sold for more than they were originally quite often though.
My issue is the quality of the stuff now is just crap - shein and primark. Rare to get branded things near me.

I do go to a large out of town charity shop a fair bit. They are local and cheap. They have a delivery door you can drive up to and they get people bringing car fulls daily. It’s very popular. I don’t really buy clothes though as they are all mostly shit. I look for things to recycle/craft with.

YANBU I have noticed the same especially with clothes. Funnily enough my mum and I went the other day and mum came out shocked that one had a 4 pack of tubs of play doh for £6! (Bearing in mind can get a good few pounds cheaper brand new in supermarket or online!)

you need to take into consideration that they have overheads too.

I think that people also miss the point that selling second hand clothes requires a lot of work. Items need to sorted, steamed etc before they are put out on shelves. Is it really worth anyone's time or effort doing this for 50p or £1 per item.

Charity shop clothes are poor quality these days because most of the clothes in shops are poor quality. They aren't made to last or have a second life.

Good quality clothes are expensive and more likely to end up on eBay or Vinted.

My local shops (nice, small South East costal town) often have items at ridiculous prices. Tops at £20, coat at £60/£80. small objects at £10...

This is not the type of prices I expect from charity shops and their stuff just stays on the shelves.

I saw clothing with holes being sold at silly prices.

I give myself a limit of £5 or £6 when looking at charity shops items.

Stroopwaffels - how do you know the clothes in recycling aren't ending up in landfill?

People in the UK we have been spoilt for years by charity shops. Literally spoilt. People in the UK are far kinder and charitable than in Western Europe, they donate good stuff. Eastern Europe knows no concept of charity shops - they have always been far too poor to donate anything. So a few years back I decided to have a look at Germany's charity shops - I was shocked - tat, tat, tat, worse than second-hand Primark rags. People outside of UK do not donate nice items to charity shops at all - and to think that in the early 2000s you could find a Spode dinner service, a sable stole (!), superb antique furniture and gilt-edged early 19th century books in our charity shops!!!! Not to mention YSL dresses, Barkers and Ferragamo shoes!!!!! I wish I had half a brain then and bought all those things - I was just ogling them then as I did not have spare dosh.

well they're exempt from business rates and run largely by volunteers so overheads are (relatively) low

Yep, that's not an issue at all. Charity shops exist to raise funds for the cause of the particular charity. Items being brought by companies not individuals would only be a problem if it contradicted the aims of the charity.

Why is that an issue? If the charity shop gets the price on the tag, we don't care if it's a dealer or a private individual.

The place I volunteer now has a "nothing less than £3" policy on clothes which means that a lot of the Shein and Primark is straight in the recycling as we cannot get that much for it. The shop is small, and rails full of the "better" stuff. Last time I was in I picked up a sleeveless black Hobbs shift dress, perfect for a funeral i'm going to tomorrow for £7. Would have been over £100 new.

@Goneforaride

The issue is that many of those branded items will be bought by dealers, I see it every time I'm volunteering - they check online prices before buying and will buy a selection of random sizes

The one I volunteer at has a few locally based, items from shops like primark get sent to a discount store where everything is £1,2 or 3. Occasionally things get priced over eg have issues with supermarket brands as they often are heavily discounted but we don't know that, but proper brands are bargains, I'm wearing a monsoon dress today I bought for £10 new with tags the (original) label said £68

Another dedicated charity shop shopper here. I get pretty much all my clothes and shoes from one in particular in my (small, middle England) town, and find their prices are very reasonable - supermarket and cheaper brands are very good - jumpers for £2.50, T shirts for £2.00 etc, and "designer", higher end stuff very affordable. There are a couple of others in the town which are slightly more pricy, but still very reasonable, and they are all busy when I go in, with a good turn over of stock. I love to bargain hunt, and, of course, you do have to dig to find the best bits.

The staff tell me that they keep their prices as low as possible to encourage foot fall into the shop, and that overcharging would be counter productive because it would put people off coming in. It seems they're right reading some of the comments on here.

A few recent examples from "my" shop would be a beautiful, pure cashmere overcoat for £6; a lovely Jasper Conran jacket for £5.50: a lovely, band new with labels Monsoon dress for £3.50 and a Karen Millen blouse for £3.00 (also BNWT).

I found this years ago, bobby Primark items priced for the same, or higher than new. Lots of charity shops have shut down now in our town but two of the best ones are the Air Ambulance, where everything is £1, and the Salvation Army, which is always busy.

It's nothing new @Lionoso . About the only thing which hasn't been said is that there is no good stuff in the shops because the volunteers steal it all.

Having worked in the charity sector, albeit not retail, I've seen from bitter experience that sometimes, free or cheap staff can end up being extremely expensive.

Look at the Charity Commission for England and Wales. OSCR for Scotland and CCNI for Northern Ireland.

Charity staff are paid. They deserve to earn a wage. Otherwise we return to the Victorian concept of those who are wealthier than others doing good for the deserving needy. Not very diverse eh?

Charity staff also don't earn massive wages. If they moved to the private sector their salary would jump considerably. If they moved to the public sector their pension would improve massively

Some big charities have bigger earners yes that's true, but they need to attract good quality employees. These charities have multi million turnovers, hundreds or thousands of staff, regulations and standards that private businesses don't have to adhere to.

Why don't people get pissy at shareholders earning money for doing nothing? Nope it's the charity staff who get it.

Charity staff deserve to earn a wage and a wage commensurate with their responsibilities.

Those that decry charity wages probably don't know enough about it and would be surprised if you did some proper research.

I donate a lot of very high quality stuff to charity shops and I absolutely want both the charity and the person buying to benefit. Hence I only donate to charity shops that I know price fairly.
BHF is so overpriced now that they offer a student discount and it's deeply ironic that we had a charity shop worker earlier in the thread loving their Seasalt bargain when later we have someone protesting that workers never get first dibs! Make your minds up!

What's with all the recent threads bashing charity shops lately? Seems to have been a bunch of them over the past month.