Charity shop prices

We actually have a charity outlet shop everything is £1 occasionally there is furniture you can get a sofa for thirty quid we thought they wouldn't last long but they survived covid with minimal increases and are still going strong price it low get it gone

It's sad when they increase prices I went into one the other week toys are usually around the £2/3 Mark for dolls they were suddenly selling for £5/10 they are naked and covered in sharpie plus that was the price of an un-sharpied clothed doll why WOULD I pay that price for used few weeks later the basket of dolls is still there still just as full surely hanging onto stock makes no sense? It's just catching dust

I got a couple of skirts for work at the weekend at my local BHF shop - lined, proper waistband, can't recall the brand but they were £6 each which seemed 'the' price for a skirt but I was very impressed! I also picked up a pair of unworn court shoes for work for £6. Usually find something in the Air Ambulance shop but they are going through a phase of having more 'trendy' stuff which doesn't suit me at all.

I agree. Prices are INSANE. Primark clothes more expensive than they cost new. I shop on vinted now and get proper bargains. It’s a shame. Used to love a charity shop and supporting local charities but I won’t be ripped off

@ichundich
charity shops’ costs have also increased - utilities, rent, wages.

3h a week currently. Managers have always got paid. That's not an argument for charity shops becoming more expensive than ever.

I’m a volunteer for a charity shop and sometimes act as manager when she is on leave. I do get paid when acting up, which is the princely sum of minimum wage.
The main problem we have is that we can only sell what has been donated. I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that the quality has fallen considerably. I assume people are wearing things for longer and anything half decent gets sold on eBay/ vinted.
We price most stuff at 50p or £1 but lots doesn’t sell. We then try and get rid of it but the problem is a shortage of volunteers. Those who come in have an average age of 76 so can’t work at the same rate as someone 30 years younger.

Those complaining about charities how much time do you give to make things better?

@PurpleButterflyWings
so you take unwanted items to charity shops because you ‘can’t be arsed to skip it..’
why would anyone else want your stuff which is just fit for the skip? How is this supporting the charity?

@PurpleButterflyWings
80 p from every £1 raised ait BHF goes to research. But don’t let facts get in the way of your charity bashing…
https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/annual-report-2023#:~:text=Did%20you%20know%20that%2080p,to%20the%20British%20Heart%20Foundation.

I see it from a slightly different angle. There are a lot of items that may have been priced too high and not sold. They have most likely been auctioned off by the charities and are baled up and sent to 3rd world countries.

The bales are then sold, shipped out, and this is how I buy items.

Just for eg for the jackets and coats, quite a lot of the time the charity shop tag is still on. Many of them are British Heart Foundation, some Oxfam and a smaller amount of other charities.

I did often wonder why I see so much more from these two charities, so it must be that they don't move as much due to their pricing. OR they are getting a decent return on bulk which gets sent out elsewhere.

I have seen way more Primark, Shein, Boohoo items recently, so I assume these are priced too high, or there are too many of these items.

Totally agree.

Well said.

This. Shop managers are paid a wage and have sales targets to meet just like any other store. They won't be pveroricing donations if they aren't selling.

According to the most recent information provided by the Charity Retail Association charity shop sales performance has increased by 15% compared to same period last year ... so clearly most charity shops are doing something right ...

Exactly this. It's pretty unfair on other businesses that would bring more interest to the highstreet and fill a genuine need / gap in the local market. The frequency with which these threads appear on MN shows how out of touch charity shop prices have become. I used to buy nearly all my clothes in charity shops, but nowadays I can hardly find anything in there at all that is a) in good condition and b) reasonably priced. Much prefer Vinted now, whilst the greedy pricing of charity shops has put me off donating my own items to them as well. It's a poor strategy they are following.

Yep, we have a few round here and it’s ridiculous. I saw a faded bobbly M&S hunker that was lovely and originally £18, for £8. I’m amazed anyone buys these things!

My reply to @Ragwort

The local authority will usually grant s peppercorn rent and extremely favourable rates for charity shops, rather than see the shop sites sit empty. Hence the more charity shops there are in an area, the more it is seen to be in decline.

The local authority will usually grant s peppercorn rent and extremely favourable rates for charity shops, rather than see the shop sites sit empty. Hence the more charity shops there are in an area, the more it is seen to be in decline.

Anyone who thinks that these charity shops are selling for money for the charity is absolutely deluded. Surely everybody knows, like with the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of charities, very little goes to the actual charity in question. It goes to those at the top of the charity feeding their big fat bank accounts.

I only ever take stuff there to get rid of stuff that I really genuinely don't want anymore, because I can't be arsed to skip it. And I buy stuff that's convenient for me and that's reasonably priced.

Yep, some stuff is ridiculously outrageously priced. Three out of four items I pick up in most charity shops now, I put back down because it's two to three times more than it should be ... It's been like this for the last four or five years. I used to get proper good bargains from there, and I used to buy loads ... (Something 3 or 4 times a month...) Now I very rarely buy more than one or two things every 3 or 4 months.

Agree @Worryworms

@Effervescent999 What I suspect happens, is that the people who make the decisions, make a 'corporate' decision. "This is what we will do in all our shops" rather than looking at more local circumstances. So, their policy makes sense in some High Streets, no doubt, but not so much in others.

They are not run by amateurs! They know what they are doing - if they were not making the optimum profit they would change what they were doing- of course they are making a profit

Genuine question which I always ask on these threads and is never answered ..

'If you feel that charity shops are over priced and too expensive why are so many charities opening more shops?'

In our small town there are sixteen (yes, sixteen!) charity shops with two new ones opened in the last few weeks .. they are obviously performing well otherwise they would not choose to open new shops and charity shops would be closed down. .

I used to live in charity shops but the prices are ridiculous now. Most of them near me are bursting full of stuff and overpriced. I walk in and walk straight out now mostly. Prefer Vinted.

We have about 8 charity shops in our town and it’s the big ones that have the ridiculous pricing - BHF and Oxfam.

Yes, it is BHF that I find over priced. We don't have an Oxfam.

Get ready with your bingo card!