Charity shops

I took some stuff on behalf of someone else to a variety of charity shops in person

Most charity shops stated they would only take a maximum of 2 bags each

One depot took a car load, but I know that they have multiple shops to distribute locally

Also sold some stuff at car boot sale & auction

Everyone said thank you

Better than throwing it away !

I'm a charity shop manager and I would never and have never stolen anything from my shop . We have a strict policy that only only paid staff sort and price . There are only two of us to cover a six day working week. Our volunteers ( all 70 plus) know they can't buy anything before it goes to the sales floor .
Our job is very physical and most days of the week we have the contents of people's underwear drawers to sort through. We receive every donation gratefully even if it does contain things only fit for the tip which we then have to pay to dispose of .
Nobody sells anything on as most volunteers are not computer literate.
We work hard for our charity and do our best to be as reasonable as possible with our pricing .
Please don't lump us all into the bad egg basket without considering that each charity is individual.

Age Concern: "Oh well, all right since you're here, but we can't take any more."

Barnardo's: "Thank you so much for your donation today."

See if you can guess which of these two charity shops gets all our donations now?

Lever arch files take up a lot of space and are worth very little. You can buy them new for £2. Not worthwhile for any charity to accept them.

Lever arch files take up a lot space and are worth very little. You can buy them new for £2. Not worthwhile for any charity to accept them.

I imagine it's impossible to generalise. There are 6 charity shops in my local town I go to fairly often and they are all quite different in terms of pricing; level of organisation of the stock; friendliness of volunteers etc. (none of the staff are rude but in certain shops they tend to like a chat, whereas others are more businesslike).

I understand why you feel a bit pissed off OP but I wouldn't take from your experience that all charity shops are like this one. I would probably just donate to a different one next time.

To be honest I have never messaged in advance with a photo of the stuff I have, I have always just chanced my arm and dropped stuff off, and the recipients have ranged from indifferent but not rude (which I was perfectly fine with), to actively seeking grateful (which I don't expect but is sweet). Never been treated rudely for dropping stuff off that I recall, so I think you had unusually bad luck there.

As someone said upthread, most charity shop workers are volunteers which I do admire. Doesn't make them perfect people of course. My friend and I volunteered in one for a bit when we were girl guides decades ago, and the manager tool against my friend and bullied her quite badly - my mom actually went in and had a bit of a go at her in the end.....

Good and bad people everywhere. Don't let it ruin your day.

@Namechangexxxchristmas

Is this how charity shops are now? It takes not even 2 seconds to say thank you and I certainly won't be donating to this charity again nor will I shop in it

You came across one grumpy volunteer.

No that is not what all charity shops are like. One volunteer does not represent and entire sector.

One of our big local charities already specialises. They have one shop that is mostly toys and kids clothes/kid books. One that is mostly adult clothes. And one that is more along the lines of homeware/bric a brac and books. It's pretty successful as far as I can see, but would probably be beyond the means of most charities.

Do children’s clothes and toys sell well in charity shops?

Which types of items tend to make most money for shops?

I am interested to know because I wonder if it would make more sense for more charity shops to specialise? eg. ladies clothing only, children’s clothing and toys only, bric-a-brac only. I know that Oxfam has bookshops but wonder if that model should be used more widely.

From the CharitiesData site “on average, for every one member of staff four people volunteer for small charities.”

That’s HUGE. I think people should just recognise the huge sacrifice from volunteers and stop moaning.

misquote

I've got a lovely charity shop 2 mins walk away that is part of a chain and has a warehouse locally. They always politely accept donations even if they don't sell them in that particular shop. I donated a lot to them when my parents died - especially as they were the hospice that was going to take my DF if he had lived to be discharged from hospital.

Not sure I could be bothered with rude and disorganised charity shops.

Things that customers don't see: managers that steal the designer stuff. Staff that pinch the nice things donated. The bullying of volunteers by paid staff. The way they monitor profits at the end of the day. What percentage of profit goes to helping people? I don't know that answer. After volunteering in one, I am very sceptical of them. This was "up North" and probably not what you would see further south. I now hate charity shops. They often hate customers and don't say thank you for donations because it creates work for them. I'm sure there are nice shops, somewhere.

Oh I never even thought of that.
Are there regulars who know when you restock? Or that come in every day. Maybe my once a month approach is the problem then!!

This means if I put any nice clothes from decent makes out on the shop floor, they literally sell in the next 30 mins.

I've seen this - a volunteer came out and put few P&P fleeces and other good things out, and a woman who was browsing the books shot over and bought the lot. Nice stuff must just evaporate, so it looks like only the same tired things have ever been there.

I’m a volunteer and part of my job is stocking the rails so I can answer this one.

95% of our donations are cheap brands, I think lots of people now sell the good stuff on eBay/ vinted.
This means if I put any nice clothes from decent makes out on the shop floor, they literally sell in the next 30 mins. Quite often I have people stop me as I come downstairs with an armful of clothes and want to have a look through for the best things

I'm always a bit confused by our local charity shop tbh. I dropped off a lot of good quality worn by one child baby clothes a few years ago. Lots of Joules, Boden, M&S, H&M, Sainsburys stuff.. all good quality, not bobbly, clean and stain free, less than 2 years old.
I have never seen any of the clothes in the store and the stuff they always have for sale in there is really tatty bobbly stuff which was "new" at least 10 years ago.
How do they choose what they are going to sell in the shops vs what they take in in donations. I can only assume that either the stuff I dropped off wasn't what they wanted (not sure why though), or that they've sold it on elsewhere OR taken it to a different store of the same "chain".
We live in quite an affluent area and our charity shops are full of absolute rubbish tbh.. whereas I would expect some of the local people would be donating decent quality stuff. It just doesn't ever seem to make it into the local shops!

@TodayForTomorrow Actually the Salvation Army has a rebag scheme, you buy a bag for 99p fill it with donations and you get a £2 stamp on a card plus a new bag

We give refunds if the receipt is kept, I think thats fair. I’m a volunteer, started after I retired in my 60s. Yesterday, I had to stop a donor leaving a chair. We (very obviously) don’t sell furniture, and our storage is full. There are two charity shops five minutes away that sell furniture and electrical goods.

Our manager realises that some volunteers are better equipped to deliver good customer service, they are usually front of house. We have lots of regular customers, who know our stock is usually clean, and reasonably priced. I’m on the shop floor occasionally, and we are happy to receive donations. We had loads yesterday!

I do think its unfair to use charity shops as a dumping ground. A big bag of smelly, greasy and well used kitchen utensils and pans was just one of the donations yesterday with nothing saleable. Old clothes are fine, the ragman takes those, but what do people think we’re going to do with battered lampshades, chipped crockery or broken toys?

Tel the £6 may have referred to the gift aid element on the sales ... legally charities have to advise donors how much gift aid is raised and the customer has the legal right to ask for the gift aid amount to be given to them (not the amount raised from the actual sale ... ie: if a coat sells for £10 and the gift aid claimed is 20% the donor can request £2) . I have known donors do this (they are then delisted from having gift aid added to future donations).

However your post does indicate that donors often feel their donations are 'worth' a lot more than they can be sold for ... I've worked & volunteered in charity retail for many years, my aim is aways to achieve maximum sales and therefore maximum funds for the charity ... but charity shops need to be realistic about what sells and what prices they can ask for. As others posters have said .. so much of what we are donated is only fit for rag or the tip. And if you have a small charity shop with limited storage space it is very challenging to store the 'rag' for collection even if you do get a small amount for rag .. probably much less than £1 per sack ... it's just not worth the storage space.

I dropped 4 separate loads off a few years ago, all if it good quality. Some coats were brand new, waterproof jacket with tags. 6 months later I received a letter saying my donations had raised £6. Think that I might have spent more on petrol.

I find it odd that a charity worker would roll her eyes to receive donations when that is what their business model is built on. Perhaps you were mistaken.

Persons rude and nasty, not just 'not perfectly polite'.

It must be really tiring getting annoyed when people aren’t perfectly polite all the time. People have bad days. I’d just assume a disgruntled charity shop worker had stuff going on and hope they felt ok soon. I’m aware this makes me sound like a pious prick, but honestly it’s much more relaxing for me too.