Why do charity shops...

The decorations in the charity shop that I volunteer in - tree, Santa doll, festive railway set etc - are owned by the manager. That’s why they are not for sale

Well it appears you were wrong, and it’s just their Christmas tree.

Years ago I volunteered in a charity shop and there was a regional window display competition with some kind of prize or bonus for the shop with the best window for each monthly theme. Obviously the displays should have been done with donated items on sale in the shop, but my manager told me that some other managers would buy or bring in items to improve their chances of winning.
Could be a reason why some things are marked 'display only'.

@LemooonSlice
I think that's a very fair assumption.

Some charity shops give the impression they're not in business to make money.

What gets me is if you can't buy something out of the window because "it's in the display and can't be touched until the window is done next week". When DD was little there was something perfect for her in the window (a small toy that matched something she already had). Even though I could've easily reached it, and put something in its place, the assistant wouldn't sell it to me until the following week.

I bet they do, and I bet they get new donations of Christmas stuff all through the season.

They are a charity shop.

Do people not donate old baubles and decs in January?

Because its a decoration, not a sale item!
Would you try and buy the mannequins they display clothes on? The light bulbs? Why on earth would you assume a decorated Christmas tree was available to be picked at? If they had a string of fairy lights over the door would you try and buy them?

But that is being difficult. They’ve said they’re not for sale, it’s Christmas, shops decorate, they have decorated with their decorations.

I went into a local charity shop recently and donated deveral matching sers of baubles.I sid to the manager "I guess you are snowed under this time of year with baubles."
She replied that they had sold dozens to a local school and the kids were redecorating them for the school tree with glitter and trimmings.
Went past the shop today and in the window a small tree has been decorated with the baubles I donated. It was lovely to see.

Do you go in to any other shop and ask if you can buy the decorations they are using? Why aren't charity shops allowed to have decorations that they don't sell? They don't want or usually have the time to redo the tree every few days because they sold the decorations.

Because they’re their Christmas decorations for the shop? The tree would look a bit shit if people bought all the baubles.

Exactly! Any shop could, in theory, make more money by selling every bit of stuff in the place - but, erm, you need some things in a shop that stay there! Same reason they don’t sell the clothes racks and light fittings 🤷‍♀️

There is a strange attitude to charity shops on here. They are scrutinised in a way another shop wouldn’t be. Perhaps people don’t realise they’re doing it, but they are looking down on charity shops. Definitely.

It’s a Christmas tree! They’ll use it every year. C’mon it’s silly if they don’t sell other display things but perfectly understandable that customers can’t buy the baubles.

I'm guessing they don't want to rebuy Christmas decorations every year; or perhaps they belong to a staff member.

Are they particularly special baubles? Just wondered why you are so keen to buy those in particular when baubles are so readily available.

One of our local charity shops has a big box of assorted baubles at 20p each.

As everyone else says - because they want to keep the shop looking Christmassy this year, and probably then put it away so they don't have to buy new next year.

Do you question all the other shops and department stores as to why they don't sell you their display items too ?

Ask them....our elf was marked as such....it's not like the common ones you see ...50p later the elf comes out ever year since..

They probs use them every year. Simple as that.
Also maybe the baubles are broken at the back.

Oh and charity shops are much more marketing-savvy than they used to be. Perhaps they have a specialist volunteer or staff member who covers a large geographic area and drops in to individual stores to do their displays. They won't want everything unpicked all the time.

They've made a nice display for the Christmas season, so they want it to stay there for the Christmas season!

They won't lose income, because the whole point of the nice display is to attract more customers. And they won't lose goodwill because most people are probably quite accepting of display items being unavailable.

Also, the volunteers in store might not be the ones who make decisions about displays and might not have the authority to trample about in the window.

For the same reason any shop with their own tree as decoration don't sell bits of it?

Why is this so hard to understand?

This is really entitled. Charity shops are allowed decorations and a display just like any other shop. I could understand maybe if it was a second hand kettle or an item of clothing. It’s their Christmas decorations, give them a break!!!