200 charity shops closing (cancer research)

The collapse of the rag trade is also a major factor. Previously, charity shops could always get something for the bags of unsaleable fabric stock that were donated. Now, they have to pay to have it disposed of.

They sell them for 50p where I am.
I've had some real gems over the years.

People don't want to pay £4 for a bobbly primark top that was £5 new.

I do agree that people should me more thoughtful with what they donate. I always sort rag and only stuff that's clean and of decent quality. I also try to do little and often.

I think I'd prefer a model where it's just about passing on decent quality second hand items to where it's useful and shops could be more honest about what they want donated. I think that mixing it up with irrelevant charities (that people could just send money directly) just confuses two different issues in a way that's no longer helpful.

Yes, she did an interesting video on books, the main point of which was that they get very large quantities of popular books, too many to sell. Richard Osman books and the other huge sellers of the past five years for example. They might keep a handful of copies but the market for them is quite small so a large proportion have to be binned.

@JustJani

"And also about the quality. Even stuff with minor defects or wear just will not sell, just as it doesn't on Vinted. It's also hard to shift brands that were cheap in the first place. People donate thinking something is in "good enough" condition, but it probably isn't."

The Oxfam bookshop I work in does get many good quality donations of course, but there's also a fair amount of stuff that has to be scrapped immediately. Some books have pages falling out, or have so many notations in the pages that we just can't put them out for sale.

I did put out a couple of science books which had notes (in pen) in the margins of several of the pages - but that's only because the books were otherwise in very good condition. And I priced them cheaper than normal to take into account the notes.

There's a Tiktok account by a charity shop manager that talks about this. One of the main points she makes is it's difficult for the general population to comprehend just how much is donated. Far, far more than can ever be sold, or even stored and sorted through. Just vast quantities, a large proportion of which ends up at the tip.

And also about the quality. Even stuff with minor defects or wear just will not sell, just as it doesn't on Vinted. It's also hard to shift brands that were cheap in the first place. People donate thinking something is in "good enough" condition, but it probably isn't.

We live in a throwaway society where almost everyone is buying too much and then complaining that no one else wants it. No one else wants it because they are also buying too much! Everyone but the very poorest in society can afford clothes new these days.

"Unlike an amateur seller on Facebook or Vinted, charity shops have to factor in time, rent, rates, utilities, depreciation on fixtures and fittings, IT contract on the till- all overheads that will need to be covered. I help run jumble sales at my church and we sell stuff for next to nothing, but if we had to factor in overheads we probably wouldn't make very much at all."

Yep - although it's true that charity shops can often get vastly cheaper rental rates than businesses, there are still bills the shop has to cover (heating/electricity) as well as paying a company to collect unsellable and culled stock for recycling, and items that the shop needs to use as part of its trade.

Many shops will also need to cover the wages of a paid manager (my shop has a full-time manager and part-time deputy manager who are both paid employees.)

The problem is that so much stuff is cheap when new and designed to be disposable, it has essentially no value secondhand. If a mug is £1.50 new, how much would you realistically pay for it second hand (if anything)?

Unlike an amateur seller on Facebook or Vinted, charity shops have to factor in time, rent, rates, utilities, depreciation on fixtures and fittings, IT contract on the till- all overheads that will need to be covered. I help run jumble sales at my church and we sell stuff for next to nothing, but if we had to factor in overheads we probably wouldn't make very much at all.

The sad thing is that the most likely shops to close will be in the poorest communities and the most blighted high streets. Shops in more affluent areas seem to get better quality donations, and local customers will be less price sensitive.

Personally, I favour donating to the Sally Ann, who seem to take anything serviceable- where I live they have several streams where something can't be used- so bedclothes that almost certainly won't sell in the shop might go their homeless shelter, or to the scheme they have supporting families moving in to social housing with few possessions.

This.
I'd love to support my local CS more but when I can get something cheaper from Vinted, including with postage then it's a no brainer really.

@RandomGeocache

At the bookshop in which I volunteer, there is a volunteer who massively overprices the literature. He started doing so after the managers had a word with him about under-pricing (he was putting 50p or £1) on a lot of items.

But since they spoke to him, he now ridiculously overprices - for example, he'll put £16.99 on a £20 book or £7.99 on a book that was £9.99. If I have time, I try to check his stock and correct his prices before they go on the shop floor (or I'll have a browse of the literature that's out for sale and put the correct price on items I know to be priced wrongly) - but I have my own duties to attend to, so I can't do that all the time.

The managers have spoken to him about the over-pricing (and so presumably told him how he should be doing it) but it hasn't had any effect, he just keeps going with the ridiculous prices.

And you really think that is shop/chain policy? Rather than a mistake or an over-exuberant volunteer going rogue?

We sell online too.It’s a judgement call in terms of shop demographic, shop range and the type of item. Sometimes we will try to sell the item on the shop floor then online rather than marking it down.

this type of comment always appears on charity shop threads. Mistakes do happen with pricing (I repriced some Riedel glasses that had been put on display at £1 each! ) but ime the low value brands tend to be priced accordingly.

Add to what everyone has said the fact that there are professional thrifters who bulk buy up items they think can turn a profit online so there’s fewer ‘bargains’ to be had in certain areas and what there is can be bought cheaper elsewhere as PP said. Some charities will also sell more quality items via online bidding platforms only so again less chance of stumbling across second hand gems. All combines to make them less enticing places to go to.

always surprises me on these threads that posters don’t realise that we receive a huge amount of data on what’s selling, contribution per metre, turnover of new goods etc and are very quick to tweak the layout, give more space to certain lines etc. both to maximise sales and give customers what they want.
I volunteer with one of the chains and we generally mark down 50% after two weeks. Exceptions: we don’t have any more of that type of stock eg men’s shirts then we would leave it a bit longer or if the season has just changed.
The quality of clothing has definitely deteriorated with Shein et al. We price it accordingly, but still hard to sell.
we would have a lot more time to sort and take donations if people didn’t donate items which are broken, smell of nicotine or are dirty! We still have to sort through the bag and pay for our rubbish to be collected.

Things are priced up too expensive. I mean when you visit and they’re pricing up second hand Primark teeshirts for more than what they actually cost at Primark there’s something going wrong somewhere….

Yes I would imagine the time something stays on the shelves before culling varies by shop. We also sometimes half-price something and give it another week if we think it's worth it.

The point is that most places will have some sort of a system to let staff/volunteers see how long something has been out for sale. But as a customer, you wouldn't realise what Wk 29, or AJ or some other code meant.

@RandomGeocache

Oxfam still uses week numbers for identifying how long something has been out. When I first started I was told that general practice was to leave stuff out for about five weeks, and if it hadn't sold by then, it probably wasn't going to.

The bin? It can be recycled and shouldn’t go to landfill.

Personally, I cba with vinted. I love a good rummage in a charity shop. And id rather they got my cast offs instead of me making a few quid but losing time.

People expect alot for second hand on Vinted.

The chain I volunteer with has a minimum price of £3 for adult clothing too. It really doesn't cause any issues. We have a small shop and a large volume of donations. Things which would be priced lower than £3 would be primark t-shirts, George at Asda camisole/vests, Tesco shorts. Unless BNWT, those items go straight into the recycling. Because when you have limited space, you want to put out a dress for £10, not a vest for £2 or £1.

Also on the stuff hanging around for "donkey's years" - most of the large chains will have some sort of code for marking when things go out. When I volunteered at Oxfam they used week numbers (not starting from 1 Jan), you knew by looking at the label how long something had been out. At my present shop, we write a date three weeks hence when something goes out - so for something going out tomorrow, the label would say 27/10. If it hasn't sold by 27th October, it's taken off and either sent to another store, or recycled.

@Wavescrashingonthebeach

The specific shop I volunteer in is a bookshop, so the fast fashion issue doesn't apply to it. Minimum price may be different in other Oxfam shops that sell clothing, but I wouldn't know for certain.

My town's Oxfam shop just closed. It had been here since the days when charity shops were not that common. I was surprised to see it go but it was tiny.