Charity shops have lost the plot

So a CEO of a charity should be paid less simply because it’s a charity?
What about the store mangers? Should they also be paid less than standard retail?

New Seasalt dresses can be £65 plus so depending on the condition it’s not an unreasonable price. We would also price at £15 or more if bnwt.

It does happen. Just because someone's never witnessed something, it doesn't make it untrue.

Yes, I do think that. Horses for courses. He's not in charge of the Large Hadron Collector or the World Health Organisation, is he?

To be honest it is baseless bullshit and is trotted out on all the charity threads. Together with the following:
staff steal all the best stuff for themselves
the grey haired old biddies don’t know anything about pricing
sell everything for a £1
all the stock is free so it should be sold for peanuts
Shops have no expenses
etc etc
For those of us that work or volunteer in this sector it does all get quite tiresome.

No, of course not, but I don’t think it happens as frequently as the comment appears on mumsnet.

hardly a like for like comparison..
should they earn less than standard retail that’s the point?

I thought charity shop staff were volunteers? I don't think charity shop managers should get paid hefty salaries. It should be a standard salary for that kind of work in that sector. They're not managing Harrods.

Is your food, rent and electricity less if you work in a charity shop? No? Then you need to be paid at the going rate.

Not all staff are volunteers. Where I work we have a paid store manager, assistant manager and two assistants on 16 hours per week contracts.
So do you think they should earn less than standard retail because it’s a charity?

If I was running one I would price high to start off with then lower over time until they go. Stuff in demand would probably go on an online auction site (my guess is this best way of realising maximum value).

You're not doing it right if things that could sell for £30 are going for £1.

Excusing the complex maths, you'd have to sell 30x as much £1 items to make as much profit as selling one £30 item, so probably makes sense to leave it out there longer.

Maybe the reason prices have gone up is because more people are realising these shops can actually offer stuff they want at reasonable prices in an environment where the COL is increasing rapidly.

I am sure with the rents being what they are they would shut down pretty quickly if the stuff they had on sale wasn't shifting.

Prices have gone up as costs have increased: utilities, minimum wage, rents etc.
when I started I would price paperbacks at a maximum of £2 now it’s £2.50. A new paperback is now £9.99 so paying 25% of the new price is completely fair imo.

In my local one, which is Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland, sells paperbacks, DVDs, BluRays, and CDs for £1. Hardbacks are about £2.50. That's the way it should be. None of this £30 for dresses or jackets nonsense.

It seems to me that you see charity shop employees as less valuable than other retail outlets.

surely you don’t think that someone who has responsibility for managing people, health and safety, security, emergency response, managing maintenance, customer service, handling the most unimaginable stock, being responsible for targets, compliance with relevant regulations etc shouldn’t be paid less than their peers in the non charity world?

Not necessarily any less valuable than their peers, but certainly not any more valuable than them. On a par with them.

A store manager in major charities is paid around £27,835 a year for 37.5 hours a week.

https://jobs.oxfam.org.uk/jobs/vacancy/bookshop-manager-tavistock-trd5637/24974/description/

And for that salary is doing everything - recruitment, health and safety, banking, dealing with customers, merchandising, the whole shebang.

Or you could earn £33,189 as a department manager in Primark, with other department managers and overall store managers and deputies to support you, without all the other responsiblities and issues of dealing with a volunteer workforce.

https://careers.primark.com/en/job/birkenhead/team-manager/8171/100020447856

No brainer.

Managing at Primark will be much harder and complex, I'd imagine. Those shops are huge. Charity shops are pokey little places.

No chance. That ad was for a department manager, not managing the whole place. Managing the pyjama/underwear department in Primark, when you know what stock you are getting, don't make pricing decisions and have staff who are paid to be there and don't get away with just not turning up is so much easier.

In your opinion.

Ime managing a charity shop is quite challenging. Most of your staff are volunteers who will have preferences regarding what they want to do, take more holiday than paid employees you have to match their skills to the work available, some don’t want to work alone etc. This is in addition to all the demands of a standard retail operation.
Managing paid staff is much easier.

Surely that depends on donations? For instance, if we got something like a North Face coat in good condition, (they are over £200 new), should we sell it for a pittance? The donor would hope the charity would benefit from getting a realistic sum. Same with jewellery, the last gold ring we got went to our Ebay team and realised almost £200. Should we put it on display in the shop and hope to get a tenner so someone can get a bargain?

I’m a grey haired old biddy (we often get a mention), I research some items such as jewellery, watches, and antiques and collectibles. I’m sure we don’t get everything right, but we do our best to be fair all round. At the moment we are selling donated school uniforms, ties at £1 have flown out! Sweatshirts with logos, £3 & £4, and blazers also with logos, £7 & £8.

And the CEOs are also on a par and should not be paid less than a standard retail CEO role.

excellent point! Much easier to manage staff rotas etc when you know what will be delivered and when.
we received 60 bags of donations over the bank holiday weekend…but you know it’s just a piddly little shop and managing it is so easy…

Exactly!
we had a bag of clothes donated with two Me and Em cashmere jumpers - why would we sell them for a fiver?

I agree. I've seen T shirts from Primark priced at more than they would be brand new!