I manage a charity shop AMA

[DaanSaaf]

Some of these were getting a bit high brow so I thought I'd lower the bar

Why do so many charity shops sort ladies clothes by colour and not by size?
Yes it looks nice, but you don't go into charity shops thinking 'I want something blue' you go in thinking 'do they have anything I like in size 16'.
I hate, hate, hate it.

Not all charity shop chains have paid staff - I know that the Save the Children near me is entirely volunteer-run, they have a paid area manager who covers about 9 shops.

Charities are not going to keep shops open if they're not taking in enough to cover staff salaries, it just doesn't make sense.

I'm shocked that shoplifting from charity shops is commonplace. What can they be thinking?!

Easy target, no security. People justify it by saying it's fine because we didn't pay for the stock in the first place.

Really sad to hear you are targeted by shoplifters people have no shame.
Do u prefer donations to all be separated or a bit of everything?

I'm another volunteer in a charity shop - sorry to jump in Daan, but to answer TeenTimesTwo - because we can't be certain we'll get a steady amount of similar sized clothes. Arranging by colour and type (so tops together, skirts/trousers together, dresses together etc), means we don't have overfilled rails in some areas, half empty in others, and constantly having to rearrange the shop every evening to make it look 'even'.

It's really to cover the fact we have limited scope to control what goes in the shop based on what's dontated.

Our clothes are always in size order.

Wrt pricing, only the paid staff in our shop can sort and price so it's consistent, I know other shops have their volunteers doing it though.

We don't mind mixed donations, each bag gets sorted so it makes no difference really.

I can't believe you get people who barter in a charity shop - or boot sales for that matter. I used to get that when I did them when I was Uber skint. Like people wanting something for 20p instead of the 50p stated.

Op folk who did that would be told it's a retail shop not a market (!) That would drive me nuts.

Have you had vermin in your stockroom? I've heard that some c. shops do as there are so many bundles of clothed/old bits and pieces. The thought of them running over the clothes alone puts me off

Ew no, we've never had vermin. Honestly, our shop is as tidy as our houses. Bags are sorted every day and we only ever leave them until the next day when we've had too many to physically sort. That doesn't happen very often.

Hagglers are given a short shrift unless it's justified, ie we've missed a pull on a top or a damaged zip.

Charity shops near me always seem to 'specialise' in something, eg one is really good for books, another for children's stuff etc. How on earth do they mange this given that they're dependent on donations which they can't control? Big chains like Oxfam I can understand but these are little local independents.

Do you think they sort it out between themselves? One gives all their children's stuff to the other in exchange for books??

I've no idea maybe they do work together but then who would decide who got the most profitable department?

I was so hoping you''d have the answer

Thanks for the answer re: shoplifting. I'm sad but not shocked that it happens.
I'm another one who loathes the sorting by colour thing. And sorry, but the answer regarding it being down to stock levels doesn't make sense to me. As in if you have 20 items in a 12, 3 in a 14 then 20 in a 16, then they all go on a rail together by type (skirt/top etc) and are easy to navigate. I actually avoid charity shops who sort by colour as I am lucky enough to live in an area where there are several that sort by size.

My local council doesn't offer fabric recycling. There's a skip at the tip for old clothes but it's for a named charity shop who ask for saleable items only. I wear most of my clothes till they're absolutely worn out - is it really OK to take them (washed) into a charity shop and if not how do I get rid of them? And if I want to bring in dry clean only items would you expect them to be freshly dry cleaned?

How do you manage the volunteers? As from my own experience of being a volunteer in a retail charity, I observed that aspect of the managers job could be the most challenging!
Also, do most volunteers tend to stay for quite a while & how do you attract new volunteers too?

Does children’s underwear count as rags? I have a growing bag of clean, outgrown socks, pants and vests which I haven’t binned but am unsure if the charity shops would want.

While I’m on a roll, assuming anyone in the know is coming back, would the shops sell sets of clean used cotbed sized bedding? Littlest has just gone into a single bed and I am sorting out stuff we won’t use again.

Managing a charity shop is one of those jobs I've always quite fancied doing in a vague sort of way - I do something that is not at all related. There's a charity shop round my way which has a hipster vibe and a cafe and I always think that must be quite fun.

I did have a paid role in a charity shop for a short while in my teens (I think it was Assistant Manager? - I used to open up and cash up on a Saturday.)

So my question is, how did you get into it? Did you have retail experience, or start as a volunteer and then work your way up?