Charity Shop Manager AMA

[Thegardenismine]

I've seen a lot of posts on here and other places that can be a little negative towards Charity shop staff/volunteers. Although to be fair I love it when there's a thread about unwanted gifts and everyone piles in to say give to Charity shop .
I've left now , but was a Manager for six years so feel free to quiz me

@WeepingWillowWeepingWino
Primarily it's to raise funds for the charity. But as someone who shopped in charity shops as a need in the past then it fills a dual purpose.
I also like to think that apart from raising awareness and £ for charity, pulling together a community, providing a safe place to meet others and actually get to talk to people it also stops an awful lot going to waste/landfills

Sadly places like Oxfam and others price theirselves out of business. I know that a book I might want will be at least double in some Charity shops than others. Which puts me off going in them.

Yes, I kind of agree - though our Oxfam bookshop is in an affluent area and the books are still cheaper than Amazon (who are so bad for the publishing industry that I try to give them as little of my book custom as possible - ditto supermarkets), plus, as you say, the books don't just get dumped. Though Oxfam bookshops have been pretty bad for secondhand bookshops.

Our closest friend is a manger of a local chain of charity shops.
She works in one of the poorer parts of the borough.
If a high end brand of clothing was donated it gets sent to the shop in the borough where there is a lot more money and they will get a higher price for the item.

I have really mixed feelings over this.
On one hand I can understand the charity wanting to make as much money as possible but on the other hand it's like the residents of the poorer town don't deserve the chance to get anything of particularly good quality.
It's as if high quality items are too good for them and I feel uncomfortable with that.

As a manager would something similar happen in your shop? (assuming you weren't a one off independent store)

@notacooldad that kind of practice is awful! There were only two reasons my stock would move to another one of the stores. 1, the donations were from someone local who'd died and their relatives didn't want to see Aunty Anne's dress and coat on someone in the village. 2) my shop didn't have room to display large sets of gorgeous curtains etc but another shop did so we'd send them off to get the best outcome. But in return as we were very rural they would send us stuff we could sell better.

The thing is about higher selling prices is that charities wouldn't be doing it if it weren't cost effective. All of the large charities have computerised tills, and when you ring through any item you class it as "accessories > gloves" or "womenswear > coat" or whatever. There is SO much management information, our manager gets something like a 40 page report every Monday. Breaking down percentage of sales in each category, comparisons against last month, last year, other shops in the area - it's just pages and pages of figures and spreadsheets. I would imagine all large charities do the same. So if something's not selling, they will soon notice. We recycle books and textiles and go get paid per box/bag but it's far less than we'd get selling it in the shop.

I do get what some people mean when they say that charities should support local communities by offering cheap stuff. But the charity law is fairly tight and charities have to raise money for their "cause" whether that be a hospice, animal rescue or cancer research.

Oh and on the moving stock thing - we are SO lucky in that we get more donations than we can physically handle. A shop in the same chain, about 200 miles away, really struggles with donations. I think the store is located on a pedestrian precinct with no parking, so it's difficult for people to drop off. So every week a volunteer jumps in a large panel van, drives to us and we load them up with what we can't manage.

It's only really cost effective on that scale, it's just not worth sending little bits and pieces hither and thither. We do cream off the best of the best for auction as the local auction house doesn't charge commission on things sold for charity. We recently sold some china plate thing for £240 at auction, there is no way we'd have got anything like that for it in any of the shops.

I'm shocked that you didn't even give it any thought.

That's not what I said. I said I was still volunteering and hadn't considered going elsewhere. Not the same thing at all.

Our store hasn't seen any dip in sales or donations over the last year.

Op, are you on full time hours.
A problem my friend has is that she is only on30 hours but the shop is open 6 days a week. All her volunteers are very elderly and a few DofE volunteers from time to time.
The pensioners unintentionally let her down at the last minute with ill health, doctors appointments etc ir they struggle with the till or other problems so she gets called in. The charity wont pay her for extra hours and she doesn't like leaving her volunteers or shop in the lurch.
Over the last 4 weeks she has done over 49 hours. She says she may as well be a volunteer!

Can I ask what was the total annual turnover of the store, and how much your salary was?

I love charity shops, but I find it hard to believe any of the ones near me generate enough to fund a paid employee.

@notacooldad
It's very frustrating when you have a Rota planned and volunteers can't come in. But I was paid to go in so just made best of it when it happened. I was extremely lucky in that the volunteers would try and swop between themselves if they had appointments or I could always ask for extra shifts . Although I didn't like doing that as I felt it was cheeky. I always went in early and worked through lunch/break times and sometimes stayed late. It can be addictive

@Tawdrylocalbrouhaha
Hi, I don't mind replying. When I started the turnover was near to 60k and i took it up to just over 100k before I left.
My salary was 17k .
Most charities don't just look at salaries/income of stores as having a high street presence is usually seen as good advertising. The store can I'd applicable sell their lotto tickets , use the spare rooms as meeting places for fundraisers etc

Thanks OP - I've always wondered about the economics of it, but that does make sense.

Our store is similar to the OP's, we turnover about £125k a year, but once you've taken off all running expenses such as manager's salary, heating, lighting etc, the net contribution is about £100k.

Wouldn't imagine any charity shop which isn't covering its costs would stay open long.

I used to get loads of good stuff in charity shops maybe 5-6 years ago but nowadays there’s nothing. Do they skim off all the best stuff and send it to certain stores or sell it online? Do you think there’s a greater awareness of what’s collectible and worth a bit more, so it’s harder to get a bargain?

@KateyKube I think the issue is that as the economy has worsened people think twice about giving to charity shops when there's so many forums such as gumtree and eBay to sell on.

We didn't sell online and the locals knew that so supported us even more as they were against it.
There are still bargains to be had so don't give up

Do you mind resellers buying from charity shops?
My friend used to go around charity shops to find things to sell on but has been banned by two shops that found out.

@foggydown wow I can't imagine how bad your friend must of felt ! A ban is crazy unless she went in every day and was haggling and trying to look through things that were being donated while she was there yes that happens.

I had two regular dealers one of whom specialised in vintage clothing which didn't sell in my shop at all , as much as I tried . So she used to buy it all. Another lady had her own shop and would regularly come and spend a few hundred pounds. She was honest in what she was doing and I had no problem with it as a sale is a sale !
A lot of customers, especially tourists, would buy to resell . It's a common theme but it's money in the till !

Knowing your customers is all part of running a successful charity shop. Things that didn't really sell like oddments of wool would get bundled up with scraps of material etc and given to the Art club who in turn would sell our Xmas cards for us. Or old sheets ( that no way would you want to sell) would go to the lady who taught tie dying who in return put posters up for us.

Totally agree that I don't see the logic in a ban. Agree with OP - a sale is a sale. If you're pricing realistically, and something goes out for £10, why does it matter that someone is buying it in the hope of getting £11 for it? It's still cash in the till.

We have a couple of traders who come in regularly, one deals in vintage china, the other in jewellery.

I had a question about resellers too - my husband often buys board games and sells them on ebay for a much higher price (usually we do play with them first tbf). Someone I work with said this was taking money off the charity, but I see it as there might be only one or two people nationally willing to pay that price, and in a small town that's unlikely. So if the charity isn't putting it online, there's nothing wrong with him doing so. But what do you think? Is he being unreasonable? :D

@GenericHamster I can't speak for all Charity Managers but I honestly don't see an issue. I'm pretty sure that's the normal consensus.
If for example I've put out a Board game vintage , all pieces etc for £5 then that's a fiver in the till . If that board game gets played with by children, adults or gets cut up for craft work or even sold at a profit that's absolutely fine by me.
Unless it's a dealer I know or someone tells me they are looking to resell then I haven't the foggiest what happens to items once they left the shop.
I do however have sneaky suspicion that people who moan about profits being made on charity shop bargains are annoyed they didn't think of it first!

Thanks for starting the AMA OP, makes for interesting reading.

I have a job interview as a charity shop manager next week, do you have any tips for how to succeed?