Charity shop wwyd.

[amazonqueen]

I was in a charity shop yesterday and the following occurred and got me wondering what i would have done in the same circumstances.
Before I start the story I will just say that I know this shop ,manager and staff well . Im in there a couple of times a week and usually there are no problems.

Anyway -the scenario.
A woman came in with huge bag full of shoes which was plonked on the counter. The normal practice is that donations are taken into the back room and gone through to make sure of the quality etc. This shop doesnt do the waiting period in case of wrong donations but does do quality/pocket checks and then pricing according to company policy.This bag had not got that far.

A customer peeked into the bag and asked how much a pair of shoes were. One of the 2 temporary staff members on duty said "Oh about 2 or 3 pounds" and opened the bag further for the customer to take a better look. All of the shoes were nearly new (some barely worn) Clarks/Next/Hotter. At that price she quickly identified several pairs of shoes she wanted to buy.

Just then 2 other customers appeared , attracted by the conversation. Both customers started taking shoes out of the bag and were each attended to by one of the 2 temps.

All was going well until both of the new customers decided they wanted to buy the same pair of shoes. Each had tried on one shoe and made their minds up at the same time.
They both wanted the shoes and neither were prepared to back down. Both were also buying other items.

Both temp staff members spoke up for 'their' customers as the first to say they wanted the shoes.

How would you solve this without losing customers or blood in the process?

Which one of the shoe people were you. How did it get resolved?

I volunteered in a charity shop and everything had to be priced by the manager. This shop doesnt sound very well run.

I agree the assistants were at fault for allowing the customers to look at the shoes before they were priced and put on sale. Neither customer should have been allowed to buy the shoes and they should have been taken to the back of the shop to be put on sale later. at one shoe each. That would teach them.

The temps did their best to sort out the situation on their own. They offered the coin tossing/straw drawing scenarios but both women were adamant that they were the first to offer to buy and dint wish to engage further.

In the end the temps had to call for the manager as they simply didnt have the skills to deal with the situation.

When the manager appeared she quickly took stock of the situation and asked what price was being paid for these desirable shoes .

As Pps said the price was far too low for quality goods. The manager said that the price was actually £10 per pair ( and cited the fact that this is a charity shop and to ask less would be a waste of resources) and which customer was willing to pay that price?

Neither of them as it turned out!

I was neither of the customers by the way. I was just an interested bystander wondering how it would turn out.

Well done that manager.

She still needs to have a think about her procedures, fights almost breaking out when she's off the shop floor isn't good

Normally all runs well in this shop which was why I lingered to see how it played out.

I think the problem was with one over confident temp staff member being allowed to make his own rules up. None of the usual staff were there for some reason so he must have assumed he ran the place.

I reckon the manager will have had stern words with the staff following this incident and I would be surprised if I saw the temps again.

The manager sounds good to me. A bit different, but I have friends who volunteer in charity shops and I can't believe the stories of aggressive haggling. The ones round here all have signs up now. I don't understand it at all. It's a charity shop- the staff can't just decide to sell something for less than the price it's been giben

Isn't it policy that everything must go through the back room procedure and isn't available for sale until it's actually put on the shelves?
For the staff to think it's ok for customers to go rooting through bags is appalling!

I agree with the manager.

One pair being offered at £3 does not mean that's the price for the whole bag.

Shoes of a particular brand might well be £10 in a charity shop.

If the customers are not willing to pay that, but the manager thinks they will fetch that, the customers can leave and some other customers will pay it.

Blimey I wouldn't pay £10 for secondhand shoes!

Yes the charity shops need to gain money for their cause. However charity shops also service quite poor communities/individuals and need to target their market appropriately. We had two charity shops who have gone very quiet recently because they think they are vintage chic and have priced accordingly. I put that down to poor management.