So what would you tell a charity shop manager?

[Supersimpkin]

I volunteer in a charity shop and want to hear it from the horse's mouth - ie the customers. Colour blocking - yay or nay? Prices? Boutique or rag-and-bone decor?

Am feeling smug as anything as have just won an award for volunteering, so let rip, I can't be offended by anything right now.

WRT Gift Aid, a local museum offers a year's free entry to anyone who signs the Gift Aid form.................. What Non-Taxpayer is going to turn that down? I wonder how many people have signed who don't pay tax?

And that's when I found out that jigsaws don't actually have 500 or 1000 or whatever pieces, it's a slightly different number
Well thry have the number that's on the box surely? A 3000 piece jigsaw won't have 3002 or 2999?

What would I tell a charity shop manager? If the shop looked good I'd tell them, I did that job for years and it took a toll. The manual lifting (because I didn't want volunteers to lift too much), the abuse from random people just having a bad day, the shop lifting, the "can get this cheaper in primark!" brigade (not a designer item you can't love) and having to smile sweetly at everyone. It's easy to forget that at the end of the day you're putting money towards charity and someone telling you you're doing a good job can make all the difference in the world.

While I'm on it we didn't colour block, area managers love a colour block (because head office love it). It looks great, lovely bright colours at the front of the shop but who has time to look through blues, greens, reds, yellows just looking for a size 20 top for work that I won't need to iron?

I am in 2 minds about colour blocking, due to the muddle caused by sizing which is very random and used items can be donated due to being stretched or shrunk and not true to size.

Please no reed diffusers, they make me feel ill and I would have to leave.

Leave enough space between displays for people to move without knocking stuff over and try not to put smelly used shoes out because they really are off-putting to anyone except fetishists.

Do not employ volunteers that take bags to the back and comment on the contents, planning to take them home, or hand stuff back saying we don't take those which is fair but no need to be rude about it.

Lots of charity shops don't stock children's clothing because they can't charge as much for it. I know that they are trying to maximise their profits for the charity, but it's a shame for the community that children's clothes aren't available - and some customers might not bother to look at all, without the lure of children's section

This is so true. Years ago there was a great one in town that sold a bag for £3, you just stuffed as many babygros/children's clothes in as you could and they seemed happy to get rid of it. I was conflicted as I didn't like the charity but they were dirt cheap compared to the rest.

I don't do Gift Aid on anything any longer, as it isn't free money at all. But then I'm made to feel like some sort of monster for denying them this "free money".

By size please, finding stuff is tricky otherwise

Lots of charity shops don't stock children's clothing because they can't charge as much for it
Really? I can't think of any charity shops local to us - both chain ones like Cancer Research, smaller hospice ones or independent ones that don't. I wonder if it goes on the poverty level of the area?

Prices. Don't charge more for cheap labels/ brands than they cost new in the shop.
Primark Jeans at £10 are ridiculous, perhaps £3.

What I really hate is the waste. Cancer Research especially is bad for this. Always loads of stuff dumped outside for the binmen to take, including big bags of cuddly toys which could be passed on to a children's charity or go to the place that takes teddies to give to children. I have seen this in more than one High St. and one leaves stuff at the back of the shop on the space belonging to the shop where it gets stolen at night by people with vans.

Please think before you give cuddly toys to shops, if you really want them to be used, find a charity that wants them.

Train your volunteers how to price, or only have certain staff who price certain things. In our local charity shop the same thing can vary wildly in pric depending on who put the price tag on. They have a coat in at present, with tags on. I get that it's unworn and still on sale in the high street but no-one is going to pay £40 for it in a charity shop and it ain't shifting. Why have they not reduced the price in recognition that it was in the window 2 months ago and didn't sell and is still on the rail now.

Our shop doesn't seem to suffer too much with "the smell". Or maybe I've just become immune to it. Would imagine the first thing people do with a charity shop purchase is wash it anyway? Cigarette smoke stench is worse than mustiness, it's impossible to shift. Sometimes volunteers will take stuff home to wash but that's not always practical and there's only so much Febreze can do. There's no WAY we'd be allowed to burn incense or a candle though, the manager would have a fit and health and safety would too.

A lot of it boils down to lack of volunteers though. We are so pushed for volunteers that the "nice to do things" like having all pricing decisions double checked or counting jigsaw pieces fall by the wayside. Most days we're just struggling to keep the till manned and up to date with the basics. Yesterday morning I did my usual shift - 9-1. There were two other people in, one did 9-12 and the other 10-1. No manager. By the time I'd opened up, set up the till, heard all about the other volunteer's recent knee replacement, done the cashing up, answered the phone a few times, been to the bank and taken in a delivery, it was 10.30am. Let the other volunteer off the till for a cup of tea and a sit down. (she is in her 80s). Then I had about an hour to do some sorting and putting stuff out until the till volunteer left at midday and I had to go back out front on the till. Felt like I'd achieved precisely nothing.

We just need more, good people. People who will turn up every shift, week in and week out, whatever the weather or time of year. Not kids doing their D of E who commit to the bare minimum of 1 hour a week for 12 weeks and then leave. The charity I work with also do not accept people on those workfare type placements.

I think most customers don't understand just how hard it is to get reliable, decent volunteers.

Price is the main thing, far too many high prices as PPs have stated. While we live in a world where you can go to Primark and get new stuff for a few pounds, then charity shops have to be realistic. I've often seen things I would have happily bought if the price had been realistic. In my town there are a couple of big-name charity shops such as BHF, with accordingly high prices, and a small independent one for a local hospice which charges £2 for all clothing items. Guess which shops are empty ...

Well thry have the number that's on the box surely? A 3000 piece jigsaw won't have 3002 or 2999?

No, a 1000 piece jigsaw might have 998 or 1002 depending on the cutting pattern. from a maths site :

"Jigsaw puzzles almost never have the exact number of pieces that it says on the box, because the pieces tend to form a rectangle with all the individual pieces being rectangles of the same size. You can verify this by counting your own jigsaw puzzles. Note that a puzzle which claims to have 1000 pieces will never have less than 1000 but almost certainly has more.

If your puzzle happens to be a high-quality one with funny-shaped pieces, then it's possible that it does have exactly 1000 pieces, in which case I don't know how to answer your question. But if it's a standard puzzle, it is very likely that it has 1026 pieces in total (or would have, if there were none missing) and they form a 38 by 27 rectangle.

We usually try to count the pieces for 25 or 50 piece jigsaws but we really don't have the time to count bigger puzzles, and it wouldn't be accurate either. Having said that, if someone came back complaining that there were lots of bits missing, I'd refund them no questions asked.

Ridiculous to think the staff should count jigsaw pieces! What a waste of time. Just sell them for 50p or whatever if you are not sure they are complete.

They might still buy paperbacks from you because they like to support the charity which is why the figures show no impact but no one is happy to pay £2.49 for a second hand paperback book, trust me they really aren't!

The majority of secondhand paperbacks in the shop I volunteer in are priced at £2.99. The guide pricing policy is 1/3 of original price, and we have a lot of academic, art/photography/design, posh cookbooks, that are priced at around £8-£10. They all fly out. If you are willing to pay £7.99 for a Booker shortlist novel, you will fall upon it at £2.99, if it's in good condition.

'eally? I can't think of any charity shops local to us - both chain ones like Cancer Research, smaller hospice ones or independent ones that don't. I wonder if it goes on the poverty level of the area?'

I've been to a few with no children's clothes. One is in one of the worst areas for social mobility in the UK.
The others were in Wales somewhere , I can't remember where but definitely not an affluent area.

'Do not employ volunteers that take bags to the back and comment on the contents, planning to take them home'

Yes! I understand there are some perks and I don't mind so much if the people get first picks at a decent price for the charity but no one will donate to the independent one near us anymore.
I caught her a few times fishing through the bags that had just come in and bagging things up for her Mum. I presumed she was giving a donation but then I spoke to someone who was a mutual friend who I found out was her landlord who admitted to getting loads of things for free from her. Not stuff that would have gone to waste but really nice designer kids stuff.
One was a jacket I had been given to review through work which I had donated as it didn't fit mine.

Most charities have policies to stop volunteers pilfering though - ours certainly does. And if they don't, they should.

We do get "first dibs" on things, but you never price anything you're going to buy, and everything is written in an official book with things like receipt number so they can check back that the manager isn't allowing staff to buy a winter coat for 50p.

ours seems to be doing it right, we sell paperbacks for 50p as we get loads of them, we have a section for books and cds etc, cds are £1, dvds £1, we have a seperate childrens toys and clothes department, clothes are done by size, tops on seperate racks to skirts trousers, mens tops and trousers shirts etc, a bric a brac set of shelves, linen and bedding curtains cushions etc on seperate shelving, a shoe and bags section, everything is checked before going out and anything with the slightest flaw goes in the rags, we price accordingly from £1 tee shirts to ebay priced designer clothes, we have the jewellery in a glass cabinet at the till, we are lucky our shop is a big one so plenty of space to put items and for customers to walk round, and plenty of storage upstairs so the shop never gets overstocked

our volunteers range from a lovely lass with DS (who does steaming and sorting) to a lady who is over 70 and all of them are trained to treat our customers with a smile and respect if they dont they dont stay long, i love working there

Re. jigsaws - a charity shop I know uses volunteer customers to assemble jigsaws and check all the pieces are there before they go on sale. A win-win because the volunteers get to enjoy putting the puzzles together at no cost, and the shop can be confident they're intact.

Keep a tape measure available- so useful for picture frames, etc plus vanity sizing means that sizes are irrelevant, plus I'm sure some donated items are given away because they have been shrunk in the wash! It would be helpful to be able to quickly measure the waist size of jeans or shorts rather than try on.

Price is the main draw for me.

One of our local charity shops colour blocks books!!

No-one on earth decides what book they want to read based on the colour of the cover!

They split sets up so they can be put in their correct colour group.

It's really annoying and completely pointless!

Don't do that.

And agree re. pricing. Be realistic.

I wish charity shops would put damaged/stained stuff in a different section. The other day I was rummaging through my local shop and found a lovely pale silk shirt. Tried it on, only to realise that it was stained. It was an oily stain so unlikely to come out, ever. I would rather not have to waste my time trying on something I’m not going to buy.

On a different note, I prefer colour blocking. I also hate reed diffusers and air fresheners and would rather the natural smell even if it is a bit musty.