Should rich people buy from charity shops?

[CricutKeeno]

I saw a post from a well known celeb mum on Instagram, she had bought a pram from a charity shop for her baby. My first thought was wow! That’s surprising and great that she’d buy from a charity shop. But then I thought that it could be stopping someone who couldn’t afford a new one from being able to get it.

This mum has a silly amount of money at her disposal, should people like that not buy new, and leave the cheaper options for those who don’t have a choice? If so, then where do you draw the line? Maybe her buying a second hand buggy won’t make a difference to anyone else, or perhaps it could encourage others to shop from charity shops who might not think to, maybe that’s a good thing?

The actual purpose of a charity shop is to raise money for a cause.

So ideally everyone should be encouraged to shop there. The more rich people the better.

Because this was a celebrity/influencer mum, are you sure her charity shop posts weren't actually adverts? She may have been paid by the group to promote secondhand shopping - I know the Salvos have run influencer campaigns beefore.

My friend has plenty of disposable cash, but she's very environmentally minded. Nothing is bought new if 2nd hand is available and suitable. Reduce, reuse, recycle is her basic standard in life.

I admire her dedication to it, sourcing something needed 2nd hand is much more time intensive than just popping to the shop/online and buying it.

@QueenCarrot

Reuse, recycle, reduce

Indeed. Rich people tend to have a bigger carbon footprint (SUVs, ski-ing and long-haul trips, bigger families) so it's good if they reduce it a little.

@drpet49

Based on the responses here, if you can afford to buy food you are okay to use those community food banks right?

Do you mean the food waste ones or the food banks where you need a referral?

The food waste ones in our local area are for anyone, it’s about reducing waste so any level of income welcome. I see charity shops in a similar way to this (although the main aim of the charity shop is to raise money for the charity). I think this is right because it’s not just down to poor people to save the planet and help charity shops.

The food banks for those struggling financially are referral based. We also have a baby bank which is similar, to support families who can’t afford baby stuff. That I would not expect a rich person to use but they wouldn’t be able to anyway because again, it’s referral based. People can’t just rock up to food banks and baby banks on any income and take what they want.

I'm well paid and I'll buy anything secondhand, it's more sustainable, and it goes to a good cause.

The point of a charity shop is to raise funds for a charity that may be nothing to do with prams.

I also volunteer for a clothes bank which does distribute donated clothes to refugees etc. Their clients are referred and vetted so that the items go to people in clothing poverty.

There is no shortage of hardly-used secondhand clothes and baby stuff, it's a good thing to normalise re-using. In fact it should be seen as better than buying new, except for car seats etc, why would you want your baby to start wasting the earth's resources before from birth? Except for the last couple of generations, things were handed down and hardly ever thrown away until totally worn out.

There’s a lot of people putting words in my mouth here and getting quite aggressive about it, I don’t know why. As I said in the op, I was wondering about it, so I was asking what people thought, because I wasn’t sure what I thought about it.

There are a lot of prams given away on fb, maybe freebies are more available now than they used to be. I buy and donate to charity shops quite happily, and I can afford to buy new. But I haven’t ever bought such important items like a pram.

I was thinking out loud, that’s all.

Hmm I can sort of see your point....
My initial reaction was the same as most other posters in that it's a good thing but I do wonder when does it end...is it fair for well off people to buy all the yellow sticker items at a supermarket for example if they can afford to pay full price when for the poorer person just behind them it could be the difference between eating or not that night?

@drpet49

Based on the responses here, if you can afford to buy food you are okay to use those community food banks right?

No. The charitable purpose of a food bank is to provide free food to those who cannot afford it. Its purpose is only fulfilled if the recipients are people in need. The charitable purpose of a charity shop is to raise money for said charity by selling donated clothes/toys/furniture etc. They receive the same amount of money for an item whether it's bought by someone unemployed or by someone on 80k.

Yes! Everyone should buy second hand where possible and help reduce any stigma.

I saw an awful comment in a thread awhile back. Someone had commented that x, y, z could be bought very cheaply second hand and a person then commented that was it awful that we would expect poor people to buy second hand. Well yes actually, I think we should expect everyone to buy more ethically and sustainably.

I’ve given a lot away recently on Freecycle and Facebook. All I care about is that the items are going to someone who will make use of them, I don’t care about income. I would rather a pram go to someone wealthy who used it regularly than to someone with a lower income who already had 2 usable prams.

And as per a few PP I think the influencer did a great thing publicising that they are buying second hand. I wish more influencers would talk about waste because all you see is them consuming, consuming, consuming and then obviously “influencing” their followers into similar habits.
There is an influencer I see who is very very honest about the fact that all her kids wear hand me downs, that she uses Facebook marketplace, gumtree, eBay etc to get all her furniture, toys etc and I LOVE that she does this.

I often let slip to people in real life conversations where our new stuff came from (“Can you believe I found this at a book donation?!” etc) because I think it’s important.

@picklemewalnuts

There's never been a shortage of good, second hand prams about. People are reluctant to buy second hand, IME. I couldn't sell my gorgeous, lightly used pram.

I think that is very true, unless it's a really expensive status symbol pram, like bugaboo, they are almost impossible to sell on.

But manufacturers are always improving them, changing them and very often Grandparents want to buy the pram and cot.

Everyone has equal access to charity shops. Makes sense that anyone can use them. We should all be reusing and reducing waste.

Well off people can, and do use charity shops. There is absolutely no shame in doing this.. I know a few young people, who have gone out to buy ridiculously expensive prams and pushchairs and cots etc, all on their credit cards, just because they have been swayed by others, or by adverts, to buy into everything that is deemed to be the very best for their newborns etc..They do not want a pram,that another baby has been in.

So what's your cut off ? How much money do people have to have to prevent them shopping in charity shops?

i think it's good that she is buying second hand and will hopefully encourage other's to do the same.

It's good as it keeps the stock rotating.

What would be unreasonable would be buying everything then sticking it on marketplace for a higher price to make a profit.

I always try to buy certain things used as it's better for the environment, bonus if it's a charity shop as it's for charity, don't see what the issue is regardless of my social status?

I buy everything from charity shops but I sometimes feel weird about buying children’s coats. I think new kids warm , waterproof coats are a big cost for a struggling families, and having the opportunity to buy them in a charity shop can be a lifesaver for some people, particularly around September time when there are so many other expenses. Realistically it’s a mad logic and another vulture will probs just snaffle the coat right up and flog it on eBay but still, I leave the coats.

I totally understand your point OP. My daughter saw a Frozen princess castle in a charity shop just before Christmas and asked for it every time we went past. She already had more than enough presents, I didn't want to buy the real thing for her as she's still young to fully appreciate it and it's £££ so I was tempted but I didn't buy it for her because I kept thinking what if that is the only toy somebody can afford for their LO? Rightly or wrongly, it didn't sit right with me to buy it.

@Badnightguaranteed

I buy everything from charity shops but I sometimes feel weird about buying children’s coats. I think new kids warm , waterproof coats are a big cost for a struggling families, and having the opportunity to buy them in a charity shop can be a lifesaver for some people, particularly around September time when there are so many other expenses. Realistically it’s a mad logic and another vulture will probs just snaffle the coat right up and flog it on eBay but still, I leave the coats.

eBay resellers love a charity shop bargain. And why not? The charity still gets the money. There's nothing to stop someone on a lower income doing exactly the same thing, if they want to. As long as the charity gets paid for the coat it doesn't matter what happens to it afterwards.

I hate the stigma around charity shops - reuse recycle it’s positive for the environment and also for saving money etc

Younger people seem much more positive with buying 2nd hand. Charity shops, vinted etc they really more likely to judge each other on buying new!! It’s good to see these changes.

I’ve always donated to the charity shop and buy from there. We had a lady in our antenatal group very thrifty but quite well off. She couldn’t care who judged her with her very preloved pushchair! She couldn’t see the point of buying new or trying to keep up with anyone!
My friends children go to private school and there preloved uniform sales are very busy and always a list of people wanting things, again it was seen as normal to not have a brand new blazer. Yet at our primary we had shed full of stuff with very few buyers :(

The charity get a sale at the end of the day and the money going where it’s needed.

Who thinks that there is a stigma around charity shops & why?

I think that there perhaps used to be-but I thought that it "acceptable" & even laudable to use them for years!

If people don't want to that's fine-but don't try & push that onto others!

@frillseeking

I totally understand your point OP. My daughter saw a Frozen princess castle in a charity shop just before Christmas and asked for it every time we went past. She already had more than enough presents, I didn't want to buy the real thing for her as she's still young to fully appreciate it and it's £££ so I was tempted but I didn't buy it for her because I kept thinking what if that is the only toy somebody can afford for their LO? Rightly or wrongly, it didn't sit right with me to buy it.

There’s not many shops within walking distance of us so my dd thinks of the charity shop as ‘the toy shop’. I joke that it’s a toy loan shop since invariably that’s where they end up going back to when she’s outgrown them.

Don’t feel like you’re taking something off someone else, think of it as doubling the shops revenue for that item.

Weirdly I was thinking about this the other day when it comes to "yellow sticker" reductions in supermarkets. I wondered if I should stop buying them as I can afford to buy full price, as I know some people are struggling much more than us with the increase in cost of living. But then I wonder what happens to the food if I don't buy it and hate the idea of wastage I think buying from a charity shop is fine however much you earn as it's better for the environment.