If I ran a charity shop....

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.....I think I'd do a better job than our local one.

They are rarely accepting donations as they have too much stock, but when you go in its the same stuff that's been there forever as its hugely overpriced and most of it is tatt.

The donations of potentially good stuff are given in elsewhere, and the shop cling on for dear life to their junk.....a Primark tshirt for £4, or a single toy car for £1.

As well as making money for the charity I always thought another aim was to provide the community with affordable stuff. Not in this case. If I were in charge I'd do a huge sale, 50% off everything for the next week, and get things moving. I volunteered to help for a few hours a week but they don't need me....Damn!

Agree that priced to sell is the way to go.

But priced to sell does not necessarily mean everything for £1. And to keep a large volume of stock moving, you need a large volume of volunteers.

Look, there are shit charity shop managers in the same way there are shit dentists and shit mechanics. But nobody pitches up at their local garage telling the mechanic how he should be doing MOTs all different and charging less for his tyres.

I got put off by prices. Lidl leggings were cheaper to buy new than second hand. I’d much rather buy good quality used though, saves waste. But was so hard to find anything as they’d have a few items out and I’d really and to go in and stock up on a few basics.

most donations are ragged.

my local one does have sales that are absolutely rammed…. But then sit there not selling much the rest of the time. Seems crazy to me 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t understand why they don’t have a ‘half price after 2 weeks policy, after 4 weeks goes into a (size, not colour!) bag bundle for say £5 a bag’.

I think it depends whether it's a big charity or an indie. A friend volunteers in a big charity and the prices are set by HQ - so even though she knows it's nuts putting out a used Primark tshirt for £2, they don't have any discretion to change it. So write to the HQ rather than complain to the shop.

Also when they sort the stuff, their shop is allocated a certain level so they can only keep stuff that is within that level. The good stuff gets shipped off to a nearby 'posh' area with a shop at a higher level, the really good stuff goes to head office to be properly appraised. Stuff that doesn't sell gets sent to a next level down shop. Proper vintage clothing gets sent to one of their specialist 'vintage' shops. So unless you're going to an indie charity shop, there aren't really any bargains anyway.

My local TRAID is excellent for this. Stuff goes on the rails at a relatively high price, maybe fifteen or twenty quid for a dress for example, each item priced individually. If it's exactly what I want then I'll buy it and so will quite a few other people, but not everyone.

Once every couple of months they'll have a sale at flat rates. A chalkboard goes up saying eg "£10 for coats, £6 for jackets, £4 for tops and skirts". From what PPs have said it seems that they ship in everything that hasn't sold for a while from shops all over. Locals pile in to see that's available, and take their pick. It stays like that for a week or so to give everything a chance to sell at that price, then they alter the chalkboard and take every price point down a couple of quid. Eventually it's at everything for a pound level, then they clear the decks and start again at full price.

Depends on the shop! I volunteer in one, take donations daily (until the store room is at capacity at least) unsold stock is rotated once there's donations to replace it. "Tat" is sent to the rag man or various other buyers of bulk items eg odd crockery.

Very successful store though, group of 19 shops too so items can be sent to other branches who don't get many donations.

We get pretty good stuff

I do run a charity shop and I can promise you that the volunteers don't get " first dibs" in my shop . Everything that is bought has to be from the sales floor . Also if we priced everything at £1 we would be stripped hourly by the people buying to resell. It's very hard graft and includes sorting through bags all day and believe me you really never know what you'll find . Underwear is a daily occurrence and dirty nappies are not unknown. Some people literally empty their dead relatives entire possessions into bin bags and you can imagine that I'm sure . Lots of people use us instead of the tip for their broken filthy household items. We once had a box that had sat in a garage so long it came complete with four mice !! We try to price as fairly as possible but inevitably our main purpose is to raise money for our charity. Hard graft for minimum wage and a team of elderly but incredibly willing volunteers to manage . Rarely get breaks because we're so busy sorting and getting things onto the sales floor. It's rewarding but very physically exhausting. I only price to what I'd be willing to pay for something.

The model @Speedweed describes isn't one I recognise from my volunteering at a big charity chain - they all do things differently depending on a whole host of factors. Our charity for example does not have its own vans or drivers so moving stuff between branches involves hiring a courier - so doesn't happen often.

Managers/volunteers in our store have discretion - there is a starting point for pricing but after that it's up to you. Primark stuff in our stores wouldn't even go out unless its BNWT.

We don't have different levels of stores, and don't move stock around depending on where it will sell. We do send specialist stuff like bridal or vintage clothing to the city centre boutique store, and expensive books to the specialist book shop. But everything else we'll sell ourselves.

Should add I bought a handbag that's circa £200 new for £20, French connection cost for £25, seasalt dresses for £9.99 etc. most primark etc stuff gets sent to the stores in other areas that have 99p rooms

One charity shop near me doesn't just colour co-ordinate all their clothes and shelves of bric-a-brac, they do it with books as well.

@Vicliz24

I second the disgusting donations, dirty underwear is the worst! But we love the quirky donations, some people! Used sex toys are common, bondage gear and sexy drag clothing- my rocky horror themed window for Halloween idea has been vetoed liberal part of the world here, think it would have really gone down a treat

I work p/t on a charity shop. We have a number of volunteers with specialisms - e.g, books, ornaments, etc. but they don't work every day, so it can take time for newer items to get onto the shelves. We do try to ensure that anything that looks particularly saleable gets fast-tracked.
Dirty and damaged items go in the bin. We do regular 'purges' on clothes and shoes and reduce prices or recycle items that have been on the shelves a month or more.
However, some days we don't have enough people in to handle incoming items. All clothing has to be checked, aired, pressed and priced before going to the shop floor. Floor staff sometimes will reprice if things are marked up too high or too low.

It's astonishing what comes out of those bags and boxes isn't it 😂😂

Isn't it just. I am really not sure what is going on in people's heads when they donate us a bag of DVD boxes with no DVDs in them, coloured-in colouring books, headless dolls and dried up pens. They wouldn't buy them, they're only fit for the bin, and think they are making really valuable donations?

It's always the people who hand over a posh designer bag saying "there's some really good stuff in there" who are deluded. The best stuff comes out of plain black plastic rubbish sacks.

It's because people feel bad putting stuff in landfill, so they like to think somehow maybe someone will have the missing disc or look for the one uncoloured picture etc. I do feel for the volunteers having to waste their time sorting it.

I helped set up a used uniform shop at my children's school. Have given many hours of my free time to help. I also work but it's a cause I believe in.

So many people donate stained or non regulation uniform stuff which takes time to sift through and then pass on to the rag man or charity. Ragged stained polos, old socks and tights included. No thank you!

Many people asking why don't we stock this or that? Lack of storage space and volunteers mainly.

Why are you selling items I can get for not much more at Asda? Firstly, it's significantly cheaper so that's not true, we have to cover the platform fees the website charges (external rather than school) and we do want to make a small amount of money for the school. Drive to Asda if you want new.

So I imagine that x1000 at a charity shop.

I don't think volunteers should be able to take the best stuff for reward. One of the grabbier school mums does this and I'm pretty sure she resells for personal profit on Ebay.

I don't think volunteers should be able to take the best stuff for reward. One of the grabbier school mums does this and I'm pretty sure she resells for personal profit on Ebay.

That shouldn't be happening. Sometimes we are allowed to take things home if they were able to go in the textile recycling, having not sold. Anything else has to be bought, just as though we were customers.

Whatever happed to jumble sales? We have one every three months near here, but it was the first time I had seen one for years. They were a really good way of donating and buying, and because it was concentrated, it was easier to get volunteers and helpers. As it was usually a Saturday, you could rope in husbands and sons who were good for heavy Labour and also tended to put the entitled or rude in their place.

actually, I must see if I can volunteer to help at the next one!

My local charity shop I love for price but like others do the colour instead of size for clothes, so I rarely use it for clothes as it's just a total pain and just get cookery bits and books from it.

We don't have a choice. We're told by head office what to price things as and if we do less than it says we should, for example, ladies t shirt in good condition for less than £3 they will be turning up demanding to know why our targets aren't being met. We also aren't allowed to just hold sales unless we're told to.

We have to keep stock for 3 months minimum before it can be rotated out to another store. Other stock gets refused as we just don't have the space to store it. Our tiny stockroom is literally 3 metres by 3 metres. We have stuff stacked up to the ceiling in there, in the toilet, between and on top of the lockers, everywhere.

We're told how we have to arrange things eg by colour not type and ignoring this is why I'm on my second warning and having to toe the line for a bit.

We do not get reduced rent. Everyone thinks this but we don't and this hasn't been the case for nearly 10 years now.

You have said everything I have thought about our charity shops here op. Charge far too much for cheap items, even more for 'designer' items, don't seem to have a quick turnaround of stock yet when speaking to a volunteer she said they have loads of bags of stuff out the back.
I also hate clothing hung in colour groups instead of sizes. I don't always know what colour I am looking for and sometimes find something I wasn't really looking for in a colour I wasn't particularly after.

Things that annoy me about charity shops....
Clothes displayed by colour not size.
Books displayed by colour of spine not author/genre.
Children's books dumped in a heap in a plastic box that you have to sit on the floor to rummage through and by children's books anything from My First Baby books to YA fiction all dumped together.
Toys dumped in a heap in a plastic box you have to sit on the floor and rummage through and this includes jigsaws, board games, Lego etc in non sellotaped up boxes so you can see that pieces have fallen our and are actually loose in the bottom of the box.
I'm not always too fussed about prices. I will happily pay 2 or 3 quid for a book if it is one I am after - but if it's one I am specifically after I want to be able to look on the shelves and see quickly if they have a copy (so alphabetically on shelf) not scan through shelves and shelves because I don't know the colour of the spine !!

I'd hate that! I'm lucky that as a volunteer, I have a fair degree of autonomy. We're advised by H.O to arrange clothes by colour, but within that, we sort by size.
Toys and games are checked for completeness and if missing bits, discarded.
⁹5

I’d stop putting clothing out in colour order rather than item and size.
I don’t really look at clothing when they do that as it’s too much of a faff to sort through.

Oh yes. Totally this. I blame Mary Portos. I just don't bother with the charity shops that do this, anymore.

Totally agree with you OP.
One of the shops in my High Street sells everything for £3 and under and always has a lot of stuff on the £1 rail. It is always busy and they must end up taking a lot more with a till constantly ringing with small amounts than the shop 4 doors down that over prices stuff and that rarely makes a sale.
I know where my money goes.