Appalling behaviour by staff at a charity shop

[OooohAhhhh]

I was in a charity shop today browsing at items near the till and I heard the manager and staff member having a conversation about how desperate people must be to be browsing on the £1 and £2 clothes rails. They was referring to 2 women who had been there for quite a while going through it all and they were saying how desperate they are, in a malicious, slagging off manner.
I then went to the till and had to pay for my £1 cardigan, not because I'm "desperate" but because I love a good bargain, just like so many other people do, and is that not the point of a charity shop? It made me feel a bit awkward paying for it. Surely this can't be the common attitude of staff in charity shops?
Just wondering if I should send a formal complaint higher up maybe?

Someone's buying it at that price

And that's the key. SOMEONE is buying it. Shop managers in the big chains get oodles of information about sales through the computerised tills which help make pricing decisions - average selling price, number of items per customer, sales by department, compared to last year/month etc etc etc. So it's really easy to look at trends and work out what's selling, and what's not.

It's always the same on these threads, posters seem to have this idea that all of us who volunteer in charity shops are either just a bit thick, thieves stealing all the stock, or forced to be there by the government (even though many large charities will not take part in Workfare or similar).

Not RTFT but I'd have definitely asked for a discount to 50p "because I'm so desperate" followed prolonged and deeply uncomfortable eye contact 😁

I worked in a charity shop for a few months and some of the people there were horrid. I don’t know why it attracts such awful people.

The awful ones are probably the people who feel superior they're volunteering their precious time. Can't just imagine the type ...

What a pity lovely, kind people don't volunteer their time then.

I think you should send an email to the charity letting them know. Appalling behaviour from both.

What a horrendous thing to say. Lots of people also shop in charity shops because they are worried about the damage fast fashion causes to the environment and it has actually become cool amongst Gen Z to shop there! I’m trying to get behind this and buy my clothes in a more eco friendly way such as vinted etc! And it has nothing to do with money.

Shame , don’t expect anything to change then . This behaviour is totally unacceptable and damaging to the Charity but if no one addresses it , it will undoubtedly continue

I often but things with labels on in charity shops. I can't believe you've never been in one. I love them!

I've never been in a charity shop but I would expect nothing to be more than 2 or 3 pounds in one.

That used to be the way - a lot of them have quite "expensive" stuff in nowadays. I bought a beautiful dress for £8.50 just a fortnight ago. (It was Max Mara) I'm still quivering with excitement!

They also had some gorgeous, obviously wedding outfits for £35. The girls said that a (very wealthy) patron would pop in every now and then when she cleared out her wardrobe - absolutely stunning stuff! (I wondered if it might have been Queen Camilla.)🤔

Because they get first pick of the donations.

I volunteered in one briefly. It was an awful atmosphere, and there was a small clique of volunteers who bullied everyone else and landed on the donations like vultures, "buying" stuff at ridiculous prices.

I do know though, that not all of them are like that. Just the luck of the draw.

@CrumbliestCrumble also here to find out which charity shop is paying someone £22k for those hours….i fail to see how any charity shop is making enough to donate, pay rates, energy bills etc and pay someone that much money. Something odd about that…

Anyone donating clean, good condition items to a charity shop deserves to be allowed to imagine that their things will delight a new owner and do some good for the charity.
The reality may be different (an unworn cashmere coat might be binned if donated at the start of a two-month heatwave and about 20,000 copies of 50 Shades of Grey were about 19,900 too many to sell IIRC) but donors are the lifeblood of the system.
I have taken directors of a couple of major charities that I've worked with to task over their lack of respect for the customers who pay heir wages.
On the other hand, buyers are under no obligation to pay the advertised price, if you value the work that a charity does, you are free to pay a multiple of the marked price.
I would however, suggest that folks do their homework about the charities that they support - the Lavinia Rheade case is not untypical of directors in search of bonuses.

Managers in charity shops are paid employees, other staff are volunteers, very often people with learning difficulties. The managers are supposed to teach customer service skills to help with access to employment. Clearly that’s not working then!

They do, I've mostly met lovely ones. Most people who volunteer for something are doing it because they want to contribute somethung good. I was referring to the other posters comment, have you even read the comments on this thread or the OP

Would also love to know which charity pays the salary quoted above …
I volunteer in a busy shop (we had taken £800 by 3.30 yesterday) and we have four paid members of staff, two full time and two working 16 hours per week am sure they would love to know where they can get this mythical salary of over £16 per hour.

@Emotionalsupportviper There are charity shop managers who develop their own network of donors and in wealthy areas that can mean thousands of pounds of profit per week.
Senior management prefer a more uniform approach, so within charities, these outliers tend to be unpopular - as was a suggestion for selling something that would make £200-£300k of profit each year, but only in one city.

Patient customers are best placed to help those who struggle with interaction. A simple smile and a thank you can be very encouraging.

Yes. Definitely make a formal complaint. The shop would be better off without those
staff members - volunteers or otherwise.

Am guessing young and no nothing about how hard life can be . I took a bag of stuff to Acorns other day I didn’t even get a thank you .The young man just took it off me .Tried not to judge he could be autistic I suppose ?

The point of a charity shop is to raise money for the charity- they do it by providing a bargain, but that is not the point of them!

I used to work for charity shops and in each location our shops were tiered. When we would get stock in our volunteers would sort stuff and grade it- anything good would go to the posher high streets and sell for more money. We had 6 grading, if stuff hadn’t sold in two weeks we would move stuff down to the next shop and offer it a bit more cheaply until it would go to shop 6. After shop 6 it would then go for rag. I have to say I did feel sorry for shops in the bottom band- yes they were raising money for the charity, but any good stock was taken and they were perpetually given absolute shite to try and get rid of- it was really demoralising for them.
it’s also worth noting that not everyone “working” in a charity shop wants to be there- sometimes you have people on community service or day release who are required to do it, some are on work experience, (some are paid staff), some are your traditional volunteers.

im not saying it is ok what you experienced - but just sometimes people actually don’t want to be working there- and sometimes because of the behind the scenes corporate management they can be pretty demoralising for staff

Write to the shop manager.

I used to teach lifeskills to young people and would need specific clothes in specific fabrics to demonstrate how to wash/iron/remove stains. You could have been using the reduced rail for that….
Explain how unprofessional you found it and that volunteers need more training in working with the public. Ask for a reply or you will be formally complaining to Head Office as the charity relies on the goodwill of the public they were slagging off.
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Every shop, business, school, organisation (even Mumsnet) has the occasional incident where someone is less than polite ... it happens, it's life. Can we honestly say that every single one of us is charming and polite 100% of the time?

Of course the volunteer in this instance was unprofessional but, as a charity shop manager, it is not easy to always ensure that your volunteers are polite and helpful all the time. As others have said on this thread, often our volunteers are volunteering because they are unable to find paid employment... they just didn't have the necessary skills - it's great that they can usefully use their time in charity shops but occasionally they may be 'blunt' or less than discreet.

I think there are far more occasions when customers and the general public are rude to us.

That's really disappointing you had a bad experience OP.

If it were the shop I oversee, I'd appreciate an email to bring this to my attention so that I could address it.

But I do think it's unfair to tar all volunteers with the same brush. Most that I work with are lovely, generous, funny and dedicated people who care about the charity/cause and our customers.

In fact, this is Volunteers Week. I've been making extra time to thank our volunteers for everything they do and asking them if they'd like anything back from the charity in the way of training. I've issued certificates to those I know would appreciate them. But not to those who'd rather I didn't use charity money in that way.

I appreciate every one of the 2500 odd hours our small team of volunteers give each year.

People who have never had a mooch around a charity shop are missing out, they are great fun. If exactly the same stuff was sold by a "dress agency" then they would be clamouring to get in. My middle income family have had wedding dresses, first holy communion dresses, posh wear once shoes, books, and even a fur coat, all donated back again once worn. Its ultimate in recycling, economics and environmental protection whilst helping a charity.