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?

I am wearing a short sleeved, fine knit T shirt from M&S that I bought for £1 recently, along with a Gap sweatshirt at the same price.
As pp said previously they are moving stock along. I think I had a bargain as the staff were preparing to display summer stock and both items didn't quite fit that category, even though British summers are invariably fickle.

I love charity shops and eBay, most of my clothes are recycled. I don't like polyester so I struggle in many high street stores.
I am going to a posh area tomorrow for a good rummage in the charity shops. 😉☺️
Wish me luck!

I would 100% complain as this is disgusting behaviour and they need to be told off for it.

Imagine feeling like crap for having no money and doing the best you can and then someone is slagging you off for it, that would make you feel awful.

Just say what date and time you went in there and a description of the workers and they’ll know who it is.

Wow horrible! I'd have to report them.

I wonder if they were there doing community service and slagging off customers was their way of "getting revenge" on having to do the work.

Ocarumba you are spot on - I worked fir A4e ( for my sins) and we kept ‘charity’ shops staffed in St Helen’s 🙄 no surprise that not everyone wanted to go on this ‘work experience’ - which was mandatory as part of Job Centre rules re benefits - but I always told them they were infinitely preferable to Veolia 👍🏿☘️ I do love these shops x

I worked in fundraising for a hospice and the hospice and a few charity shops. You absolutely SHOULD report them! Their job is to sort and display stock and serve customers Their job is NOT to pass judgement! At the hospice I worked for those staff members would be spoken to for that. Report it!

That is appalling behaviour by the volunteers and whether you are salaried staff or not, you are the public face of the charity and are therefore representing it. I would contact either the store manager or Head Office as I doubt they would be amused by this if they are a decent charity.

I volunteer for a charity in their eBay department so not public-facing, however they are very big on volunteer training regardless of where you volunteer for them. They would absolutely not be happy with this sort of behaviour from volunteers and rightly so.

The only thing I can think of is that the ladies browsing must have been regular customers, because why would they said they are desperate otherwise? The manger also said it's a "pain in the arse" now I don't know what she means by that. Do they mean sorting the clothes out afterwards like tidying them up etc, Or having to initially sort out what clothes to reduce to £1-£2?
After reading comments I actually am going to complain. I quite enjoyed rooting through the racks there, but don't really want to go In again if they think of me as "desperate" because I'm not. I enjoy going into charity shops as you never know what you are going to find.

Better than complaining, why don't you offer to volunteer?

I totally agree that in this instance the volunteer was rude .. I also work for a charity that invests £1000s in its volunteer recruitment, training, recognition etc etc but I can guarantee that, on occasion, a volunteer (or employee) may be rude or 'difficult'. People are human and make mistakes.

I used to work for the head office of a retail organisation (not charity) we would get letters (pre email) slagging off our staff ... we had a standard letter 'thank you for bringing this to our attention, your comments will be addressed blah blah blah' ... in 99% of cases nothing would be done.

One of our local charity shops got a new manager about 6 months ago.

She has completely changed the whole of the shop and not for the better.
First of all she stopped the shop from taking furniture (they were the only charity shop in the area that sold furniture). Then she stopped a volunteer from testing all the electric items and refused them. The volunteer had the qualifications and the backing of local authority to do this (the volunteer would also mentor anyone who wanted to learn the trade) She also stopped the volunteers from making tea and coffee for their elderly customers (this was unofficially a way to check they were ok and often their one trip out and conversation in a week).
She also increased all of the prices by 50%. Stopped accepting any type of bedding, dvds, books and soft toys. She tried to turn the shop into a type of upmarket boutique.

The last nail in the coffin for the shop was last world book Day, where she decided that they would try to sell her children's old Harry potter items (anyone want a set of incomplete audiobooks for £20 or cushions for £17.50?) She set ridiculously high prices on items and people stopped going in and donations dried up.
Thankfully, the volunteers had a meeting with the area manager after he had received numerous complaints from the community and the manager was dismissed.
The big upset though was that the charity brought this woman in from outside of the area. She had no local knowledge or understanding of the area and she destroyed years of hard work and dedication by a team of brilliant volunteers.
They have now promoted one of the volunteers as manager (they should have got the job in the first place), the shop was closed for about a month while this was being played out.
I am pleased to say that they have now reopened and everything has been put back the way it was - with lots more input from the community and volunteers.

I get that work in a pain in the arse, I'm not bothered about that. What bothers me is the lack of professionalism, and making people like me feel like shit for buying something for a £1 as i heard every word, I was only a few steps away from the till area. And the whole attitude about people buying £1 items. Although complaining can't change people's personal attitudes. So what needs to happen is for the staff to know that they can't be voicing their opinions when customers are around.

I get that work is a pain in the arse I mean *

You should most definitely report them. You don’t need to be desperate to go into a charity shop,but what if you were, already struggling the last thing you need is this poison and to feel worse about your financial state.
Many people today are struggling,some for the first time ever, we can all find ourselves in a financial hole, people should be treated with respect and compassion because it could easily be us.
These shops serve a purpose,not just for the charity,but for those who are hard up or like OP,like a bargain and recycling.The charity will want to know because they will not want customers put off going there.

I can't muster up the willpower to GAF what some volunteers in a charity shop think of me or whether or not they think I'm desperate. If you want to go in there, go in there.

I mean I get that they were rude and that they will put people off, but so what if some random twat thinks you're desperate? Their good opinion is not worth having.

Good point!
I guess it just pissed me off!

Oh I get that @OooohAhhhh and I do think it's a valid point that for someone really struggling, they won't want to hear that conversation. It's just that being older and, well just older really, I can no longer be bothered with this stuff.

I'll say one thing for the menopause, it's taught me to care an awful lot less about what people think of me.

Just don't shop there anymore, as I have said, I am a charity shop manager and I love shopping in charity shops .. but I avoid the ones where the staff or volunteers are rude or unpleasant. I even had a comment from another charity shop manager 'complaining' about the fact that I had no difficulty in recruiting volunteers and she did (I wonder why ...... ).

I'd have had to say something, I cannot stand meanness!! 😡😡

When I donate I sort stuff into separate bags as to whether it should go straight to the rag bag (holey socks etc) or if it could be deemed saleable

Oxfam will never get another donation from me

The staff were so rude to me and OH when we took stuff in, demanding to know if I was still paying tax I was a bit confused as I've just retired so I asked OH, and of course I pay tax on my pension - one woman queried 3 times if I paid tax! Also queried if the stuff was suitable for sale. It wasn't just one member it was a barrage of questions

It all goes to Scope or BHF. Staff are much nicer there.

The tax question is for Gift Aid. It is rarely asked professionally or correctly. For those not paying a lot of tax or who don't have a guaranteed income, it may well be safer not to Gift Aid donations until later in the tax year because HMRC will ask the donor for the tax if it's collected wrongly.

@overworkedovertaxed

I did not know that, thank you

I heard far worse donation- A pair of leggings with pants and a used stick on pad inside-

WHO doesn’t wash clothes before donating them?!!
So gross.

Some charity shops have lovely things in them and others still have that sweaty old clothes smell .

Generally the big charities run a tight ship- not cheap though!

People do get really confused about gift aid - it is one thing that we have been trained on and encouraged to ask about as it adds 20% onto the value of sales.

There is another thread running currently about whether it is "rude" to ask about your job or whether you have kids, so it's easy to see why some people are mortally offended by being asked whether they are a tax payer.

I wasn't offended at being asked I was just confused as recently retired and didn't want to get it wrong. It was the tone of the woman asking me she was really rude, she barked the question at me more than once

I think I might have tried hard to keep a straight face and said I'm really really desperate to have this £1 cardigan. See how they reacted.