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?

Every shop, business, school, organisation (even Mumsnet) has the occasional incident where someone is less than polite ...

Not Mumsnet!

We're ALL lovely here - next to Twitter this is the most welcoming and non-judgemental place on the internet.

As I think I've mentioned before on here, I was once a food tech teacher. I was also very involved in the pupil premium and supporting low income families and I used to make unlimited toast and juice in my classroom for any year 11 pupils that wanted breakfast before taking their GCSE exams. Did it every summer for years and paid for it myself. One day after school I happened to be in Tesco and about 3 shelves worth of bread was reduced to pence a loaf so I put enough in my trolley to get me through the rest of exam season as I knew I had space at school to freeze it, and as I was queuing to pay, a Tesco employee nudged her collegue and said in a very loud voice in my direction 'God how much bread do you want?'.....

So, I marched over to customer services where this woman now was, asked her to get her manager and then explained who I was and what I was doing, and that I wanted to make a formal complaint which I did there and then. The poor manager was mortified and from memory I think I got sent a voucher which then went on juice. I'd have done similar in that situation, people who deal with the public often need to engage brain before opening their mouth!

Absolutely complain! As someone who is struggling atm to afford clothes for my ever growing children, i would be mortified if i heard the shop assistants saying things like that!

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.

That was judgemental and I would think less of anyone who speaks like this.

It was ALSO unprofessional. If the two women have heard them, it must have make them feel crap! Let alone giving a really bad image of the charity itself.

I've never bought anything from a charity shop. I do donate though.
Of course they are entitled to their opinion, but it's poor customer service to say things like that within earshot of customers. First rule of retail work.

Charity shop staff have generally becoming more rude, especially the managers. Honestly I have been treated with more respect in Harvey Nicols and have had less snooty staff than in some charity shops. I really do think they need to rethink their attitude. As for the prices in some of them, you can buy cheaper new. I really don't know who they think they are?

@Bunbuns3

Yes it is ridiculous in some of them you’ll get things like used primark tops priced at more than you’d pay for them new.

Run by these gimlet eyed people who won’t have a bargain sold on their watch.

I think charity shops have changed a lot from what they were a few years back.

I bought a smart coat from a charity shop 3 years ago and got my money's worth for £8 !!

I re donated it and saw a couple of days later they were asking £15 for it. Accepting that they didn't know what I paid etc. but many charity buys get put back for another sale so they are making good profits for the shop.

I have mentioned to till staff that some items are the same as the original new price but they said it wasn't their job to set prices. Fair enough and I no longer bother saying anything.

I wish we were allowed to ask if stuff is suitable for sale.

We get probably 80% rubbish - dirty, holey, stained clothes (WHY do people give us loads of used, balled up socks?), items which stink of smoke/green, pots and pans with food still stuck to it, sheets which have obviously been taken straight off of a bed and into a black bag, obviously unsafe electricals.

We're not allowed to ask unless it's obvious - car seats, health and safety stuff etc.

Yes but then @slashlover you'd get endless threads about how RUDE the charity shop "staff" are for picking through donations at the counter and sending the donor back home with their manky socks and encrusted pans. They should be GRATEFUL for every donation!!

Whereas those of us who volunteer know that we are very grateful indeed for the donations which we can flip and make money on. Not so grateful for the stuff which should have gone in the bin.

I'm sorry I was under the impression the holey stuff is bagged up and sent off to make carpet tiles and that the charity receives money for this. If this isn't correct then I'm jiggered what I'm going to do with it. I don't want stuff sitting on a tip when a better use can be made of it, it's not good for the planet. That's why I separate it out.

Staff have never picked my stuff over at the counter, I always take the bags to the room where they sort it, I don't expect the staff to have to lump it around

Yes I was under the impression stuff gets sorted and anything that won’t go out for sale is sold on as raw textiles

I’m pretty certain the Salvation Army does this (I looked round previously for somewhere to recycle rags)

Is this not the case with most charity shops?

Textiles are not a problem. Everything holey/stained/stretched does indeed go off for recycling. Not an issue.

What IS a problem is the chipped mugs, pans with food crusted onto them, broken electricals, board games with half the bits missing, DVD boxes with no DVDs in them, odd shoes etc etc etc. We have to bin all that rubbish, and it costs us money to do so.

Ok I am just back from a seaside trip to North Berwick. Popped into a few charity shops and here are the findings.

Tatty Per Una top £25.

Non descript Primark plain black top £8.
Top Shop summer jumper £30.
I am sorry but these shops should no longer call themselves "charity" shops because these prices help no one apart from the over paid directors. Total blatant greed!

Lol yes that is exactly the sort of ridiculous shit you see

I can’t imagine they will sell the items at that price so a completely pointless exercise. 😢
I volunteer with BHF and we are certainly not the cheapest shop in the town where I volunteer, but we receive some excellent donations (unworn Hotter shoes, Barbour t shirts, coast dresses) and they are priced accordingly. However, we also have plenty of good value items Primark: t shirts for £2, lovely baby and children’s clothes at very good prices. The shop is very busy and clothes are all steamed and well presented.

Or when the manager's back in on Monday and sees the saturday volunteers have gone a bit rogue with their pricing, the items will be priced more realistically.

Whole board full of jobs for the experts in charity retail.

https://www.charityretail.org.uk/cra-jobs/3

@Nicecow

I was absolutely horrified that a friend who had a clothes moth infestation took bags of clothes to a charity shop!!!

Well if it sells at those prices then I guess they are realistic but you know damn well they won't so why fuss? Either the shop prices enough stuff realistically to turn a surplus or it doesn't, in which case it will shut.

Bunbuns clearly that is a badly run charity shop ... if you had been in my charity shop today you could buy brand new (with tags) M & S jeans - this year's collection - for £8, Levi 501s for £14, Zara dress for £9, Joe Brown dress for £10, cashmere jumper (new) £12 etc etc. choose your charity shop carefully . Absolutely no Primark on the shop floor. I like to think I run a good shop, high sales (& importantly high profit margins for the charity), great team of volunteers- never need to advertise for new ones - and a loyal customer base.

I’m confused by Charity Shop costs these days.
I try not to buy anything new for myself, family or home.