Do you think charity shops have lost their minds with overpricing items?

[luluxxx]

Been into my local charity shop (not a big city ,just a local area and it’s in a pretty working class area )
Used to be able to get some bargains but today they have two new rails “new with tags “ and a “top brands “ rail.
On the new with tags was a skirt from select (£7 ) the skirt itself was only £14.99
A Primark pair of beach trousers (£6 ) tags were £10
Then on the top brand rail was a clearly used M&S jumper for £8 and a shein dress for £6
Are people really going to pay this ?

You’re probably thinking of jumble sales. Charity shops exist to support the named charity, the customers were never the intended beneficiaries.

I think charity shops are beginning to forget that although they are there to raise money for charities, they are also providing a service to people on severely restricted incomes who can't afford to buy new clothes, books, toys, school uniform and housewares.

We're not talking about eco-recyclers or hobbyist 'thrifting' here, or collectors of ornaments, vases, quality handbags etc (whose custom is of course welcomed by the shops); we're talking about people in poverty who rely on them. Charity shops are rapidly pricing themselves out of the range of the poorest. Ironic really, when some of those charities' aims are to raise money for the poor and needy (and their pets).

Yes I’ve seen basic Tesco clothes at almost retail price. They don’t seem to see the difference between a quality piece and something from H&M. My DD has pretty much given up. We just returned from the US and she got a real leather blazer for $10 at a thrift shop there (as well as tons of other bargains). The most expensive item was a satin Calvin Klein dress for $15 which didn’t fit sadly.

Oh yes, definitely. You can get the odd bargain though. I went into one over the weekend and got 2 beautiful, looks-like-they've-never-been-worn cardigans that are from M & S, in a gorgeous bottle green and a lovely burnt orange. Fit perfectly, and look really nice. £5 each. Would have been £35-£40 each in the shop. I was proper chuffed!

But yeah, some stuff is overpriced, and also they sell too much new stuff, which is very unfair on other shops who don't get lots of free stuff, low rent and rates, and free staff! People are not shopping in them anywhere near the amount they used to do, and for this reason lots of them have closed down.

I give mine and teen kids to women's aid instead now.

It's absolutely crazy ATM. My son wanted to go as some green swamp monster for halloween last year, so I wanted to be savvy but also reuse clothing.

I did my rounds and worked out it would cost me £46 to kit in out in green items, that weren't even 100% suitable (big writing on some items!) my sister suggested Amazon and I got the goods for £16.... Exactly as needed. Thankfully he wore them individually quite a few times, so I felt less guilty!

Not my experience generally.
I find lots of bargains in charity shops.

However, there is one shop not far from here that is always stuffed to the rafters - definitely has the feel of a jumble sale rather than a shop - and has a sign saying they have so much stock they can't take anymore at the moment. The clothes are so tightly packed on rails you can't move the hangars and actually see the clothes. I rarely see anyone buying anything in there.
I don't know why they don't have a 'sale' and offer everything for £1 or £2. They'd make a lot of money on the day (or over the week) and would free up some space so customer could then see the stock.

I think part of the issue is the volunteers and managers have to follow corporate policies rather than looking at what they have and making a call on how to best bring in the ££ for the charity.

in my youth charity shops were set up to allow poorer people to get things they could afford, the charity was to the customer.
That's not true. @HotChocolateBubbleBath .

Charity shop in went in the wkend were charging £5 for a Disney stitch sweatshirt. It was covered in bobbles and was fit for rag recycling

If I leave my garments to charity "help all the homeless cats" I expect those garments to be used to raise as much money as possible for homeless cats, not for them to decide they are there to provide "general charity community services" and subsidise other charities in the process.

In fact I think most charities are very keen to demonstrate to their donors that as much of their donations as possible will go directly on helping their chosen cause, and their ability to raise money probably depends on this.

People generally leave money to a specific charity because they care about the particular issue the charity is involved with.

£2.50 is too expensive for a second hand book, unless it's a title you really want. Car boots sales, charity boxes in supermarkets etc have them much cheaper than this. Most charity shops are £1.50 at the most.

If you leave your unwanted cat carrier, pet beds, food bowls and 'dog' towels to a pet charity, wouldn't you also expect the sale of those goods to be priced in such a way as to help struggling pet owners afford the things they need? Like in a PDSA charity shop for instance?

depends on how new the book is and the quality. If it’s a 2026 paperback in excellent condition I can sell it for £3 no problem.
The charity shops next door to us sells theirs at £1, but they are in poorer condition and don’t have recent publications. Depends what you are looking for and how much you want to pay. Some people are happy to wait and borrow from the library.

Depends what the book is.
The books on sale in the supermarkets are current bestsellers.

A beautiful book. in mint condition, that you will treasure would be an absolute bargain at £2.50. The latest novel, obviously read, by a popular author wouldn't be.

A lot of charity shops have forgotten the “sell cheap, sell quick” mantra and complain they have too much stock or nobody is buying.
justification for high prices is “that’s what it’s worth” but it really isn’t what an item is worth.

I got some shoes for from a charity shop for £2 and donated them back to the shop when my son outgrew them- they put them up for sale at £10!
£12 brand new

No.

I'd expect them to raise as much money as possible for the cause I donated the items for. And that's what charities do. Otherwise people would lose confidence in them.

If I donated a £500 dress to PDSA to sell to help finance poor peoples pet equipment (if that is what PDSA say they spend their money on then) then fine.

If PDSA decided poor people had been given enough money for their pets that week and decided to give the £500 to RNLI instead then not fine.

On the other hand we have charity shop for a local independent hospice and all women's & mens clothes are £1.50 and coats and jackets £2. Kids stuff is literally between 50p to a £1.
I have come away with some amazing bargains (3 virtually brand new Laura Ashley cushions for £5 is my best one so far). I visit regularly, and it is always busy.

I volunteer for the local hospice charity shop and a national charity. The local one is allowed to price with great flexibility the National charity has a guide and they must stick to this guide. The manager has herself bemoaned the level of prices and has raised this with the regional manager. She is not allowed any flexibility.

So the local charity has most dresses at £4 to £7, with the £7 one being for example a perfect condition Hobbs dress, That Hobbs dress in the National shop would be priced at £15.

Lots of the very good stuff is sold on EBay, stock is also rotated round shops, then after a time it is ragged and sold per kilo, the price of rag has dropped by 50%. Donations that come in vary, I would say at least 10% cannot be sold at all, broken, filthy, hazardous. They are then put in our huge bins which obviously have to be paid for.

Charity shops are there to raise money for the charity. Some such as The Salvation Army do directly help the poor because that is their philosophy. My local one gives out free school uniform and also if a homeless person presents themselves at my local one they will kit them out with a complete outfit for free. Unsure if that is their national policy. This shop also always has a few books for 10p each.

Paperbacks are sold at £1 in my local, children’s books are 50p and paperbacks £1.75 in the national one. One that I do not work in sells DVD, Books, CDs at 4 for £1, any mix that you like.

You may not realise this but charity shop managers have quite aggressive weekly targets. They are businesses now.

A charity shop near me sells everything for £1.00 ! Buy it, wear it a few times and donate back to the shop is their ethos. Seems to work quite well

I have always wondered about what never makes it to the shelves at all.
I used to live near one that I gave a lot of stuff to. For a few weeks. I wandered in often and could not see some of the things I had donated.
I just hoped that if the staff had them, they had paid proper prices for them.

Absolutely. We have targets and also have access to a huge amount of sales information eg how well each dept is performing etc. We can they adjust how much selling space is allocated to a certain type of goods. We stopped selling non fiction as it didn’t sell well and took up too much space (mostly hardbacks).

May have been sold online.
may have sold immediately.

Yes. I am amazed they sell anything tbh. I have always donated to charity shops and frequently bought things to make costumes for plays/dress up days at school etc. My local charity shops have stopped taking donations because they have too much stock. I am not surprised. I have seen things in there priced at more than they cost new in store. I still buy books and give them back when I have read them, but that is all.

They may have moved it to another shop where there is more footfall to maximise the chance of getting the most cash for it.

Some areas also sell more of a particular type of thing for various reasons.

Or as pp said it may have ended up online if it was something valuable but niche.

Edit : I recently bought a piece of pottery from a charity on line. It's a specialist thing that if it were placed in a local shop would probably sell for far less than if it was exposed to the greater collectors market online.

I viewed the charity priced it well to gain interest. It might have gone for a bit more if they had put it at 10% lower to generate some bids. But they were pretty accurate at their initial assessment of what the market would pay.