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 ?

That isn't, and wasn't, the case. Charity shops have always existed to make money for the named charity - not to provide cheap clothing, etc to those in need.

How could they possibly determine those who were needy from those who were not? Even if they could they'd have to decline purchases most of the time to do that.

And their sales targets increase, year on year. The degree of pressure on the (paid) shop managers varies depending on which charity, but it's never absent and can be huge. I've seen managers in tears from the stress.They are walking a line between under- and over-pricing.

As for customers, many are lovely, but more than you'd think are surly towards staff and volunteers, complaining, pushing for discount. Charity shops are also targeted by shoplifters.

A couple of posters on this thread have mentioned getting great bargain prices on designer items. When that happens and you take your goodies to the till, do you ever say "This is priced at £4, but it would have been £200 new. Let me give you £20. That's still a massive bargain!" You don't?

I can honestly say that I did that at a charity shop in Norwich once - I felt a book was underpriced and tried to give them more money. The man looked at me in confusion (and not in a nice way), I ended up putting the money in the collection box next to the till. Nothing was said and I left the shop feeling really embarrassed, a mug who’d just donated an extra 8 quid only to get a lasting bad feeling about the experience. It was like they were insulted that I thought their pricing was off.

Another time at my local shop I was buying a bunch of things that were 5p each and I said, oh you can just make it £2. The man at the till said, says who? Says you! and counted them all out. It came to about a pound. I still paid £2 but again it was an unpleasant exchange and I’ve learned my lesson.

Cue lots of people explaining that lots of charity shop staff are ND etc… well so am I and it wasn’t a nice experience for me either. I certainly wouldn’t do it again!

I agree , my local charity shop has been charging set prices of £1 per paperback and £2 per hardback for many years. Regardless of title or condition.
I wouldn’t pay £2.50 for a used paperback

Well, you tried. Good intentions were there and it's a shame your generous gesture wasn't understood.

Paid staff are usually not ND, but volunteers often are, and often have learning disabilities, sometimes mental health issues. EDI is at the forefront of the charity sector's (frequently and loudly proclaimed) values.

Volunteering at a charity shop allows people who are unable to do paid work, because of learning disabilities or other barriers, to feel useful, to feel as if they have a job, and colleagues.

And of course there are the other stalwarts of the volunteering community: ladies of a certain age. Many shops struggled for volunteers after the covid lockdown when these ladies were worried about returning.

I think it’s because they wouldn’t normally be your first choice items. Charity shop finds are all about lucky finds rather than finding the “exact tshirt I was planning to buy from primark ”. So if you pay £4 in a charity shop for a tshirt proced £8 new in primark that you’d never actually buy from primark in the first place - you’re not actually saving.

I do think we will see more community owned thrift store type places. There’s one near me and they do free kids wellies, kids coats, kids school uniform. It’s taken over by local groups and charities for a week at a time. Stock stays and they pile it high and sell it cheap. It’s both to encourage reusing as well as for a good cause.

I know all about the (important) role places like charity shops play in providing meaningful work for people who are disadvantaged on the labour market. I also know that I’m extraordinarily sensitive and most people wouldn’t give a second thought to these exchanges. I don’t really dwell on them, it was just that they came back to me when discussing this particular issue.

I wasn’t trying to be Lady Bountiful or anything, it just all went a bit wrong both times I tried it! (As a data point I once went to get change at a bank, I needed £10 in pound coins and I was handed a bag bulging with the things! When I pointed it out nothing was said, I just got a filthy look and my 10 pound coins counted out one by one. And that was an actual bank!)

Yep. Incredible how many people are labouring under this misapprehension. Providing cheap clothes for poorer people isn't an aim or obligation of a charity, except those whose stated aim it is.

Not sure why some posters are so convinced it'd be poorer people benefiting, even if they did deliberately try to offer cheap clothing. You're not asked to provide bank statements at the door.

I would donate rather than list on Facebook for free if I didn't think I'd get interrogated.

But if they don’t ask you what’s in your bags, that’s work for paid or unpaid staff and storage space taken up, with items that the charity may have to pay to dispose of. So checking what you are donating is simply checking if handling it will be a net gain or net loss to the charity.

If, for example, they know that fiction sells well and non fiction doesn’t, they are just making a burden for themselves if they take your non fiction. You aren’t doing them a favour if they can’t make money from the donation.

@IonianNerveGrip quite re wealth and shopping - DS and his GF love a good day charity shopping. They’re students but both get plenty to buy full price clothes etc if they choose. They just like a bargain and that’s fine because the charity shop takes their money for its fundraising.

Yeah, I hate the interrogation but it’s not hard to see why it must be necessary.

I’ve been doing a massive declutter lately with lots of trips to the charity shop. I always say, “everything’s clean, in good condition and freshly washed” (as appropriate) when I hand over the bag. That usually does the trick.

Shops will have POS systems, not least to track gift aid to specific donors, so they wouldn’t be able to put through a sale at more than the ticket/barcode says it is. They could have been politer about it but the action is reasonable.

If you feel you got a bargain, dropping some change in the collection box makes sense.

I don't get why people donate stuff that's damaged, tatty, dirty or generally not in saleable condition. I put stuff like that (not dirty - I always wash it first!) in the Sainsbury's textile banks. My understanding is that the fabric then gets recycled.

(People also use those bins very inappropriately - dumping non-clothes items of junk next to them, for instance, where they get rained on and dragged around the car park - but don't get me started on that!)

They don't pay the same business rates, they qualify for an 80% discount.

I think the furniture charity shops have decent things in them. If I needed something it would be my first port of call before I went somewhere like IKEA. In fact we bought a shoe rack in one a few years ago.

Exactly. All the "leave it for the poor people". How are those of us working on the till supposed to know if a customer is a "poor person"? Imagine the uproar if we started asking to see bank statements before deciding whether someone was worthy of a second hand hoodie?

It's all tied up with a good dose of snobbery or insecurity - people like ME don't shop at charity shops, WE can afford new (even if it is cheap shite from temu) so leave the charity shop for the OTHER people who are poor and deserving. Totally backwards way of thinking which doesn't reflect how many people are shopping in 2026. Nearly all of our customers like a bargain yes, but are concerned about sustainability, shunning fast fashion, getting items which nobody else has, reducing their carbon footprint.

It's a very outdated view that people only buy second hand because they have no other option.

Yes they have.

I usually love shopping in charity shops to avoid waste/for ethical reasons and because I don't have a lot of money to spend but I find that their pricing has become completely unrealistic.

Also in the past couple of weeks every time I visit a charity shop I have heard other potential customers complaining about prices and choosing to leave empty handed.

I still find the odd bargain but the majority of what I see is overpriced tatty stuff that just ends up being discounted anyway.

There are just over pricing themselves out of existence with their current business model.

"choosing to leave empty handed."

Where do they shop instead then ? Because IME the kind of person that pays £100 for a £500 designer coat is unlikely to buy it new at full price.

Personally I do think the charity shop model is dying - the only benefit for retaining it is probably as a local hub for receiving, sorting and listing items for internet sales and in certain areas where there is massive footfall.

The best way for a charity to maximise an income on an item is to expose it to the largest potential market possible. So designer stuff/stuff of deirability/value should really be listed on online auction sites. That obviously takes time to photo and list. A £5.99 new t-shirt sold at £1 is probably not worth listing. A £500 designer coat that sells online for £100 is.

The only advantage shops have is that they allow the buyer to inspect, and often s/h items come with small flaws or damage, which people vary with their tolerance. But this can be dealt with on line by allowing returns.

As you say they might price themselves out of the market, but my guess is they won't care. They price at what they need to in order to make the collection and sale of s/h goods viable. The time when it becomes unviable because people aren't willing to pay the prices is the time it all moves on line and they ditch the shops.

Yeah they’re getting the dregs because everyone sells anything with any value on Vinted now. So they’re struggling.

Some have shut the online offering though as the costs associated makes it unviable

. I once bought two Primark claw clips brand new from there for £2, took the charity shop sticker off and seen that they were originally £1.50 😐

But you thought they were worth £2, presumably, or you wouldn’t have bought them? No one made you.

I buy a mix of new and second hand and used to love looking in charity shops.

But I rarely look now. Sometimes I will pop in out of habit but I almost never find anything. My dd will occasionally find a top or something from a cheaper brand. But anything considered to be a “better brand” seems to be priced really high even if really old and tatty.

I think it’s a combination of two factors - people selling on Vinted (I do too!) and a huge number of people prioritising quantity over quality when it comes to clothes.

Are the costs of online trading worse than the cost of renting shop space though, and all the issues that go along with that (energy, employees etc) ?

I am actually surprised that charities have not banded together to get their own online trading platform. I bet it has been discussed. It is all about cost of implementation vs. benefit.

Online sales are doing really well where I volunteer, but as you state it takes time to list items and it’s quite time consuming.
The shops cost a lot to run, but they are also donation points for stock and cash donations and sign up points for gift aid so it’s not just about money through the till. About 75% of sales where I volunteer are gift aided.