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 ?

No, I don't think that they have lost their minds at all. Charity shops are trying to make money! They are not trying to be charitable themselves.

Charity shops have to pay rent and business rates (even if they might be slightly discounted) for their shops. They may be fortunate enough to have some volunteers, but there will also be a paid member of staff or two to ensure that the shop opens each day and the overall management is done properly. Nowadays there is way more competition in the 2nd hand clothes market than there used to be with everyone and their neighbour selling their own 2nd hand clothes on ebay and vinted. I'm amazed that any of the shops make any money at all.

I hate fast fashion with a passion, so I do shop at Charity Shops quite a lot, but agree that the quality has gone down and prices up, so rarely buy these days. My husband picked up a nice (but not outstanding) pair of Italian leather shoes the other day. Rung them up at £50 at the till. He has misread the price as £5. Back on the shelf they went. My new attitude is to buy better quality but much less often and that means less and less at the CS. Sad really as it used to be fun and great for a bargain.

Again for those at the back, the mission statement of a charity shop has never ever involved bargains.

Same with Woolworth’s for example, it doesn’t mean we can’t miss it.

🤔

That seems cheap for a paperback in a dedicated bookseller, as long as the quality isn't too terrible. The last non charity secondhand bookshop I went in, most paperbacks were about 5.50 and a lot weren't even that good quality.

You (conveniently) forgot to mention they get all their stock FREE!

I visit charity shops near London and in a small town in Cumbria often. The prices up North are incredibly cheap compared to the South! At least 3 times more in London for equivalent items. I suspect this is because the rent is so much less. There may also be a lot more house clearances in Cumbria as it is a popular retirement area.

There's a common complaint that charity shop quality has come down - of course it has, but it's not the fault of charity shops!

It's the fault of Shein and Temu and cheap fast fashion which (as a society) we are addicted to. The quality, and price, of clothes has plummeted over the last 20-30 years and we lap it up because it's cheap.

Higher end high street brands have reduced their quality in order to try and match consumer expectations about pricing.

If we want quality in charity shops, we're (as a society) going to have to start stumping up for quality brand new and start rejecting cheap fast fashion.

I don't give more even when I find the odd bargain, (like my M & S cardigans) because the little gems I find are as rare as hens teeth. Most stuff is hilariously overpriced, and so no I WON'T give an extra £20 for each one of my M & S cardigans.

HTH.

You should see what some non charity secondhand bookshops charge!

So do many small businesses, and businesses with rents below a certain amount.

Do you think charities should not benefit from reduced businesses rates?

Not what I said, at all. I was talking about a designer item with a retail price of, say, £200, that's been mistakenly priced at £4.

And you know that perfectly well.

No charity would even dream of your offering to donate £20 for your buggering "little M&S cardies".

The stock may arrive for free but it has to be sorted, stored and put out. There are costs associated with that. The stuff that isn’t clean or suitable for sale has to be moved on in some way. It’s not like H&M where the stock arrives JIT and goes out ready for sale. Also the prices they charge, even if not always a rock bottom bargain are lower than shops selling new stock or antiques. I don’t work for a charity or have any skin in the game but I genuinely do wonder how they can cover their outgoings, let alone actually make any money.

I guess the people with money who enjoy 'bargain hunting' in charity shops will buy it. If I were going to buy a cheap high street brand, I'd rather buy it brand new.

But in terms of over-pricing, the charity will have rules they have to follow. I volunteered for a well known charity over 20 years ago and, even at that time, we had to find out the RRP and mark it no less than 50% of that (which I considered massively over-pricing the items). And to those saying there's a cost associated with sorting and pricing items, it may differ per store/charity but, in my experience, there was zero cost to the shop as, except for the manager (who wasn't always there), everyone was a volunteer.

Still some cost to sorting and pricing, though - electricity and heat in the storeroom, or to wash, dry and possibly iron any dirty clothes. Bags for stuff going to rags/bin. Gift aid labels and price tags. Tea and coffee for the volunteers etc. Training for the volunteers in pricing and policies and quality control.

(also used to volunteer)

Selling more at a lower price is the business model of Goodwill in the US.

They do uniform pricing, so you could pick up a Walmart top or one from JCrew and they'd both be $6.99.

The shops are always heaving with people pushing their loaded trollies around, and you always have to queue for one of the four open cashiers in the one near me.

Conversely, I have picked up 2 extremely cheap pieces of furniture in the last couple of weeks. And I have bought 2 cut glass bowls (at different times) that were around £3 each.

Pricing can be very odd I think.

When do the clothes ever get washed, dried, and ironed? I have never heard of this happening. Are you SURE you used to volunteer?

Yes. I'm sure, thanks.

(Oxfam shop)

Doesn't happen in the Oxfam my dd works for. Gets sorted and steamed. Any dirty clothes gets sent straight to recycling

When?

I’ve worked in Oxfam and seven other charity shops and I have never, ever heard of items being washed, dried, or ironed. We use steamers. I can only think this was in the 70s or 80s because I can say with absolute certainty that this doesn’t happen these days.

I may be one of the posters who talked about the bargains…

Just to say, I do quite often make an additional donation, but I do this on-line, and never offer to pay more at the till - it would definitely look like I’m playing Lady Bountiful if I did. It also kind of implies that I know more than the shop workers. That said, I was in one shop when they unpacked a MaxMara coat, and I did tell them to check up the cost on-line, because the person unpacking clearly had no idea (she’d just tried it on, and it looked fabulous on her). They sold it for £30 as a result (they told me next time I was in).

I should add, however good the bargain, I only give an additional donation if I like the charity. So, for example, when I bought a book for a tenner in a charity bookshop, and subsequently sold it for several hundred pounds, I didn’t feel the need to give any money, because it wasn’t a charity I support (I’m not naming the charity because I don’t want to debate whether a charity is ‘good’ or not).

Given the thousands of charity shops across the UK, I presume different shops will take different approaches to whether or not they do any laundry and ironing. The large national charity shop chain my DD did her DofE voluntary work in (6 yrs ago) did launder items that were worth laundering. One of her jobs was to iron stuff, as some of it had been rammed into bags and just looked like a crumpled mess. She also used to help with the price tagging of every single item, which was a laborious process too.

Thanks @MargoLivebetter

Different people in different locations have different experiences is hardly shocking news to me, but apparently it is to some PPs!