Overpriced charity shops

[Globules]

I went charity shopping today.

I couldn't get over how much they were charging for past their prime Primarni and Bon Marche.

I don't want to pay £8 for a t shirt from Primark!

I went in around 10 shops today... All similar pricing.

Do they want buyers?!

You know those 'pound token ' things you can buy for the trolley you use if you don't have a pound? - my local shop is asking £4.50 for one..

The local charity shops round here have all got a bit “ambitious” with the pricing…… I like to support them but I don’t want to be ripped off!
£4.50 for a supermarket token keyring is madness! It’s the same with their Christmas cards they are also a ridiculous amount of money!

A few of the ones around here have shut down recently.

Its cheaper to buy fast fashion from shein and the like than it is to buy second hand, they have priced themselves out of business.

you query the cost

Imagine a shop that needs to pay 2 people minimum - relying on volunteers for everything else - shop work to cleaning to sorting goods

so at minimum wage -26k , 52k . Assume rent and utilities and everything else is free

shop needs to take in a grand a week - roughly 150 a day to cover those basic costs. Probably more like £300

thats 300 items at a pound each - is that likely ? That they could sell that many things each and every day ?

you also query the quality - lots of cheap clothes for sale. But they will only get in what people are buying new.

Stop it! No way!

Then the business model doesn't work.

There is precisely one reason charity shops exist and that is to raise as much money as possible for the charity.
Unless it is a clothes bank/ homeless charity they have literally nothing to do with providing cheap or affordable clothing to the public.

They are target driven to fulfil commitments to research project costs in the case of medical charities like CRUK.

They arent raising any money for the charity when they shut down because they have priced themselves out though 🤷🏽‍♀️

Lots of charity shops have closed down here too. Our local hospice used to have afew shops in and around the area they now have one like big warehouse place - but there is racks and racks of stuff in there for sale and you can get it new cheaper. They would sell more if they priced it better and hit their targets.
I also think tho more people are watching their pennies and using vinted to sell stuff - I have a personal target with my sister - we both aim to shift £50’s worth of stuff a month and have a little competition going on to get to this because we then use the money to buy other bits we need. This stuff might have gone to the charity shops- but in the current climate - charity begins at home! 🏠

Way off, there will be a FT manager, probably an AM and paid Sunday staff.
The costs of insurance, software, IT help desk, cyber till security,rates, utilities, maintenance, window cleaning, H&S provision and waste removal are substantially high.

Weekly target is nearer £3.5k

There's a Cancer research shop near where I live and I regularly get bargains there ..The ladies tops are of good quality and all priced at £2 or £3 .Ive given up going in most of the others as a lot of the stuff is overpriced tat !! .

There's a Cancer research shop near where I live and I regularly get bargains there ..The ladies tops are of good quality and all priced at £2 or £3 .Ive given up going in most of the others as a lot of the stuff is overpriced tat !! .

I volunteer (occasionally) in our local thrift shop where there is a pile it high sell it cheap mentality . Different charities / local groups take it over for a week at a time and pay a few hundred quid in rent/ utilities. The least we’ve made in a rainy week in Feb with one of the main roads in closed was £1400 normally £2000 for niche groups and the more popular groups are £3000-£5000 for a week. Vast majority of stuff is a quid. Nothing has prices and it’s a make me an offer 😁 tupe place. Locals are really generous and are forever dropping off bags of clean, ironed clothes/ many random things.

I get that it’s a model that’s not going to make £££s for a large charity but it’s got lots of community goodwill and does help many local causes.

I do think it’s a model your going to see more of in the future as I think lots of people want clothes/ books/ bric a brac reused
and a lot of charity shop donations is binned/ ragged as can’t achieve the higher price points.

The model is changing and becoming unsustainable due to lower and poorer donations, death of the high street, competition from online ie Vinted and rising costs. It is more nuanced, there is a shift to large warehouse style out of town models with parking, cafe, furniture etc.
The value of rag is through the floor due to global overconsumption and waste removal is expensive. Fly tipping at charity shops is a huge problem.

We stopped using them way too expensive and I give our unwanted stuff away on FB.

I just use Vinted now because it’s cheaper than charity shops even when you include the postage fee.