To think certain charity shops are charging far too much?

[wintersnow]

Our family isn't very well of and I rely heavily on charity shops for clothes, toys etc as we have no cheap shops in our area - primark/matalan and the like. Certain ones like Oxfam are so expensive I no longer go in there, some of the things are cheaper to by new! Obviously I realise the money is for charity and they need as much of it as they can get but the cheaper shops are always full of customers and get massive donations whereas teh more expensive ones are always empty, can't see the logic.

I have seen things in Oxfam that are more expensive than from the original shop, I saw a bag from Primark there for £15 which was still in store for £8. I go to banardos and roy castle, got a lovely 3 in 1 Nike coat for ds2 for £5.

I find charity shops are generally poor value, I never understand why people consider them to be money-saving. I generally buy clothes in sales and outlet stores which often charge less than charity shops, it means I get a better choice and the clothes haven't had someone sweating in it before me!

I emailed the british heart foundation.

There was a beautiful coat in there priced at £50 it wasnt a designer coat it was clearly worn it wasnt a 'modern' coat nor was it pure new wool.

I said I thought there pricing structure needed some definition the charity shops were outpricing the very people they intend to help and that If I had £50 to spend on a coat I could have bought a similar new one for much less.....they emailed me back to say pricing was at the discretion of the manager but they would visit the shop and guide them to more realistic prices ......its still v expensive but not quite so.

I do love to shop in charity shops and I am happy to shop there so the charity is making money. However, I agree totally that Oxfam and the Octavia Foundation (what do they do, does anyone know?) are being ridiculous. The other charity shops in the street agree that they overprice.

THey have a pair of new look shoes that are a bit scuffed for £25. A 4 year old Boden coat (that I own already) for £60.

I only shop in DeBRA and Sally Amy now.

Sally army.

That's the joy of shopping in a town though, you can withhold your custom from a shop you disapprove of.
So if you think Oxfam are too pricey, don't donate stuff and don't shop there.

dittany, I reckon Oxfam have some of the worst customer relations going. We were instructed that if anyone queried a price, we should say exactly that to them.

Of course, in a charity shop in the North East, when we were pricing a primark t-shirt at 3.99, I didn't!

I think some places take advantage of the desire to give to charity and then end up shooting themselves in the foot because people aren't willing to pay.

Round here Sally Ann's always the cheapest (kids' books 5p, I got a pair of hiking boots for a fiver, chest of drawers a tenner etc) and their turnover is incredibly high. However that means that generally if we're having a clearout, I don't take decent stuff there as I feel they're not getting as much for it as they should. The local children's hospice shop closed :( and has been replaced with a cat's rescue that charges the £5 for a manky shirt, £2 a bashed up paperback prices and it's just not what people are expecting to pay in a charity shop. Saying that there's an amazing road that has loads (Cancer Research, Mind, Oxfam, Red Cross, British Heart Foundation, RSPCA 'vintage') and you can usually find things at a decent price in all bar Oxfam.

Actually, our local sure start centre has its own charity shop that we tend to give things to since we use the centre, and their pricing is so utterly random. I'll pickup 3 bits for dd from the 50p basket, and the chap on the till will look at them and say "£2.50 the lot?" I don't mind paying the extra but I imagine some people could find it hard if they've chosen things specially for their price.

Agree, I think it's the way it's phrased that is the problem.

It also feels very smug not to acknowledge that of course the customers are not the people the charity is trying to support, when some people obviously rely on cheap shops. Where I was, it wasn't funky students coming in because it was trendy, and I think that's who that line is really aimed at.

The aim of charity shops is to raise as much money as possible for their charity. The aIM is not to provide cheap clothes to people with a low income.

So they will charge whatever they think the market price is.

'Where I was, it wasn't funky students coming in because it was trendy'

You think that's why students buy from charity shops? My DD is living on £30 a week.

Sorry Goblin, I meant no offense to your DD - I think that Oxfam is using that phrase because they've think their customers have plenty of money but are tight. Where I was, that was clearly not the case. I am willing to accept that the big posh Oxfam in London (the boutique one), or the boutique in Durham, might have a different clientale, but still don't see why it is appropriate to guilt-trip customers.

Emmaus and RSPCA charity shop in Gloucestershire are VERY stupidly expensive! OAP type boots 20 and 30 pounds. They think they are chic boutiques but actually mostly sell stuff my gran would love. Items often seem to sit around for ages as they are so over priced. Recently i found three toy wooden train carridges with shape sorter dowling on top BUT no engine and no shapes to sort. Madness!! I showed the lady behind the desk and she seemed to justify the 3.50 price! She would be lucky to get 50p in all honesty.

I can see they want get top doller for their charity BUT everything they have is donated and alot of people who shop in charity shops are also very poor. I've stopped donating to charity shops and also visit them a lot less. I now use chaper car boot sales for bargins.

Must mention that charity shops only have to pay 20% (and some times nothing)in business rates. This saves them thousands of pounds each year.

But no (charity) shop is going to price their items at £10 if they don't sell and the market price is closer to £6.

If they do, they will soon find themselves going out of business.

If they are selling items and making their target profits, then they are not going to decrease prices.

And yes, people who buy are looking for a bargain, they are not donating to a good cause. So charity shops need to get their prices right.

If people don't like the prices, they stop buying and that is when the pricing policy will have to change.

If a few people complain, but profits are being maintained/increased, then they are not going to change.

pointydog - the whole point of this thread is that some charity shops are pricing things at £10 that don't sell and are more expensive than their new price!

I think it depends on the area

I recently visited a few charity shops, including a BHF in a relatively poor area - they had junk, which would not be taken on freecycle and were charging more for it similar would cost new (e.g. chipped old formica tables for more than new tables from Ikea). Disgusting, tatty old highchairs were £70+.

I then visited other charity shops and a BHF in a neighbouring town, in a nicer area - I only wished I was able to carry more stuff away with me. The staff seemed to have an entirely different attitude too, they were friendly and helpful.