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 shop at charity shops.

There are a couple of points I would like to give:

I am poor - I buy a lot of clothes at charity shops, because they are cheaper (so I can have more clothes for less money) but also because they aren't High Street designs (more likely to find something I like)

I don't donate to charity (ie give them cash) because I can't afford to. Charity shops mean that I can donate to charity and get something that I need.

That's the point of charity shops, not to overcharge for goods that won't sell because they're overcharged.

IMO, charity shops help the people who buy their stuff as well as the people the money is going to.

Oxfam does overcharge, and that's not helping anyone - the charity gets less money as the people who need to buy stuff there can't afford to.
Even if they had maybe, a boutique rail (like Cancer REsearch does), where good quality/designer/mre valuable items get sold at higher prices and general stuff gets sold cheaper.

oh , but that would be getting the best of both worlds, wouldn't it? silly me.

I agree some of them have become very pricey.

Also why do some sell so much new stuff? Sue Ryder are obsessed with dolls houses for some reason.

I suspect there's also a tendency for some charity-shop staff to stick silly prices on donations because they look it up on the internet, see someone trying to sell it for some ludicrously inflated sum, and think 'well, that's what it must be worth'.

My local Oxfam books has a display case where they put things they consider to be 'rare' (= expensive). The other week they were asking £12.50 each for old 'Giles' annuals - those 1970's cartoon books that most 2nd-hand bookshops can't even give away. They're not remotely rare or scarce. Meanwhile they're taking up space and will no doubt sit there for months and months. Crazy.

The only aim of charity shops is to raise as much money for their charity as possible, if they can get the high prices that they charge then they should charge them. The fact that it may mean that some people can't afford to shop at them is irrelevant.

My sister is a manager of a charity shop and they have very strict rules about the prices. It is usually a third of the original retail price. The problem lies with the volunteers who don't know how much thngs cost when new. Alot of the time it is juts guesswork so this explains the variation in prices.

I have two suggestions, and I haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if I'm not the first.

Books - library. Free, can't say fairer than that. I don't think.

Other stuff - boot fairs/jumble sales. These days I go with a purpose or you'll sink without trace. E.g. board books and toy vehicles, animals and dinosaurs was this weekend. Another time I'll target vests or gro-bags. It's a right bun fight so you need to focus. I was chuffed to bits with this weekends haul.

I'll make it three suggestions now and I'm sure this has been done by now, but sadly DH accepted an invite to a black tie do. I resent hours trailing round the shops and a small fortune for a dress that will be worn for a few hours, got the whole outfit off e-bay for less than £50, shoes included.

Suggestion 4 is mending, which I used to be too lazy for until I was skint. I am astonished how much wear I get out of things for a few stitches. Notably socks. Almost never buy them now.

I may be being patronising now.

madmartigan - I agree with you on mending - I won't throw anything out till it's more darning than original fabric!

kepp trying to get DH to darn his socks - he's a postman and gets through socks like water! I can't touch them, though, because after a day walking round on them, they are rank.
then he puts them in the wash and we forget they need mending till he's wearing them.

Gosh, I'm so envious of those of you who can darn. I watched my mum do it when I was a kid, but she didn't pass it onto me!

Do you find it easy? Whenever I've tried it, it just looks messy and feels really uncomfortable.

werewolf i think with me it's more "darn" than darn.

It always looks messy - I just pick up the broken threads and sew them together!

(i'm sure i was taught how to do it properly once....)

After 20 years in charity retail, i can quite categorically state that selling things cheap definitely does NOT make more money for the charity. If you sell things cheap, you tend to notice the quality of your donations drop away as donors see you as not getting maximising the value of their donations!

Since Primark, George and the like started up, selling clothes cheaper than everywhere else has become an unrealistic option as you have to know exactly how much every item is selling for in all local shops.

it's better to attract better quality donations and sell them for the best price you can possibly get IN ORDER TO RAISE AS MUCH MONEY FOR THE CAUSE AS POSSIBLE. Running charity shops is an expensive business - they may be staffed mainly by volunteers and get their stock 'free' but rent, utility bills, general running costs, legislative stuff etc is getting more expensive all the time and the shops HAVE to turn a profit!

Yes, but if you are charging more for things than they can be bought new, nobody will buy them. So no profit.