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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be frustrated by charity shop wanting to display items rather than sell them...

86 replies

5Foot5 · 13/04/2011 13:48

I have no nice tea cups and saucers. In fact I have none at all, nice or otherwise. I have a china dinner service which we got as a wedding present but that only has coffee cups. Over the years we have had various "everyday" tea cups but these are currently at an all time low. (None) Mostly this matters not as we drink out of mugs and have plenty of those.

However, at Christmas I was bought a lovely three tier cake stand, something I have always wanted. With Easter approaching and guests expected I decided it would be nice one day to serve a "proper" afternoon tea. Little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, home made scones and cake - you get the picture. In fact if that went well I thought we might do something similar at the Royal Wedding.

So, I had to address the tea cup question. I didn't want and couldn't afford to spend a great deal of money on new china so I decided to look around the charity shops to see what they had to offer. In the window of one (Help the Aged) they had a rather nice set of six Ainsley china tea cups and saucers for £25. I thought this was quite good but decided to look at all the others first. Nowhere else came close - either they were very ordinary and bleak or the sets were incomplete or contained only four of everything.

After thinking it over (and on receipt of a small win on the lottery!) I decided to go back today and buy the Ainsley set if it was still there. Well it was and on second viewing I liked it even more than I had at first. I did notice that since my last visit they had decorated the window on a Royal Wedding theme. Everyone is doing it aren't they?

But when I went in and told the lady at the counter that I was interested in the china in the window she said that she couldn't sell me anything on display there! When I enquired why she explained that as the window had been arranged to celebrate the RW they were not allowed to move or remove anything until after the big day. She could take my name and telephone number and I could go back and buy it after 29th April but that was the best she could do!

Well I left it. I need teacups NOW. But can you imaging an ordinary business taking that attitude?

Sorry if this is a bit of a long rant about teacups but I am quite disappointed and casting about now for ideas where I can get something as nice without spending too much Sad

OP posts:
HHLimbo · 13/04/2011 15:40

Bonkers!

Original poster
5Foot5 · 13/04/2011 15:46

LyingWitch: but as plupedantic pointed out - I won't really want it so much after the wedding. There are two occasions in the near future when I can see it would be good to have this set - Easter and the RW. After that it could be months before I can think of a good reason to get out nice china.

Come to think of it, that could probably apply to most of the stuff in their window display. It was all done with a theme of celebrating the wedding so nice china, ornaments, royal memorabilia and so on. Chances are then that things in the display will appeal most to people with RW celebrations in mind, which is all a bit pointles if they can't buy them until afterwards.

I can't help thinking this strategy had not been thoroughly thought through.

OP posts:
thumbwitch · 13/04/2011 16:24

I agree with you 5Foot5 - no point in having all their RW stuff in the window display for no one to be able to buy - people will just keep asking about it, and being told "no" - and there's no point drawing them into the shop with the window display if all the relevant stock is IN the bloody window display!

trumpton · 13/04/2011 16:41

Look ! Look ! So pretty and due to end soon. But quite agree about the irraitation of non-sale window displays.

JanetPlanet · 13/04/2011 17:03

YANBU The oxfam near me does this all the time! So annoying that all the decent stuff is for 'display purposes' not charitable purposes.

Original poster
5Foot5 · 14/04/2011 13:07

Well YAH BOO SUCKS to Help the Aged!

Walking home last night I spotted a little antique and bric-a-brac shop that I have never been in. Called in just now and bought a lovely little tea set.

Granted it is not Ainsley china. It is Alfred Meakin but very attractive IMO. I got 7 cups, saucers and tea plates plus 2 larger serving plates all for £28.

Well pleased. Smile
The tea party is on!!

OP posts:
thumbwitch · 14/04/2011 13:19

Hurrah! Do drop a note off to Help The Aged to let them know that their intransigence has deprived them of a decent sale, won't you?

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 14/04/2011 13:22

I think this is common..ours has a lovely (donated) cabinet and wont sell it. Angry

mollymole · 14/04/2011 14:15

when i worked in a charity shop we loved selling the window items - we could have something in the shop for a week NO sale of it - put it in a window display and sell within the hour - we had a ready supply of 'window replacements' ready for display - HOWEVER some of the other 'Rotweilers' (other volunteers) claimed they were 'not allowed' (couldn't be arsed) to take items from the window

treas · 14/04/2011 14:17

Send round Mary Portas!

plupedantic · 14/04/2011 16:38

SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets, has anyone been tempted to flypost the window to advertise that a donation (the cabinet) isn't being sold?!

SolarPanel · 14/04/2011 16:50

YANBU, what a ridiculous policy. They should be more creative and make a window display anything that's red, white and/or blue that hasn't been sold yet.

oldwomaninashoe · 14/04/2011 16:57

OP take yourself off to a local Auction Room, there will be lots of tea sets there for you to bid on and they go very cheaply. eg We sent my late mothers bone china Wedgwood dinner and tea service to auction and it raised £30!

karenjo69 · 23/01/2017 11:26

I understand your frustration BUT I am a manager of a charity shop so I can totally understand why they couldn't sell it straight away. I now do just as the charity shop said to you. The window has to be eye catching or stand out for people to take a second look. I try to change my window often and some are better than others but I usually use items that are donated so I cant pick and choose what I want to do.
One time I decorated it for Chinese new year and I was chuffed to bits the way it turned out. The main feature was the 2 mannequins which were dressed in beautiful kimonos and I dressed the rest of the window around the colours of them. It was my day off the next day so when I returned the following day I was gutted my deputy had sold them (I hadn't told her not to so she wasn't wrong)but the window was ruined.
I now put signs up saying display only not for sale this way customers are aware and if a customer like yourself really wanted something I would reserve it just like the lady had said to you. You cant always get what you want when you want in this life

WhoremoaneeGrainger · 23/01/2017 11:28

ZOMBIE THREAD**

SecretNutellaFix · 23/01/2017 11:28

FFS,

ZOMBIETHREAD.

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece · 23/01/2017 11:30

Fucks sake...if you've read the op do the words "Royal Wedding" not make you think you should look at the bloody date it was written

EduCated · 23/01/2017 11:31

THIS THREAD IS SIX YEARS OLD. Read about the Royal Wedding and thought I'd fallen into some kind of vortex.

And Karen, surely it's about selling stuff? Yes it's annoying, but come on! It's not like a normal shop where you can walk in and find a rack of the things on display. And do you mean kimonos, as those are Japanese?

mycatwantstokillme1 · 23/01/2017 11:44

I volunteered in a charity shop a few years ago and they had this rule too. I thought it was daft, if someone wants to buy something, let them buy it there and then and put something else in the window!

AnnieAnoniMouse · 23/01/2017 11:46

👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹

ZOMBIE THREAD

👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻👹👻

SquitMcJit · 23/01/2017 11:48

I really hope she has been allowed to buy the teaset by now... (grin)

GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick · 23/01/2017 11:59

Those cakes are going to be pretty stale by now!

TheWorstNoel · 23/01/2017 12:03

how on earth do zombie reposters even FIND these threads? you'd have to be pretty aggrieved about customers derailing your kimonos to search the chat archives to unearth a similar issue. Confused

SpringerS · 23/01/2017 12:03

I was wondering which royals were getting married. And also shocked that the charity shop had set out a window in January to be left as it is until the end of April. That seemed super bonkers.

I'm a former charity shop manager and window display sales are a common tactic in some charity shops. They feel that the week/fortnight long nice window display along with the buzz of the queue on Saturday morning ahead of the window sale help sales. If they know that every (second) Saturday morning there will be a lot of customers they can fill the shop with fantastic stuff on Friday evening, assured of a full shop to potentially buy most of it the next day.

It's not something I ever did because 1. your window is your best sales display so if you use it as a sales area with high turnover you will make far more money. And 2. not selling from the window as and when people ask for items creates bad feeling that will discourage new customers. A lot of people come into a charity shop for the first time because of an inviting object in the window and if you sell it to them they are likely to return whereas if you inform them there is some prohibition on selling it they are very likely to be put off your shop, if not all charity shops, for good.

Thats said you do get a lot of people demanding to buy shop supplies. The mannequins, lockable wall mounted cabinets, the shelves the books and bric-a-brac are displayed on, the chairs in the changing room, by the books or that the volunteer behind the counter is sitting on, the step ladder in the sorting area, the cd player behind the counter that's playing music to the shop, even the computer that you might see on the manager's desk if you stick your head around the staff door are all bought or sourced especially to make the shop run well and create a nice atmosphere for customers and volunteers. They aren't for sale and in the case of items like mannequins and display units, they were probably bought from a shop fittings company when the shop opened and cost a small fortune.