or is my local charity shop having a laugh?

[AmberNectarine]

Just popped in for a quick browse, and was staggered at the prices:

Not terribly nice Kurt Geiger flats - £45
Radley bag - £100
Primark acrylic jumper - £6.50

Haven't done any charity shopping since I moved to the area (though have dropped off a couple of bags) but is this the norm now? While I appreciate they are trying to make money for the charity, surely people would buy new rather than pay these prices? As a case in point we bought MIL a Radley last Xmas - it was £95 but John Lewis were doing a 20% disount so it ended up being seventy-something, and it was brand new...

Flame me if I'm wide of the mark here but aren't they going to put themselves out of business?

Prices seem to have gone up since eBay, so I guess they are trying to make up their losses

All they are doing is making the losses by their own greed. They price items according to the price that is on ebay, so rather than make a smaller profit, but a profit nontheless from people who want to earn themselves some money too, they end up with stock sitting in their shops that nobody will buy.

I was in one the other day and the two women were discussing a jumper that had been donated, saying how lovely it was, and wondering if it was silk. They decided it was, and it should be £12.

It was from bloody New Look!

Oxfam have nothing but tat in their shops because they have cut out the high street customer and sell their stuff on ebay, and I believe many other of the charity shops are doing this too now.

I think Oxfam in Durham had to close because the prices were too high. I regularly used to visit and stock up on childrens books for ds1, but then it became unaffordable, so I quit even going in to browse.

Some of our local charity shops really hoik up prices too. Not to the extent that yours does though. I find it's the "chain" charity shops that overcharge. The small local ones for local charities such as the local hospice one set prices that are a lot fairer.

Wow! That's such a shame as it completely cuts off a source of clothes for people who don't want to/ can't pay shop prices.

It makes me feel quite sad as it's such a money-focussed way of using something that you'd think was set up to try & help different groups of people in different ways.

Hi everyone...I used to manage a charity shop in the somerset area. We were given a 'guide price' for everything -especially if it was designer etc. I know a lot of other charity shops have the same. However...our shop was small..low maintenance & our town was small so I would always lower the 'guide price' as I found it extortionate to expect such prices! Hence we sold more as it was cheaper & 'ragged' a lot less. The items were free to us as they were donated...so we had still gained although we sold cheaper than other shops.
But I have seen sooo many charity shops exploit the credit crunch & bump up their prices. It's sad really as these shops are sometimes the only shops some can buy in & shop be 'budget friendly'...I am a regular charity shop buyer & have noticed the price increase!

I don't shop in charity shops any more. Tooooo expensive!!!

The charity shops moan that ebay sellers are buying their stock, but why? what difference does it make to them if they sell something to an ebay seller or not? they will still get the money, and if it enables someone who doesnt have much money to make some, then that is still a benefit to someone who needs it.

Blimey!

They'd close after 5 mins round here.

The charity shops' overpricing defence - common to all rip-off merchants - is that 'You don't have to buy it.'

Which sounds all well and good - but these store chains are all being subsidised wildly through tax breaks, rate holidays, and volunteer work to provide a social service. Which other overpricers aren't.

I suspect the huge vat of goodwill most charity stores have historically relied on to attract customers is diminishing. They've already lost their customers who need to use them in London, and while a lot of people like giving to charity, no one likes - or needs - to be ripped off. Finally, with prices shooting ever upward, their service levels and consumer rights certainly aren't.

Our Hospice shop is fabulous, 3 pairs of wellies for £4.

hiddenhome - it didn't close, it moved (or has it closed since moving?) The shop finder still lists it as on Elvet bridge.

YANBU - charity shops near me (london) charge comedy prices. Clearly they think of themselves as vintage emporiums now and add an extra £10 or so to the price of everything. I avoid them now.

The save the children shop up on North Road seems to have a few bargains in, bookwise, by the way. I picked up a pristine Cows in Action book for DS1, there, last week, for 99p. They had quite a few of them on the shelf.

YANBU. The other day I was in a local one, flicking through some old vinyl LP's. They wanted £2.50 per record. Most of those had very, very little value, but what can you say? If you say 'that's too much' you sound tight and I would never haggle in a charity shop, but you just know they are never going to sell any at that price.

Agree with Jeo that our local hospice shop is excellent. Very low prices and good stock.

The other five local charity shops, however, seem to sell either far too much generic 'outlet' stuff, or have had items priced by unworldly demented loons.

Often the stuff's cheaper new.

Do they not know that you can buy new DVDs for £3 in Asda? So why try and sell it used at £3.99? Why would I want to pay £10 for a £3 mirror?

Hramph. I'm sure I'm supposed to feel that Save the Children or Age UK are such a wildly worthy cause that it dwarfs the local poor being ripped off, but I don't.

The best charity shop I know is Oasis on Trinity Road London Sw17 nr Tooting Bec tube. Aids charity.

Not only do the staff gamely train people with learning difficulties/mardy teenagers on probation to work with them, they also get Urban Outfitters sale stock every now and then, hot off the shop floor. For which they charge a fiver or a tenner apiece, which seems fair. UO jewellery and bits are about £3.

Has anyone ever had the guts to tell a charity shop they're charging too much?

I've informed them when something is unsellable (computer games which had an online copy protection preventing them from being resold), but never when something is overpriced.

I'm in a village in W Yorks, Last week our charity shop was selling an Asda baby vest for £1, which are £2.50 for 3 new I think! Primark l/s Ts for £4, which are also less than that new. Mad.

But I also got a Moschino jacket last year for a tenner.

I have told them a few times, but they take no notice. Unsurprisingly the items are still sitting there gathering dust weeks later.

One of my local shops now has a "retro" section... which means they think they can add an extra few quid onto the items..

Many charity shop workers seem to be channelling their inner "GP's receptionist" charm too, and act as if they are running an outlet of Harrods.

Ours have quite random pricing. Primark items and Karen Millen priced the same, for example. But loads of healthy bargains - I rarely leave without something.

But they did have a Mulberry bag in last week for £55.

I agree, YANBU. I went in two yesterday, the first one I got a brand new (well looked it) jumper dress for me and a small Power Ranger figurine for ds for £5.50. The second one was selling crappy nik naks like ceramic cereal bowls for £3.00 a piece and scabby used Xmas decs for more than they cost new. I walked out in disgust whilst muttering to my three year old 'mummy doesn't have enough pennies for this shop'

I do quite a lot of craft work and charity shops used to be a good source of material. Now they're too expensive, cheaper to buy fabric. It's a shame because it's nice to be able to reuse and recycle.

My local charity shop is a dream tbh. They know they sell goods well under price but it is help the local community.

The rest though are a big con and I complelty agree about oxfam being so expensive that it's not worth going in there.

I don't expect to pay jumble sale prices but equally, it is madness for charity shops to charge more for items than they would have cost new at, say, Primark.

Whilst they might well have pricing guidelines, round here these are applied somewhat cynically. Because of a major local activity and the numbers of us involved in it there are always separate rails labelled "Bonfire" in our charity shops. These inevitably contain inflammable, unsuitable stuff at a premium price. It is worse in Brighton where "vintage" runs riot. Also priced through the roof. However, if you head off into less advantaged areas of the county, the prices are completely different and much more reflective of common sense and the need to turn the stock around and actually make some money for the charities concerned.

Most of the ridiculously priced items remain on the rails/shelves. But even if you do, politely, protest at the prices, you'll rarely be met with other than "we are told what we have to charge". I can't believe that individual shop managers don't have some sort of discretion or aren't encouraged to believe that any goods that were donated for nothing are best sold. Stuff hanging around for ages does nobody any good, surely?