To think that 35 quid for a coat in a charity shop that has no label is ridiculous?

[comfortablyum]

Er, the title says it all. . Wandered into charity shop (not fair to say what the place is in aid of or where it is), for a look about. Picked a nice coat. The price tag said 'vintage' and was priced at 35 quid.
Now two things:
1, Since when has stuff in a charity shop been 35 quid ?

2, How the giddens can they justify this without the item even having a label ?

I mean it didn't say 'Dior' or anything. Grr... Afraid I walked out in a bit of flounce. Bad of me I know.

@fallencaryatid . Round here they are pricing themselves out of the market. They are trying to sell second hand, used goods for more than the original shops are selling them for.

I'm not talking about some vintage gem tucked away at the back of the shop or a Clarice Cliffe teaset. Just general high street stuff. A shirt I bought in H&M a few months ago for £7.99 and is now in their sale for a fiver is up for sale in a charity shop for £9.99. It wasn't a popular sell out item that hits eBay for twice the price or anything like that.

Modern china that you can buy in Matalan for a couple of quid is twice the price in the CS

Primark is in the next town, we have a Matalan, a QS, all selling new clothes on a budget for less than the charity shops are round here

I used to shop in charity shops a lot. My eldest DD likes sewing so I used to buy plain jeans or a plain white shirt for a couple of pounds for her to mess around with but it's cheaper to go to Primark now.

I've been hunting for a bashed up pine kitchen table, the local charity furniture warehouse used to be the place to go, but lately they've started only selling new furniture which is more expensive than the basics in Ikea

Round here they're struggling a lot and they don't seem to be heading in the right direction.

I never ever darken the door of charity shops, I can't stand the smell. I do however give regularly to my chosen charities.

There are of course far too many charity shops in most towns, we have about 8 or 9.

It's not a donation yrc, it's a swap.
You buy the coat and they get the cash. It's hard to find a decent adult winter coat in the shops for £35.

Not going to find common ground here are we?
I love charity shops, the diversity, the neatness of selling someone's unwanted stuff to someone that wants it and raising money for a cause. I love the way that so many people give up their time for nothing, and the way that my son is welcomed and talked to by so many of the workers there. The fact that I can afford to read the latest novels and prizewinners if I only wait a couple of months, and for £1.99 instead of £8.99.
They are so much more interesting to shop in than most of the high street shops.

Fallen, er, yes, a swap of cash. Cash that not everyone has. Hard it may be to find a decent winter coat for £35 but what do you think a lot of people do? They go without.

everlong, that may well be the OP's situation, I have no idea, but my point still stands. Not everyone has £35 for a coat.

Like I said, I believe charity shops (in fact, all shops, but you're never going to convince big business to do their bit) have a duty to the community.

I also believe there are other problems with them, eg it was found that donating clothes to poorer countries (which they also do with some donations) was actually harming the textile industries of those places.

I love charity shops, don't get me wrong, but they are more problematic than they first appear.

My god 35 pounds for charity coat is too much. You can get new on eBay for less than than. I have noticed that the prices have been going up considerably. I saw a knackered old pair of shoes in charity shop the other day and it said eight pounds....for second hand shoes...insanity

it'd propably help a lot if people didn't donate rubbish to charity shops.

There is mountains of Primark in our local shops (priced less though!). It's not good quality and isn't fit for reselling most times, some exceptions applied.

Certainly don't understand though why people think that it's only Primark and other cheap highstreet shops that use cheap sweat shops to make their items. Unless your item of clothing is made somewhere such as Britain, France the chances are it's made by someone paid pennies.

In fact didn't Penneys/Primark up the welfare of those that make the clothing a few years back? There's a notice on the entrance to my local Penneys (which is the name for Primark in Rep. of Ireland) about it

I love the way that so many people give up their time for nothing
over here, the Salvos aren't run by volunteers anymore. They get paid, the store prices go up, and the various stores actually have competitions to see which store can make the most money. Their prices are beyond ridiculous. The last time I went into one of their stores there was a snooty cow working behind the counter and looked at me as if I wasn't good enough to be shopping there. It's a CHARITY STORE FFS!

Salvos are Salvation Army?
I haven't supported them since I was a student and saw their volunteers in Oxford behave appallingly to some of the more vulnerable street people.

Yes...sorry, us Aussies abbreviate everything (so my UK fiance tells me hehe...)
Salvos are the Salvation Army

I assumed that certain charity shops, certainly those associated with poverty charities had a duty to the local community? Otherwise its a bit of a clash of values.

Charity shops, and charity shop shopping isn't what it used to be.
I think high rents might have a lot to do with it.

So BHF, Scope, Cancer research, local hospice shops, animal welfare charities, Oxfam and all the other high st charities should also have a duty to help low income individuals as part of their charitable status?
Wouldn't that distract from their primary function of raising as much money as possible for their specific cause? Perhaps we need another facility, warehouses that people could donate essential things to, and those receiving benefits could go and select from, all free.

No that isn't what I said. The ones whose aims include reducing poverty in the UK or local community ones certainly should.

But how about a reusing facility linked to low income support services, at a national level rather than local. I've lived in areas where if you had spare furniture or carpets, you could donate them and people could come and collect if they were in need.
I got a refurbished cooker from them.
Like freecycle.

Fallen, those service already exist.

There are plenty of people (me for example!) who aren't on benefits but are skint.

Yellowraincoat, I am aware that there are people who are poor in this country, I worked in the NW for a decade, teaching in one of the most deprived areas in Europe.
Doesn't change the fact that charity shops raise funds for a specific cause that frequently isn't poverty relief in the UK. That should be a function of the government and local authorities.

I wasn't really talking about charity shops helping the poor, I was talking about your idea of having clothes banks or whatever.

I don't think it makes any sense for the Salvation Army, for example, to claim to want to help the poor and then charge huge amounts for their stuff - the shop at Oxford Circus (not sure if it's still there) is ridiculously over-priced.

Again, you don't think that charity shops should be, partly, about poverty relief. I disagree. I think we've both stated this, don't think we need to go over it again.

All those people who have always supported charity stores, many of them because that's all they could afford to do, have been betrayed by the pricing points of many charity stores.

Avoid the large 'corporate' stores with very well paid middle management and shop in small local charities. They will spend more of your charity pound at grass roots level anyway.

I do not donate to charities to buy expensive laminate flooring!

there ARE low income furniture banks, there are clothes banks, there are toy banks, these are different to charity shops, but are often FUNDED by charity shops, the charity shops need to make a profit in order to fund these other functions, but in order to make a profit it surely makes more sense to charge less and sell more, than to over price and sell much much less and get less repeat traffic in your store?

Maybe it's hand- or tailor-made, and the charity shop is aware of this?

FallenCaryatid - "The fact that I can afford to read the latest novels and prizewinners if I only wait a couple of months, and for £1.99 instead of £8.99."

Until a few years ago, a friend of mine used to regularly visit her local charity shops to buy a pile of books for 50p each instead of going to the library - once she'd read them, she'd take them back to re-donate them and get new books,, again paying 50p a book. Now the books cost £2 - £3 a time, she doesn't bother going to the charity shops anymore.

I used the library when I was broke. Don't see your point, if she can't afford to buy and donate, then she should use the library or swap amongst friends.
Every charity book I buy does several people before it is regifted, but of course then I'm endangering high street bookstores, as I do with Amazon and kindle use.
The poor in this country still have access to clean water, toilet facilities, free basic medical care and education, and a level of funding that means no one actually starves. Yes, we could do better, but it could be a lot worse.
So I don't have a problem with charities trying to fund similar access in other countries.