to think charity shops are too expensive and have lost the plot

[Hermi0ne]

Its just silly at this point. Was browsing through one of my local ones and they want 5 quid for a bobbly primark shirt! I can get that new for less! I thought, originally, charity shops wanted to also help poor people being able to afford clothes, those days seem long gone. It just really annoys me.

Saw a pair of Zara (ok they were marked as new) shorts, they were very tiny studded white denim so not a massive amount of shoppers'first choice and they were up for £17.50! Guaranteed they were a third of that in the sale.

mollie I wasn't saying that there is anything wrong with make do and mend. It was in response to a pp complaining about a bobbly primark tshirt being overpriced. If you need to make a profit from second hand goods then you need to sell good quality, otherwise people will just go straight to primark and get new for low price.

There is making money and there is making a profit, two different things. Charities have other means of making money other than trading through shops, they also have investors depending on the type of charity. The clothes are received freely so they are making money if they make anything extra its a bonus. They are profit focussed like your commercial shop.

As for market value i never said it was fixed. Market value is o course what the people will pay, but a poster said they were charged £5 for a bobbling Primark shirt that she could get cheaper brand new. That is not market value.

Jurysout2 you said

"Charities are 'Not for profit' organisations, does this not apply to their Shops? i thought they were only allowed to sell items at market value and that's brand new, if its beyond that they are actually breaking the law."

Indicating they shouldn't make a profit on the clothes or sell them above "market value" both of which may be illegal

Your second post totally contradicts that but it's worded as though it's clarifying it. I'm totally confused tbh!

I'm a big charity shop fan, but agree that it depends so much on the charity and which town you're in. I recently bought a gorgeous blue linen dress for £10 - loads more then I usually pay, but it was exactly what I'd been searching for at a price I could afford. I looked up the make when I got home and discovered it was £90-100 new (and it couldn't have been worn more than two or three times)!!!! Bargin!
I find that posh towns without a uni or college often have fab bargains.

Thelushinthepub - 'I'm not really a fan as they smell funny' so what decade did last go into a charity shop!

Used to work in a charity shop I remember the first time I was on The till and asked to discount something. I was really amazed and asked the potential buyer if they haggled in Boots etc, he left muttering that we would never sell them at that price, they sold in next half hour.

The shop I worked in also used to keep stuff on the shelves/rails for three weeks after that if not sold they were sent to another area and sold at a lesser price, however we had the best sales in our region, it's all about getting the best price for the charity!

I went into one last week. Do you know it?

Yes that was rather jumbled.

I was first asking for clarification as to wether their 'not for profit' status extends to their trading. But then I remembered that actually they can make a profit but it's not their focus like commercial organisations, but it's nice if it happens. Remember they do not pay for their stock, neither do they pay for their shop staff, although they still have other running costs.
This has been the traditional stance of charities but nowadays with high competition for funding they are being encouraged to think more like commercial businesses. So more emphasis on making a profit I guess.

But in saying that they are not allowed to sell or buy things beyond market value, the Primark example being a case in point.

Im happy to be corrected on anything here, it's been a while since I studied this subject.

Most charity shops do pay for their shop staff, in at least, a manager, and perhaps an assistant manager. Especially busy ones may even pay three people (the most I've known is four members of paid staff)
I manage one, in a good area, but price very fairly as I cannot stand seeing ridiculous prices in charity shops. We have a £1 rail but I would never put a bobbly Primark skirt even out for £1. It would get ragged. A new with tag Pri skirt would be £1.50 - £3.00 max.
Just got back from holiday in Devon and visited Barnstaple where there's about 13 charity shops. Reeling at the prices in 99% of them. And mine is in an area deemed as 'posh'. If I go to one where they are selling , eg, a bobbly Dotty P dress for £8.99 I just walk straight out again as I know there's no point looking
Also one in Torrington where they were selling a broken ornamental item for £6.00. I was still interested but the manager pulled a cat bum face and put it back on shelf, refusing to reduce it. good luck in selling that!

My best buys are a full length black wool winter coat ( which swirls dramatically in the wind!) for £8, and a midnight blue heavily beaded evening dress which I paid a fiver for and must be worth a small fortune. When people admire it and ask what designer it is, I mutter something about it being an independent label lol

It would be a very rare charity shop that's there to provide cheap clothing for poor people. They are there to make as much as possible for their charity....after all, they are a business and they are retail.
This doesn't mean things can't be on the cheaper side.. in my shop there's lack of space so it's keep it cheap to have a higher turnaround. I hate seeing things months on that haven't sold which may then end up on the £1 rail though I'm not meant to do that with decent stuff!

Burberry Prosum (then) current season tweed coat for £25. Marie Curie shop at Belsize Park often had stuff like that. I did give them a donation on top btw.

My local (huge) charity shop sells ALL clothes for 99p per item, ALL books 5 for £1 and most furniture items less than £20!! I tell you it has ruined other shops for me! ????

The not for profit status doesn't relate to their fundraising activities. It relates to their financial accounts. So after their running costs and charitable activity (Ie funding medical research say) they can't produce a profit at the end of the year. They can produce a surplus (ie revenue is more than costs) but this is different.

No organisation with charitable status (a charity) can make a profit in that sense.

If by market value you mean the price primark sold it for in the first place, then it can't be illegal to sell on for more than this. It happens frequently with scarce items (ie eBay sales of sold out in demand items)
A product with a price displayed is only an invitation to buy, not a legal contract. So there is nothing legally binding about the offer at all. It couldn't be illegal.

Our local BHF store is fantastic. We got a pine bedside table for DD's nursery for £3.

I fall in and out of love with charity shops. We have loads in our town. If I have time and am not being harassed by small people I can definitely find good stuff.

The furniture ones baffle me a bit though. As like a pp said, ikea and dunelm do stuff new for super cheap.

Got these buffalo boots for £4.00 today, as for the smell the manager of my local shop uses a plug in air freshener and mops the floor with zoflora, her shop always smells nice

I was in one a few weeks ago and was to see primark vest tops priced at £5 which are less than £3 new. I'd love to know who on earth buys them, especially as there was a primark store just along the street!

It is a thin line between wanting to price things to maximise funds but then making them too expensive to sell. Surely it is better to sell 3 items at £2 each then sell one of then for £5 and be left with 2.

Pricing is weird, I went into one of my local one years back and got some WOW toys for less than £1, rrp would have been approaching £20+ at the same time they had a little Asda dress for the same price that I had paid to buy it from Asda. I have found good buys though - I got the ELC water/sand table for £8.50 which is £40+ new.

However in terms of selling cheap doesn't raise money - I live within a pretty deprived area and there is a local charity shop in the area - they sell things for pennies, baby clothes for 50p, toys/games for less than £1, they sell furniture at a reasonable price too. It is always busy and presumely do well. It is possible to serve your area and make money.

Some of my best buys include a little Next body warmer for £1.50 and an Orchard Game for 50p

Cool boots!
I have actually got some amazing boots in the past. Cream leather Bally knee length boots, 60's avengers' style , unworn for 4 quid.
I used to get real bargains. Not any more.

The death knell always seems to be when they close for a refit. Prices shoot through the roof then.

Agree..big buttons (chocolate i hope). I just got x amount for a certain charity. Next week they closed to refit..prices now are silly.

We have a huge number of charity shops in our town and many empty shops which will no doubt become charity shops in the very near future.

Some are fantastic. I bought a Laura Ashley table runner and a pair of Clarks sandals for less than a fiver each in Age UK a couple of months ago. I bought the brand new Gok Wan dress I wore on Christmas Day for £10 in Cancer Research.

On Saturday I bought a handmade thick cotton table cloth, a vase and two Italian glass jars for £8 in a lovely hospice charity shop.

Others used to have great prices on really nice things and I would buy in their shops regularly, but over the past year the quality has shot down and the prices up.

Some, and I include BHF in this, are ridiculously priced. Shabby MDF or veneered furniture for well over what you'd see in any non-charity second hand shop. Old tatty 1980s wardrobes for £100+. Refurbished shabby chic solid wood items costing hundreds of pounds. These shops are never busy.

I think the main thing that annoys me is that they are given these things for nothing. Some of the prices certain places put on items is just ridiculous.

BHF buys stuff in.
Got OH an almost brand new Thomas pink shirt for £4-75. Beautiful quality. I got a Laura Ashley linen polka dot summer dress a few summers ago for a £5 .ive had 9 west and Hobbs boots for under £12 like new.

I wouldn't pay their crazy prices and won't have bobbly anything.

Here's a quote from pp

The poor manager is under considerable stress to
Keep the shop afloat. Also mil
Is 65 she woukdn't have clue how to check out antiques etc on the Internet.

I'm 63 and I would know!

BHF shops are a total rip off.
Locally managed charity shops that can set their own prices are the best! I used to manage a charity shop in a largish chain. We had minimum prices set for garments by head office, so it didn't matter how cheap something had been originally - there was a minimum price we had to put on it. The decent stuff would go at that price, then, if I had time, after 2 weeks I could discount stuff to 50p, then it might sell. Anything not sold after 3 weeks had to be ragged, at £1 a sack full. Loads and loads of bric a brac and books were thrown out to landfill every week, as I had no option. It upset me a great deal. In less than a year I increased the turnover by 50%, but was always having runins with my useless area manager, partly because I knew the sale of goods act better than she did. When I had been there 11 months she sacked me (just weeks under the one year employment protection at that time), closed the shop for 5 weeks to make it into a charity boutique - it lasted less than 18 months - overpriced.
I then joined Freegle, and love giving stuff away, instead.
Best charity shop find was a pewter goblet for £4.99 a few weeks ago - looked it up when I got home to find it listed at £135. I did get a nice flatback Staffordshire in Caversham last year for £13, too.