To think charity shops are charging too much and are losing their way.

[TheoriginalLEM]

I appreciate that they are wanting to raise as much money as possible for their various causes but they are charging way over the odds for many things now.

Clothes from primark and tesco - £5?? really? probably cheaper to buy it new.

But what made me really sad tonight was walking past a charity shop window and seeing toys being sold at really expensive prices. Some mega block dragon sets £15 £17 for some hotwheels tracks. Both really bashed up boxes, obviously secondhand.

Now charity shops have become trendy, i think they have forgotten, that whilst this isn't their primary aim, they used to be a godsend to parents with little money. They could go to the charity shop and pick up some half decent toys for their children for christmas etc. I'm lucky, i can afford to get my DD new toys, i would have bought the megablocks if they had been reasonable, as an extra but not at £15 - sale lost.

So where do parents with little cash have to go now? poundland? cheap plastic tat that wont last five minutes. When they used to be able to pick up half decent stuff in charity shops.

Like i said, their aim is to raise money but ive seen back rooms of charity shops with bag upon bag of "stuff" ready to be sorted and put on the shelves. I have lost count of the times ive left something on the shelf because ive been unsure of it, but if it were a couple of pounds i would have bought it and taken the chance. I can't afford to shell out a fiver on something that might not fit and i don't always have time to try things on if i ve just popped in. So whereas i might have gone and bought 2 or 3 tops for a £2 each spending £6 on stuff they were GIVEN, i leave with nothing because i think either, no, not taking the chance, or fuck that i can buy it in tesco for that price.

Its the toys that have made me feel sad tonight.

[Destinysdaughter]

I love charity shops and have found some amazing things in them. I do wonder tho if they are charging more now as other sources of income have reduced and they're trying to raise their income that way? I still find them much better than many stores where you're being charged at least 300% mark up on what the clothes have been made for so I'll continue to shop
at them.

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

Here in Australia I've been so pleasantly surprised by the prices in charity shops.

A couple of dollars for nice clothes....I just paid 5 dollars for a massive box of unopened fairy lights! That's about £2.50!

Here all the churches have their own charity shops....they're usually in the church halls or in a little ante room. Manned by church goers, they're even cheaper

[Greydog]

We have an excellent Roy Castle shop in the village, local hospice shop also very good. Oxfam - no. BHF - never, ever shop there or contribute to them.
It does seem to be the smaller shops that have the best buys.

[Snowglobe18]

I popped in to look for books for my 6yos on Friday...couldn't believe they'd marked tatty Horrid Henrys at £2.50!

[HoneyDragon]

Our local Age Concern regularly refuses donations as they have too much stock (it's been sat weeks as they can't sell it). They have several paid staff .... As a business model to make money for a charity they are failing.

We gave up when my mum wanted to buy a hat and scarf set. There was no price on it so the manager told my mum £7.00.

Mum went to the till, the volunteer commented "this is M&S" and refused to sell it for £7 saying Mum should pay £15! She clung on to it and wouldn't go speak to the manager either so mum and I walked out.

M&S sell those sets new for £9.99

Equally their local competitor uses eBay as a guide to price and is very very reasonable. They are rammed daily and well like in the community.

[Balaboosta]

Small Tetley Tea-type resin house ornament for £15...?! I said you've got to be joking and walked out. This was one of the charity shops off Marylebone High Street. Ridiculous.

[gingerdad]

My oh runs a charity shop for a small charity.

Prices. Fiction books are 50p each or 3 for a £1. Toys from 10p. Cd's 50p. DVDs £1

Clothes very much it depends on brand. So primark/tesco/George very cheap. Others roughly 1/4 of new price.

They do get 80% of rates as for all charity shops. But every other cost is the same as any other normal shop.

Stock - they have a rotation where anything not sold in a 5 week time period gets 1/2 priced - surprisingly little gets half priced. And they have to limit the amount comes in as they are often over whelmed by the amount coming in.

Pretty much every thing unsold or unsellable gets sold on.

They raise a substantial amount for the charity.

[Dipankrispaneven]

Very strange attitude to charity shops on here. Their function is not to provide ultra cheap second hand goods but, guess what, to raise money for the charity. If their pricing policies were driving customers away then they'd change them. It's straightforward market forces.

[OhSoggyBiscuit]

I buy most of my books from charity shops! Same with ancient PC games.

I vounteered in a charity shop in the summer, and I saw a lot of Primark clothes retailing for over their original sale price!

[KeyserSophie]

It's straightforward market forces. It's not though because these shops are run by people with no clue about retailing and the first rule of retailing = stock churn.

The stuff is priced up by volunteers who just arent on top of the brands and what's worth what and have no concept of price elasticity of demand. There's a good charity shop near my mum that sells stuff really cheap for the local hospice. Because they have fast turnover there's always new stuff so people go there more (the place is always busy). It makes more sense to sell more stuff cheaper, especially as you dont have to actually buy your stock. I'm not going to a charity shop that's selling a book at a 10% discount to the publisher's price (Oxfam).

[rollonthesummer]

It's straightforward market forces. It's not though because these shops are run by people with no clue about retailing and the first rule of retailing = stock churn.

I agree with this.

The ones priced reasonable shift their stock quickly and are always busy yet the overpriced ones have the same overpriced stuff in them for weeks.

[KakiFruit]

YABU. Providing cheap stuff for people in low incomes isn't just "not their primary aim", it isn't an aim at all and never was. They exist to make money for charities. If their pricing is failing they would very soon go out of business, so clearly it isn't failing.

[listsandbudgets]

I saw a large box of lego in a charity shop window last week. It was large enough I assumed it could reasonably be £20 to £30. I thought it would make a great joint Christmas present for my nephews.

It was £150

I didn't buy it.

[KeepOnMoving1]

Yanbu, I donated a suitcase full of clothing to the one near me recently. Branded stuff, and a lot of dh shirts as he purchased an entire new work wardrobe. I walked past a few days later and was shocked at the price the stuff was selling at! However judging by how packed the shop always is, they probably justify the prices because people buy them.

[KeepOnMoving1]

Lists no way

[Polgara25]

I volunteered in a charity shop for awhile.

I agree, that often the people doing the pricing have no idea what things are worth. Everything was sorted into 'cheap' and 'expensive' piles.

Some of the 'expensive' stuff ended up priced more than it would cost new.

They also had a huge problem with shoplifters and people trying to 'return' stuff that they hadn't bought their.

I'm amazed that they stay in business after that experience.

[redexpat]

As I wrote on the other charity shop thread, it's all about management. My shop manager was fabulous, and if something came from primark, then it was cheaper in our shop than it was new, obviously. But other managers arent that great. It's a very fine balancing act between being cheap enough that people will by it, and costing enough that the charity actually earns money. Did you know that there are differnt grades of charity shop? So in a town with high deprivation the prices will be lower than say in somewhere wealthier.

[Anotherusername1]

I find the local cause charity shops price more keenly than the big-name charities. But they tend not to be as savvy about how they display the items. And why do charity shops smell like charity shops? Normal clothes shops don't! Do people not wash things before they donate? Don't shops wash before they display and sell?

I'm not sure the volunteers do the pricing - I think they are told in no uncertain terms by the paid manager from head office to charge a certain price and that there is no flexibility. Certainly my mother shops in charity shops and has had her fair share of "discussions" over high prices in certain stores.

But they must dread Monday mornings - it's really fly-tipping, people leaving loads of bags of tat by the door over the weekend.

[KeyserSophie]

If their pricing is failing they would very soon go out of business, so clearly it isn't failing

It's almost impossible for a charity shop to go out of business given that you go out of business by having negative cash flow. Most of these charity shops are on highly favourable or pro-bono rents, they are staffed by volunteers and they dont have to buy their stock. Therefore, it's almost impossible to "fail" because they have hardly any costs relative to a typical retail business. However, it's totally possible to run a sub-optimal business model that fails to maximise the revenues by utilising poor pricing policies.

[Dipankrispaneven]

It's straightforward market forces. It's not though because these shops are run by people with no clue about retailing

But they aren't. Most charity shops these days are run by paid managers and/or are part of chains which are headed up by very experienced people.

As for the idea that charity shops get highly favourable or pro bono rents - they wish. Commercial landlords really don't give away premises in busy high streets for peanuts.

[hefzi]

Anotherusername no - apparently they don't! I drop my bags off in a local charity shop, and one of the volunteers said to me, "Oh, we're always so pleased to get donations from you - it's lovely that you always bring everything in so nice and clean"

[HoneyDragon]

It's not straight forward market forces. Our AC shop has got shitty publicly before about lack of support from the area and how they have operated on a loss due to lack of support.

So they aren't performing for the charity. They are not catering for customers, therefore they should be closed .... But as a charity they remain open and not trading.

[specialsubject]

veering off topic - farmers aren't subsidised to produce milk at lower cost! The supermarkets won't pay the true production cost.

this also happens with vegetables. Which is why the UK is importing loads of stuff and we are really in trouble.

[Dowser]

Don't get me started on Oxfam

The one in Durham seems to think its a boutique. No it isn't . It just sells seriously outdated tat that's supposed to represent vintage.

A guy called in to buy a clock and offered £300 for it. It looked a fairly unremarkable clock to me. So assistant got on phone to manager. I didn't see the sale price of it but the manager was prepared to accept £350 and wouldn't budge. Guy left without clock. I had to bite my tongue so as not to say, well that's another child not eating tonight then.

How many people are walking around with £300 for a fugly looking clock that someone had given for free.

Makes my blood boil.

Bhf buy a lot of their stuff in. That's why it's so expensive. My stuff and I took a huge bag full last week went to our local hospice and if the locals get a bargain too, even better . There was a nice east blouse in there I hope someone gets for a £1 .

[RB68]

I think its difficult - most shops are manned by volunteers including the managers - rarely the manager is paid and usually has more than one shop to be responsible for. They tend to be older and don't have alot of idea of the cost of the cheaper clothes - I agree standard pricing means they price all t shirts at 3 to 4 quid - but they are this or less in the shops. There is little clue on general costs as the people volunteering are usually drawn from the same sector of society that doesn't experience poverty to the same extent as some of their users. There is also a view that they are just there to raise money for the charity and as its "for Charity" they can push the prices a bit. They forget their other none verbalised role of being a fall back for those less able to afford things new. THey seem to be terrified of letting something worth a bit of money slip through the system and yet that was half the fun of going to and shopping in charity shops - bit like the lottery.