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.

Agreed I was looking for a old style suit case went to charity shop they wanted £15 for it I was like 😳 In the end I got a vintage style one form matlan for £10 and it was new

nodding it's a very mixed blessing
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/06/second-hand-clothing-donations-kenya

It creates jobs but damages the local textile industry

In a way you have to congratulate them for promoting 'vintage' stuff, in that sense they are only keeping up with the market.

But due to that their original target audience, people in need of charity hence the name 'charity' shop have been priced out.

Charity shops may claim they are only for charity, good cause etc but bottom line is they are a business and wouldn't exist if they didn't make profit

Agreed. Never used to be expensive. Now it's disgusting.

I find charity shops really variable - not just the difference between CR/BHF/ vs the much more minor league hospice shops etc (ie book in CR anything from £2 upwards, with books all randomly priced over that vs hospice which charged 25p all paperbacks, 50p all hardbacks) but even within the same shop. At the weekend I popped into our Age Concern shop - skirt from Hobbs £4.99....skirt from E-vie (Peacocks) £4.50. Similarly in the furniture shop, a pretty decent fabric settee, looked clean, plump cushions etc £40, a scratched and dirty leather sofa £180

I have no idea how shops price their goods. I find myself often thinking that about 1/4 of the stuff is actually pretty cheap, half of it is on the dear side, and the remaining 1/4 seems to be at least double what it should be, and surely will never be sold at that price!

They have become like these prices retro shops only full of tat and stinky

i work as a volunteer in a cat charity shop
when sorting you would be surprised at just how much shite we get clothes wise in donation bags, who thinks we can sell dirty, damaged covered in cat and human hair clothes is having a laugh they have to go straight in the rag bags, we do get a small amount of money for these, but the effort of sorting them from the good stuff is very time consuming, if stuff is rags then please mark it so, would save considerable time,

we will only put clothes, toys, bags etc out that we feel will sell, so basically shoes that look like new with clean interiors and soles, handbags that look like new ones, no we dont wash clothes because of the sheer amount that comes in , but we do hang them on hangers and steam the creases out of them, generally speaking customers wash them when they get home anyway.

price wise our books on average are 49p to 99p for paperbacks 1.29p for hardbacks, cds and dvds are generally 99p, clothes range from 99p for kids stuff to say £4.99 for a coat, and we date them so after a month if they havent sold they go onto the half price rail .

we have paid staff and volunteers and whoever said that volunteers dont know what poverty is or the value of things , is talking rubbish not all volunteers are doing it to look good by volunteering and in our shop there are some very knowledgable people with experiences outside of the shop which are helpful in the shop, we have a guy who is qualified to pat test electrics, an ex jeweller, i used to be an antiques dealer,

and our shop is a decent size which we keep spotless, well arranged and does not smell like a charity shop

I was heartbroken once to have donated a brand new, unworn, Hobbs coat (retailing for around £300), that I was told had just been thrown away because it was left at the door in the morning (I couldn't have got it there between their opening hours, and it was just an hour before they opened). It had been thrown on principle apparently. Anything that gets left outside gets thrown.

I never donated again.

I have a friend who is a manager at an oxfam in a naice area of the north west, she rues the day 'vintage' became the new term for second hand as it brought about a certain clientele that would hover up the store of any potential bargain and then eBay/boot fair/whatever for personal profit and price out those who needed a bargain.

It is market forces in a way, a lot of employees/volunteers are aware of this new vintage prestige and potential bargain so price according to market rate, unfortunetly this means a lot of tat gets priced at eBay asking prices.

I donated loads of furniture/clothes to british heart foundation wonder how much they are selling it for. Shame if its a high price, whilst i liek the fact its going to charity i would also of liked to think its going to someone who cannot afford new stuff in the shop and helped them out. Considering they also ask that stuff looks brand new as well.

I remember a similar thread on here a year or two ago, where someone said that, in one local charity shop, where the prices were low, the turnover of stock was fast - this meant that there was always new stock on the shelves, which drew people into the shop - where the good prices tempted them to buy - creating a virtuous circle.

By contrast, another shop overpriced their stock, so they always had the same stuff on the shelves, and people saw no point in going in, to look at the same stuff that had been there the last time they'd been in, and the time before - and they didn't do anywhere near as good business as the first shop.

This is, IMO, why stock churn is important.

There's a nice non profit organisation near me that collects used furniture, then sells it on at reasonable prices. There are extra discounts for those on benefits or with disabilities etc. I'd rather donate furniture to them than a charity shop as I know my stuff will go to people who need it.

I more or less agree - there are some great furniture shops, especially for stuff that isn't fashionable any ore but is perfectly solid and useable. But for clothes and toys, you are better off in Primark, TK Maxx and Tesco

Last week my mum asked to stop and look for a bargain or two when I found myself commenting on this very subject. The shop's assistant manager rudely interrupted our private conversation, where I had been advising my mum against paying ten pounds for a tacky looking fascinator, taking the items out of my mum's hands, pointing to the original price tag on one of them, telling us she was assistant manager and could make reductions if appropriate, then she called over to a colleague telling her to agree with the labelled price as fair. She even went to put the items back- so rude. It was like I was a sneezer in a ball gown stall, the valuable goods desperately in need of rescuing from my company. My mum was buying the one that was five pounds, still expensive, and definitely not worth a telling off about how it really was a bargain. Well, excuse me for not wanting to spend ten pounds on a see thru narrow Alice band with a bit of ribbon stuck on it...

So, my recent experience is that they're not just overpriced but overzealous with their own perceived value.

Also, as already mentioned, I can't understand how they get away with pricing up George from Asda and Atmosphere from Primark clothes for similar to their new price and definitely more than they'd cost brand new but in the sales- vest tops that I could buy new for £1 available second hand, slightly greyed, a little misshapen, bit of hem falling down, and all for the bargain price of £1.99?

I'm in the North East - so you'd think it'd be better here, but sadly not. I've stopped giving our dd's old things to our local charity shop. They seem to find out how much the stuff is new and charge as near to that as they can! It's shocking. At the end of the day they get the stuff for free! The reason I gave was because as some of you have already said, I want the stuff to go to people who possibly couldn't otherwise afford it :( I've seen them selling pushchairs for £60 - £70 which is just ridiculous for a charity shop. Particularly in poorer areas. I've even heard that sometime they send things over to city centre branches if they think they can sell them at a higher price than the smaller shops.. :o

Our local hospice charity shop is very expensive so I don't stop in there very often. 75p-£1 for a small toy car. Once they had 2 dvds for £2 but absolutely refused to let me buy 1 dvd for £1. She said no you have to pay £2 if you take 1 or 2. I had already looked at all of them and there wasn't another I wanted so I left. Seemed ridiculous to me. Luckily our local scope shop is much more reasonable and has a 20p bin for basics kids clothes and DS has had loads from them.

That's awful vulgar

I'm not complaining. The people that volunteer get something out of it, the shoppers generally get something out of it and the charity...who give money and support to those less well off than me get money. You absolutely CAN buy stuff off ebay etc for the same price..but the money rarely goes to charity. I dont object to paying a fair price for stuff as I know the money is going to a good cause. Season of Goodwill to you all ! and lets hope that none of us are ever in need of support from a charity like Age concern, Cancer Research or local Hospice but can't access funds for the sake of a couple of pounds extra for a secondhand handbag or pair of childrens jeans. We all love a bargain..but dont grumble if it's more than you thought.Your donation means treatment or support for someone in your local community.

There are several shops near us where people dump their stuff knowing that the shops won't be open. This means that others come and search through the bags, leaving stuff everywhere. And then, should it be left overnight, the drunks come out of the pubs, and pee in the bags. This is why stuff is binned if it's been left

We have a few charity shops round here, and we only really donate to the ones for local charities now (hospice and pet shelter).

The bigger 'chain' ones do seem to price things just a bit high, and I'd prefer a small charity to sell loads of old paperbacks for 20p each than a big one to look at them, decide they won't sell for £1.99 and chuck them in the recycling.

Our local charity shop now charges between £5 and £10 for a t-shirt regardless of where it has come from. Consequently it's now over a year since I have had new clothes as they are beyond my budget. It's also meant that I don't donate old clothes to charity shops as I am wearing them until they wear out.

They're not too bad by us but there is one furniture one that is terrible. It stinks and they wanted £150 for this filthy battered armchair. I was quite disappointed as it's for a local animal rescue and I'd like to support the shop but I honestly wouldn't buy anything there.

Last year my then partner had a couple of bedside tables which he very nearly threw in the skip they were so dated and tatty, pen marks, sagging, chipping etc. He asked the charity shop if they wanted them before throwing them away and they gladly took them. I saw them on sale in exact same condition for £30 EACH a few days later!

Yanbu

It seems that the overwhelming consensus is that charity shops charge too much. We live in a naice town with about 5 charity shops and 4 out 5 have severely over inflated prices. One, has a special section at the back for 'vintage' stock. And by 'vintage', they mean anything that is over about 10 years old. 70s crimpelene granny dress, £60 thank you very much. 80s Laura Ashley floral frock £70. Even on eBay those kinds of things rarely fetch that much!