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.

[caroldecker]

Charities are required by law to use money/goods donated to benefit only the stated aims of the charity. They are therefore required to maximize profits.

[wasonthelist]

Benefit isn't the same as maximise.

[BackforGood]

Thing is caroldecker - they aren't making the most money they can if they overprice things and they sit on the shelves. They will take more money if they can actually sell stuff.

[FireCrotch]

When I was a kid I had a huge old fashioned dressing table in my room. My mum bought it for a fiver from a hospice shop in the late 80's/early 90's. I loved it. It had loads of storage and a big mirror. When I moved out I tried to take it but she wouldn't let me. About 6 years ago I saw a near identical one at a flea market. I decided there and then I was going to buy it and started thinking of how to get it home, where it would go etc etc. There was no price on it. When the seller came over before I even spoke he said "Whatever you see on here is top quality, well looked after yadda yadda yadda... Don't even insult me by offering less than a ton for anything..." So being nice I didn't want to insult him so walked off. Dick head.

[caroldecker]

wasonthelist a pet charity must maximise the income from its shops to benefit its stated aims, which are not people looking for cheap toys. If it sold donated pet foods cheaply, that may be within the remit of the charity.

Backfor You may be right, I do not know the storage costs and running costs of the stores, but i assume they are making more money or they would be pricing cheaper - whilst each shop is run by volunteers, strategy is set by employed retail experts (for the large charities).

[GlomOfNit]

I harbour a huge vein of Rantium on this subject. I go into our local ones ALL the time - I dress a lot from charity shops, and I think pretty much all my cashmere cardis and jumpers are from them. For those, I'm happy to pay up to a tenner. (Have got a fair few for a lot less.) But for Tu or primark tops, £4.99 and up?! They're clueless.

My personal favourite is cheap supermarket babygros, which originally sold in a three-pack for maybe £5, being sold, complete with baby food stains, for £2.50 each. I do call them on it when I've got the energy and my god, the hostility you get back!

The local Oxfam bookshop has children's paperbacks at about four times the price of the same identical ones in the hospice charity shop around the corner. It's just a bit odd, from a commerce point of view. Who do they think is going to buy them?

I'm not in any way denigrating the thousands of volunteers who staff the shops and have to sift through probably quite unpleasant bags of tat sometimes, for things they can actually price up and sell, but IMO, charity shops should serve two causes - the charities they're raising money for, and the people who can't afford to buy new. Or who live in areas where there aren't any new clothes shops, only charity shops, and can't travel.

[dodobookends]

Our local Age Concern shop used to be very sensible with their pricing, but have gone a bit silly with it now. Since one of the aims of the charity is to support the elderly, it would make more sense for them to sell clothes & books etc at reasonable prices, as that would not only raise funds for senior citizens but also help those who are on a small pension.

[caroldecker]

Generally it would be illegal for them to serve the cause of people who cannot afford to buy new. Age concern could potentially , for example, give discounts to the elderly for their own clothes.

[Wincher]

I was in a Children's Society shop the other day and saw an M&S harvest crockery set - yes, ok, all complete and in a nicely wrapped hamper, but still hideous - for £125! I kept looking at it as I couldn't believe my eyes.

I only donate to our local salvation army shop, not only because the local S.A. does great stuff in our community and I know the couple who run it, but also because they price everything cheaply and there's always new stuff to rummage through when I go in. I got a lovely boden jacket for me there for £1, and have found lovely boden/john Lewis stuff for kids in their 50p bin.

[ASAS]

I live in an area of huge inequality where the student hipsters feel that rubbing shoulders with the third world migrant contributes to the vibe of the place. As in all areas like this, there's the edgy, industrially shop fronted neck of the woods where the Shelter shop is loud and proud boutique - it should be imo, if people can and are willing to pay all the better for the charity. In the rougher part there's a very local cause shop, I've yet to find anything there including a Fisher Price activity table for more than a fiver. There's also a huge Barnardo's which is always packed with both stock and customers which again seems to be priced towards the local streets. Horses for courses here it seems.

[Akire]

My local cancer research shop currently has 2 small hideousjugs in the window priced at £45 each! They are not type of thing that blend in to most homes certain not at £90 a pair. Not an impulse purchase you would think they would sell online if worry bob or two. Fully expecting see them next summer.

[tiddlyipom]

I live in Australia, where there are a mix of well known shops such as Save The Children, Salvation Army and Cancer Research as well as individual op shops attached to churches.
One charity, for Diabetes, delivers bin bags to your door then comes around a week or so later to collect your donations.
I thought this was a great idea and used to leave bags of outgrown toys and clothes for them.
About a year ago, a massive shop called Supersavers opened near us, it's the size of a football field .Miles and miles of clothes, furniture toys etc. Prices are a bit hit and miss but overall, not too bad.
I went to pay for something and at the checkout were piles of the blue bin bags I'd been filling for years.
I asked the checkout guy how much money went to the charity....no answer.
so I did a bit of research.
Supersavers has 350 outlets in the US, Canada and Australia.
It's estimated that they only give 3-10% of the money they take in their shops to charity, the actual figure is unknown as they don't publish it.
The American owners of Supersavers are multimillionaires.
www.economicpopulist.org/content/thrift-shop-its-not-just-song-its-scandal-5552
I don't fill those bags any more and I don't shop at Supersavers either.

[StayClassyStaySassy]

I hope the charities of these shops actually read this thread. I totally agree with you all. I've picked up some amazing stuff in charity shops and some proper ace bargains but what really revs me up is seeing nothing but Asda/Tesco/primark etc etc and for well over the odds. If I want a Asda/primark/Tesco item I'll go to the bloody shop and get one brand new thank you.

[pottymummy]

Yes. Barnardos is the exception in our town. Pretty much everything is £1.99. The Cancer Research UK shop is not too bad. I don't even bother with the rest. When I donate, I will drop it at one of these two. Swings and roundabouts.

[CointreauVersial]

Charity shops round here vary enormously in quality of goods and pricing, but I still find enough bargains to keep me going back for more. Recent purchases include a Jaeger dress for £10 (very similar to one currently on sale for £160) and a Whistles wool kilt for a similar amount. I'm currently wearing a gorgeous pearl-grey cashmere jumper - only F&F, admittedly, but worth way more than the £7.50 I paid for it.

Put it this way, on the odd occasion when I realise I've made a mistake, I am able to re-sell on eBay and make my money back and then some. Boden, for example, is always under-priced in my local shop and sells like hot cakes on eBay.

You just have to rummage, and you will soon identify the best places to go.

It's not always to do with the brands. The Cancer Research in my town is quite pricey, but the one a few miles away is bargainous. Different staff and clientele, I guess.

Akire - for all you know, those hideous jugs might be pricey collectables. Our local BHF had a Mulberry handbag recently, at £60. Ugly, not my taste, but someone certainly snapped it up.

[cleaty]

A local charity shop near us is expensive. I know it also makes about £1 million a year profit for the charity. That is its purpose, to make money for the charity.

[SistersOfPercy]

I've said this on here many time...

One local charity shop in town is overpriced and has a tiny stock turnover. I can go in every week and see the same stuff for months on end.

Skip to local hospice shop that sells everything for £1. (other than large electricals). It's heaving every time I go and their stock turnover must be huge because you never see the same thing twice.

[mamaslatts]

totally agree OP. DH bought a leather look jacket (so not actual leather) Primark make for £24.99!!!! It obviously wasn't leather but I think they had priced it as such. I think most of the bigger shops now have a 'guide' list of what they have to price tops etc as. I don't shop in charity shops anymore.

[JoffreyBaratheon]

On the other hand, many very well deserving charities undercharge for some stuff...

In the summer my very dear friend died of cancer. The hospice where she died is, frankly, bloody amazing. They have a lot of charity shops and do things like craft fairs to raise extra money.

Now my friend was an excellent craftswoman and I 'inherited' a few kits, etc from crafts we shared in common. One of her crafts was making exquisite folk art dolls - repros of 18thC and 19thC ones, that even the kits for are expensive but the finished products - you're talking sometimes hundreds of $s (ost of her stuff was imported at great expense from the US).

So I wanted to make up one of the kits and donate to the hospice but a friend of my late friend, who went to their xmas crafts fair told me better not bother as they'd put it up for £5 in a shop (tens of hours of fine, skilled handiwork involved as well as the expensive raw materials) or sell at an equally ridiculously low price, at such a fair... I have decided to use it in another way my friend would have loved.

But if people will go on eBay and pay, say, $150 for one of these dolls, made up - surely a charity could raise a similar amount. I have seen other craftspeople making the same point that they have donated very well made, skilled stuff to charity shops and seen it sold for the same price as some grotty acrylic monstrosity or off-the-peg, mass produced object. So people end up not donating.

[skyeskyeskye]

They have got expensive round our way too. I agree that they have to make money, but I have seen the same stuff on the shelf for weeks, and when it doesnt sell they have to move it on. I paid £2.99 for some TU pumps only to discover they were only £2 in the shop. On the other hand, I bought a georgeous F&F coat for DD for £5, that would have been £20 in store. I bought my mum a brand new Debenhams necklace for £4, probably £20 in store.

I bought a high chair from a charity shop for £5. I checked it all over first and the lady asked what I was doing. I said I was making sure that it was safe and sturdy etc. She said "what do you expect for £5?!"

I replied that I was not going to put my baby in something without checking it over first, no matter what the cost! I also bought a Cluedo set for £1 and checked it was all there. I got asked the same again, what do you expect for £1? Well I expect a game to have all of its required parts! You can't play it if half the bits are missing and then it is a waste of money not a bargain.

Anything that you buy from a charity shop should always be working and complete.

[RueDeWakening]

After saying some of ours had got expensive, I got DD a Joules skirt for £2.50 today in Cancer Research :o it's lovely, and I'm delighted.

[HopefulAnxiety]

I've volunteered in two different major chain charity shops and one local charity one, and scrap clothes were certainly not sprayed with bleach to prevent dumpster diving

I think it's the steamers that give that distinctive charity shop smell rather than the clothes necessarily, especially with items containing wool for instance.

I think it varies amongst even the chains - I volunteered in a Mind shop and we'd have frequent £1 sales on specific types of items (eg all women's skirts for £1) and bargain bin items. Generally I find Mind, YMCA, Cats Protection and Salvation Army are the most reasonable out of the major charities (if you'd like to support a homelessness charity shop but find Shelter expensive, YMCA is a good option - I used to live in a YMCA hostel as a homeless teen and they are a great cause to support). Local charities vary, I find church-based ones to be the cheapest. The local charity shop I volunteered in was a church-run one and local homeless/vulnerable people could get clothes and blankets etc for free.

I think even in the expensive ones, their cards are a good buy because everything goes to the charity rather than 10p. I always get charity shop Christmas cards. Oxfam bookshops are expensive for standard books but can be bargain central for out of print or more niche books, and I would rather go there than Waterstones - in many towns, an Oxfam bookshop is the nearest you get to an independent bookshop.

[Bluecarrot]

Went to one yesterday that was exclusively kids stuff. It looked mostly like 20 kids had ransacked the place and pulled everything out.

Was pleasantly surprised to find two toddler jigsaws ( contents built inside so I knew they were complete) and some peppa pig characters I wanted for cake toppers for £2 all in.
I almost bought the peppa castle but when I opened it there was vital pieces missing, and lots of drawing on it. :( was also a quinny pram tucked away but I couldn't get to it to see quality/condition. Had an urge to purge the shop for them.
There was lovely stuff but I reckon most people probably walk straight past it.

[CherryPicking]

Oh come on, it's all for a good cause. And you're paying so that there's less stuff clogging up landfill sites for our grandchildren to deal with in 50 odd years. Yes, you could buy it cheaper in Primark but you'd be further lining the pockets of mega rich shareholders (how festive) and sending the message to Primark that new, cheap, throwaway flimsy tops are what British people want, regardless of what the production of cotton does to developing world rivers and ecosystems, or the hell people in China have to go through to make them for us.

[paulinuk]

I work in a charity shop , they are ruled by head office, which is crazy, managers worry about doing anything wrong , they dont want to loose there job ,I think lots of stuff is to dear