I wrote a long reply to another thread about Charity Shops on here, and then deleted it thinking it was disclosing too much information.
However, the mood I'm in tonight is of the 'fuck it' variety, so I'm going to post it anyway.
In recent years I've been a volunteer for two 'charity shops' - one local (albeit a big local charity with several branches) and a well known national. Having been self-employed working from home for over 20 years, I thought it would be a way of getting out, meeting people and giving something back (yeah, I know, but my motives were good).
The first one was a real eye opener. It was a huge shop and they were overwhelmed with stuff, probably because it was a charity that touched local people's hearts. It would be piled up on the pavement outside the shop overnight and the volunteers would have to sift through it every morning. The place was chaotic and despite the size of the shop it couldn't accommodate the amount of donations that came in. I would say at least 65% of what was donated would end up either in the 'rag' (fabric items that were collected by a specialist firm and the charity would be paid by weight), or in skips at the back of the shop. I have a beautiful jug on my kitchen window that I rescued from the skip. It is perfect, not a chip on it. The only thing it needed was a wash and they had neither the time nor the inclination to do it. When I pointed it out to the manager and told her they had thrown away a perfectly good jug, she just shrugged her shoulders and told me to take it if I wanted it. So I did (but I did put a couple of quid into the donation box, even though she never asked me to). All kinds of things got hurled into this skip and all they needed wash a wipe, a wash, a minor repair but no-one could be arsed to do it, so they were discarded.
The local charity shop was run almost like a club for the locals. The manager would routinely pick items out she wanted and when I saw things I wanted I was given extensive discounts. The items never even made it to the shop, it was just agreed we could have it for 'this amount' and that was it. They still sold loads and made an absolute fortune for the local charity so it was performing a useful fundraising service, but I really didn't like the whole set up of this shop so I left after a few months.
I then volunteered for a national charity shop and that was a whole different kettle of fish. It was hugely efficient. There were absolutely no staff discounts of any sort. If you wanted to buy something, then you paid the full asking price. A lot of items were still discarded (mainly clothing for the 'rag') but they would at least wash crockery and attempt to remove stains etc. from good quality clothing and make minor repairs to things that were slightly broken or damaged. They had experts who came in to check everything. We had an antiques bloke (ceramics etc), a bloke who checked all the camera equipment, a jewellery/watch bloke and another who checked all the books and records. In the office there were also lots of reference books for everything under the sun - to check their value. Nothing was priced or went into that shop that wasn't checked out thoroughly first. The manager was as straight as a die and there were no perks for her or the volunteers. It was all about making as much money as possible for the charity and it was very competitive with each branch running in competition to the next branch. At times it felt very pressurised but I stayed there for several years because from my point of view I felt it had integrity (unlike the local charity shop I had volunteered in where I felt they were taking the piss) and it was a nice place to work where you really felt you were doing some good.
Again the shop was overwhelmed with donations. It was very difficult to accommodate everything and a lot of stuff got thrown away that shouldn't have. I did get the odd bargain sometimes but only because something came in, in a non-saleable state. I bought a beautiful brass candelabra because it was donated in pieces that needed assembling and was filthy dirty. The assistant manager was on duty that day and I spotted it in the back storeroom and said to her 'that needs cleaning and assembling and you probably won't get more than £20 for it anyway, so I'll give you £15' which she accepted and I took all the bits home. Bear in mind .. this was a donation so it cost the charity nothing and they had made £15 without lifting a finger. But everything else I ever purchased in that shop I paid the full asking price for which is how it should be.
Some charity shops may well be classed as 'dear' but my experience of working in two very different shops is that they are very clued up and do their research thoroughly when it comes to charging. When they put a price on, it isn't just a random price .. they have checked it out. Occasionally of course this goes completely wrong. I had to point out to my manager one day that the tealight holders they had labelled up at 50p each were actually on sale in Tesco at 5 for £1.00!