To think charity shops refusal to reduce is sometimes unreasonable.

[roseforarose]

I realise that some charity shops aren't allowed to but i think some shops must lose quite a bit of business by their outright refusal to accept a "knock down", usually saying "we aren't allowed, it's a set price" sort of thing.

I wonder if that's always true, because recently i asked if they'd take a bit less on some walking boots which i thought were a bit dear, got told "no we can't" then i noticed the brand new price underneath theirs and it was only about £2 less brand new. When i pointed it out she said "well if that's the case I will reduce them for you" . So she did have the power to reduce after all.
So when they say they can't reduce, maybe in a lot of shops they can if they want to?

I wouldn't have the balls to ask for a discount, it's a charity shop!
Of course they can charge what they like and can discount but once they start then more people ask and the charity ends up losing out.

I agree it's a bit annoying but they are just trying to get as much money as possible, like any other shop. If someone else had come along later and paid the asking price they wouldn't have lost business. It's for charity, let's not get too angry.

Probably because if she'd said, ' I could but I wont' you would be complaining about that and said 'how rude'?

Charity shops only profit from about 27pence per pound spent due to overheads so they have to charge whatever they think people will pay. They are not nice cheap shops for people who want a bargain ( that's often a happy side effect).

I would never ask for a reduction, it just sounds means. Either buy or don't. I've seen overpriced items and simply walked on by.

YABU. They are a charity, not a car boot.

I'm guessing you don't expect this when you're shopping in a supermarket? Just decide whether you're prepared to pay the price stated, or walk away if not. It's not a great habit to be hassling unpaid volunteers to give you discounts on already cheap stuff.

Err it's a shop!! Do you go into next or gap and haggle? I'm guessing not. And those shops aren't even supporting charities! Get a grip YABU!

They are not nice cheap shops for people who want a bargain

Of course they are! Who wants second hand for the same price as new?

It's not a great habit to be hassling unpaid volunteers to give you discounts on already cheap stuff.

Often it's not that cheap. The classic example is primani-type T shirts where they try to charge more than the original price! I don't even look in BHF these days because I know that they are over-priced compared to everyone else.

I would never ask for a discount in there. But their prices have shot up in the past few years. £10 for a primark jumper? Bloody hell.

Yanbu. A lot of charity shops are way over-priced in my opinion. They then increase their overheads by having to store stock.

By reducing the boots they made a sale, those boots could have been on the shelf for years, especially when other potential customers realised there was a mere £2 reduction from brand new price.

Do you go into next or gap and haggle? I'm guessing not. And those shops aren't even supporting charities

Exactly this ^^ I wouldn't have the balls or the inclination to haggle.

MIL on the other hand is a different matter. She bought a pair of shoes for her DM once (from a charity shop) but only on the proviso that she could have a refund if they didn't fit.

They were two quid

(I actually love my MIL but she could peel an orange in her pocket, bless 'er).

They do mis-price things sometimes, when they overestimate the price as new. That's worth bringing to their attention.

Haggling with charity shop staff as if it's a market stall is unreasonable though - embarrassing. Only done by those so gauche or brass-necked as to be un-embarrassable.

Agree senua about BHF. I won't even bother going in. Surely that's not good for business - people actively avoiding your shop?! It makes no odds whether it's a charity - they still have to be competitive. Charity shops are not immune from closure as has been obvious in my town recently.

People don't shop in there purely out of the goodness of their heart.

So what if a pair of shoes were only £2? A refund is a refund no matter where you buy an item. People buy from charity shops to receive something for their money. Otherwise they would just donate.

Some charity shops will occasionally allow a reduction, I work in a charity shop and know from the date on the ticket if something has been on sale for a long time and it is therefore better to reduce it than lose a sale altogether, equally sometimes something might have been wildly over priced by an over enthusiastic volunteer so I might adjust it accordingly.

Many volunteers won't feel comfortable making a decision to reduce something themselves, without checking with a 'manager'.

Interestingly, we often get customers paying more than the advertised price because they think something has been underpriced or is worth a lot more to them. . I have known volunteers argue the point though and try to turn down any 'extra' money. .

I also think it's bad taste to haggle but my god some charity shops over charge. I live off a road with 5 charity shops, the most recent being a designer-style one. In their window they had a pair of (visibly) second-hand leather boots from Office for £40 - I was wearing the exact same pair that I got in the sale for £35 just a few weeks before.

I understand wanting as big a contribution as possible but they can't expect people to pay more than they would for the product new.

In regards to charity shops I do what I do in every other shop. If I see an item that o think is over priced I just walk away.

choccy well, first of all, a shop doesn't have to refund your money if the item you've bought is not faulty.

And secondly, asking for a refund from a charity shop for two quid is (imo) the epitome of tightness and bare faced cheek. But that's just my opinion. You don't have to agree, and I'm sure you won't

You actually haggle in a charity shop?

I think that says a lot more about you than them refusing says about them to be honest.

Can't say I've ever tried to talk the price down in a charity shop. I think a few of them are well overpriced but I choose not to pay what they're asking and leave. It has never occurred to me to haggle.

Gone are the days of finding a Mary Quant frock for £2.50 eh?

I've seen people trying to haggle but it's usually over a big-ticket item, not a £2 bobbly Primani!

Well i don't think the money is always for "charity" is it, i think a lot of them now are called charity shops but are actually business's making someone a lot of money....and no i wouldn't expect reductions in Next, or Gap or in supermarkets but charity shops aren't the same. Often they sell stuff that is clearly overpriced, in the case of the walking boots they were priced at just £2 below what the retailer had been selling them for and they were "used".

They'd clearly been overpriced hence the immediate offer of a reduction when i pointed it out to her. People go to charity shops to get a bargain, they won't go if the stuff on offer is practically the same price as new stuff surely.

I work in a charity shop, and we don't reduce the price if the item has only been out a couple of days. After a week or so we would.
Maybe the boots hadn't been out long, so a reduction was refused,
but after attention was drawn to the original price there was good reason to reduce them.
Loads of people try to haggle and it would just get silly if we kept knocking prices down to anybody who asked. What's the point of pricing things?
We do have a refund policy as well, and people often bring things back, mostly for genuine reasons (not fitting etc). Sometimes it's as little as 50p. I wouldn't bother, myself, but I figure they must really need the money.

As it's for a charity (and they lots of overheads just running the shop), they charge what they hope they can get for their items. If you are not happy to pay such a price for a pair of boots, someone else may come along next week and be happy to pay that.
I used to work in a charity shop on Saturdays back in the 90s. They didn't take much money in at all. Sometimes they got a flurry of decent items to sell and then for ages - hardly anything.
I really don't think they are places to haggle or do deals.

Are we talking about charity shops - or a business?
Your last post suggests that's it's not a proper charity shop?