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?

Sorry OP but I agree with the others that say it is really poor taste to haggle in a charity shop. If you don't want to pay what's on the ticket then don't get it. It really doesn't matter if others do it- still makes you tight!!

I'm also a bit discomfited by the concept of haggling in a charity shop, sorry op. If the price is wrong, maybe say are you sure this is the price as close to the original, but I'd assume either someone buys it at that price, and if it doesn't sell after a few weeks, then they knock the price down. But they are trying to make as much money as possible for the charity, so try higher first off.

As for charity shops not being charity shops, but making someone a lot of money, I don't know what you mean by this, usually it's the big charities like oxfam or whatever that have shops, do you have something different where you live?

Hoping that my tale counts as 'helpful pointing out' rather than haggling now...

I live in a tiny village. It has a 'community shop' so really a charity shop but just for our village. (it provides free Xmas meals for pensioners, a xmas party for village kids, and discretionary grants for anyone in the village in need - it is great)
Tops are £2, Dresses and Coats £3. kids clothes 50p, bric a brac, bedding, small electrical items, everything but furniture.
I moved to the village recently and we kitted out the kitchen etc and got some new clothes. I came form a DV situation and was hugely grateful. I put an extra £10 in the tin and will put some more in when I can. I will also volunteer when my health is good enough. I have bought a couple of new tagged items smart enough for work if and when I can return.
It has made a big difference to me.

These places can provide vital help to the local community as well as the charities they are serving too.

Yabu

You wouldn't haggle in any other clothes/book shop so why in a charity shop!? They still have overhead costs

If you don't want to pay the marked price then go find it cheaper somewhere else

Maybe some charity shops have had to up their prices because of the hagglers. So instead of pricing a jigsaw say at £2 and having people say I'll give you a quid all the time, the price it at £4 or £5 and when some cheeky sod asks for a deduction they say ok you can have it for £2.

I love a good rummage around a charity shop and I will agree that some of them price really high, but I still couldn't bring myself to ask them to reduce it. I wouldn't in any other shop, if something is more than I'm prepared to pay or priced higher than I think it's worth to me, then I just don't buy it. OP originally asked for a discount because she didn't think they were worth the price. She didn't know the original price at that point.

I just can't imagine the confidence brass neck it must take to look at an item, think ooh that's canny, oh, price is higher than I personally want to pay and then ask for a reduction. Especially when you wouldn't do it for other overpriced items in a shop.

Somethings either worth it to you or it's not, pay the asking price or don't. My friend worked in a local charity shop a few years ago and said some customers think you need to be greatful that they are offering to take stuff off your hands, like they are doing you a favour offering to buy it for half the asking price and get offended when you say no and moan that the charity mustn't need money if they are refusing to take theirs etc.

Also OP an actual charity shop will have a charity number on display somewhere, or you can ask for it if you can't see it.

Why are you doing this in charity shops? What a strange way to behave.

Ex Charity shop manager here...... I got paid to sort through dirty pants and knickers....try and raise money for a charity through selling second hand jumpers and books.
Find me a Charity shop manger that doesn't despise people who ask for reductions and I will be very very surprised.
If you don't like what they are asking don't shop there it's really that simple
You wouldn't go to JohnLewis and haggle for Primark prices would you ? You would shop in the shop with prices you can afford.
Remember that by shopping in charity shops you are donating to the charity and they are providing you with an item that's been donated for them to sell for the best price they can get. You are not the Charity.
All the major charity shops on the high street use Stock rotation as part of their marketing/sales strategy. Hence the codes and dates on price tickets. They have to pay rent and rates and utilities including a small fortune for rubbish removal....sadly people do donate rather than go to the tip
Bottom line is go volunteer in your local charity shop see how much work goes into getting that old jumper or nearly new shoes from somebody's house that doesn't want them to somebody's house that does and then see if you have the nerve to ask for a reduction. My betting isyou won't even bother

fleuricle that is a really heartwarming story, so nice that a local shop would look after the 'locals ' when they're in need. I haven't anything against the huge charities but is sometimes seems as if they're for "other'" people not us IYSWIM,

I think it is how 'charity' would have been in 'ye olden days' ie Parish relief type of thing. Those genuinely in need in a small village being helped by those who have a bit to spare. It's great as it comes, these days, without any social stigma (that I am aware of here anyway).

There is a place for big charities who help people overseas though. Even the poorest person here is well off compared to people in deprived parts of the world / those left with nothing after famine / quake / tsunami etc.

I know we are all struggling but I dislike the cuts to overseas aid.

I do wonder how much of bigger charities income is wasted on admin / advertising / etc and how much actually gets to those children but that's another issue I suppose.

Yes I know what you mean. I just wish that we were told exactly what happens to the money that e.g. Oxfam makes .

I support them but would like to know if someone goes out to the countries to 'follow' the money to make sure it goes where it's supposed to. To help the population help themselves, rather than dump food that isn't healthy on them. Obviously in a famine situation it's different.

Totally ridiculous, and unreasonable, to haggle in a charity shop.

Most charity shops are part of a chain of shops raising money for that charity. This is the journey that a typical item donated will take:

1/ The pair of boots is in a bin bag mixed up with other stuff, and is handed over, within shop A.
2/ Shop A volunteer/manager sorts the bag into what is saleable and what has to be recycled (for which they can earn a few pence) or thrown away (which they have to pay for). The boots have a price affixed according to the pricing structure and goes out on display.
3/ If the pricing structure works well for walking boots of this brand (it is not an exact science) then they will fly off the shelves. The end. If not, then go to point 4.
4/ Boots didn't sell... so after a set amount of days on the shelf, all the items that haven't sold that week are removed and taken, along with excess stock, recycling and rubbish, to the central depository. There the walking boots go in with the other boots, and prices are checked.
It may be that the price is too high - it is lowered.
Or it may be that the price is accurate but walking boots sell better in shop B in a rural location.
5/ Shop B requests more shoes and boots as they've sold so many. The walking boots are dropped off when the lorry goes to pick up recycling and new excess stock.
6/ Boots sell.

This is why charity shop staff are usually not allowed to reduce. The pick-ups/drop offs have to happen anyway, because of all the recycling, so it is little more work to move items round to stores that are low on stock of that type.

And it is terribly boorish behaviour to even ask.

When I was volunteering in local charity shop (for our hospice), there were more people who said 'you need to charge more for that!' or insisted on us keeping the change than there were people who wanted a discount though.

ppeatfruit
I just wish that we were told exactly what happens to the money that e.g. Oxfam makes

Charities in the UK are incredibly highly regulated by the Charity Commissioner. IF you look on the website of any charity you will find a link to their annual report, which give massive amount of details. Here, for example, is [[ppeatfruit Thu 26-Jan-17 13:44:05
Yes I know what you mean. I just wish that we were told exactly what happens to the money that e.g. Oxfam makes Oxfams]]

Gah, messed up link. Here. Oxfam

ppeat if you want to find out how the money Oxfam makes is spent you can look at their audited accounts via the Charities Commission, become a member and read their magazine (this will be there version of course) or just Google and trawl specific countries/regions/projects etc. It's really not difficult if you make a modicum of effort.

Finding out how much "good" is done is more difficult- because they have a need (like all other charities) to big up what they do so they can do anything at all - and because there are so many confounding factors - wars, crop failures, climate change, AIDS, multinational corporations fucking up the ground water etc etc

I personally give in the certain knowledge that some good is more likely to happen if I do, however incomplete or transitory.

X post

Often they sell stuff that is clearly overpriced
Well I think that nearly everything sold in Selfridges and House of Fraser is overpriced. £100 or even £200 for a t-shirt? So I don't shop there. I don't go in and haggle.

"I personally give in the certain knowledge that some good is more likely to happen if I do, however incomplete or transitory."

Yes, me too.
But I also think it is fair enough to want to know how much of my standing order to Water Aid actually 'gets there' iyswim.

Thanks for links. I'll have a look.

Out of interest, was it wrong in the Ikea bed example, do you think?

My personal opinion (having worked in development and for charities) is that I would rather 1p of every pound I give gets to the right place, than 99p to the wrong one. What I mean is if it costs 99p in staff time and administration to ensure that the right projects are supported, and no money goes astray, and someone monitors what happens and reports back later on what lessons can be learnt - then that money is well spent. I've seen an awful lot of (particularly grassroots) charities deliver random, unsustainable stuff with no accountability but who look good on paper because "every penny you give reaches those in need"

The technical college where my friend volunteered in Gambia received 30k of machinery for teaching technology (metalworking, woodworking etc) from a small charity which I shan't name here. It sat there useless because the school didn't have (and had never had) electricity.

Yabu they are there to help the charity not you!

I personally think that they should haggle on certain items or prices over a certain threshold, e.g. A £200 sofa. Or a Gucci handbag. But equally I'm not that concerned with whether they do or don't as other shops don't permit haggling either. eBay is for such haggling events

I don't haggle in charity shops but have left things because they are over priced. There's a charity shop in the next town that has no prices and because I dress well I get overcharged l no longer go in.

I know a few that price to sell and the stock moves so new stuff gets put out.

It takes a special kind of cheek to haggle in a charity shop.

Didn't Mary Portas go into the charity shops a few years ago and make them 'raise their game" by getting them to present their shops better and charge more e.g.. for designer stuff? That might work in certain areas but not all of course. So in the poorer areas higher priced items won't sell, which seems a bit silly to me.

Why are you even doing this in a charity shop? What a strange way to behave.
What a strange comment, you need to get out more.
So to recap, charity shop is charging just slightly less than the original price, result stuff left rotting away on shelves, no one will buy, because they can get brand new just slightly dearer. Most charity shops would rather have it pointed out to them of their mistake rather than being stuck with something they can't sell.

If charity shops want to stay in business they need to keep their prices reasonable and in line with retail prices, and no I don't feel one bit mean pointing out a mistake, why on earth wold I want to pay practically full price for walking boots when I can just go and buy new. I donate to charity and I also regularly donate to charity shops so please stop with all the shock horror because I dared to ask if they'd take a bit less than what they were asking. It wasn't haggling either.

They are there to help the charity not you
That is so wrong, , they can only help the charity if they care for their customers. If they had your attitude they'd be out of business in no time. People don't have to shop there, they have to care about their customers.