Charity shop rant

[blubkins]

Took a donation into the local charity shop over the weekend. The guy at the till told me to take the donation to the back. The door to the store room was open so I put it in there. Another lady came along and put a huge donation in there. Not a second later, a woman who worked in the shop came rushing to the back, shouting at us and lecturing us in a very patronising tone about not going into the back and putting our donations outside the door "because of health and safety". She was extremely rude and said to the other lady "can you please get out" tutting and in the most angry teacher type voice. I explained that the man had said to take it to the back and since the door was open I had just popped it inside (where there were loads of other bags). She insisted on explaining to us why we shouldn't have been in there and I told her back that she needs to explain that to her colleague not us as his instructions were not clear.

The other woman leaving a donation was great, she simply said to the charity shop worker that it was "fine, but please can I have my donation back". At this point the worker realised what a mistake she had made and tried to halfheartedly apologise but the other donator took her bag, left the shop and gave the donation to the other charity shop a few doors down.

I was so shocked at how rude the shop worker was and I pointed out that we were donating items and she shouldn't be so rude. It's a shame because it is a small shop that needs support and I imagine the other lady won't donate there again (and I will reconsider now).

AIBU to think that if you receive a donation you should be thankful and not abuse the people giving stuff in (wealthy middle class area where people tend to donate high quality stuff)?

Have only seen the dragon version in female form in charity shops, as others have noted too - and posing as dentists' receptionists or as receptionists in GPs' surgeries.

Ghastly women.

Fair play Cara you obviously have a magic radar that tells you when someone has SN

And if women are generally nasty to you, could it be you that's the issue?

The people who have SN are younger and yes, I can tell. It's quite simple without going into personal details.

Read the posts properly. I have not said they have been unpleasant to me. Let me know if you need me to simplify for you.

So you can see what takes doctors and experts quite a while to diagnose? Wow you have quite the gift...

We have someone in their 60s with SN in our shop so I'm not sure whether she comes into the category of 'having SN' or being 'old'?

You have a bit of a thing about older women, Cara.

You are aware that most of us become old, one day?

Forced to work for no wages, Gwenhwyfer? How can you be forced to work? Because your benefits might be compromised, I suppose...
How is that equate to working for free?

I used to run a charity shop. Normally they'll have one poorly paid manager and the rest are volunteers. In general, you're not overwhelmed by volunteers. It's not exactly glam volunteering, no one wants to do it because they are building up their CV/want to work in charity etc. I'd say maybe 30% of the volunteers there even care about that particular charity. The majority are either retired, and want a bit of routine/social contact or if they are younger have had issues finding work/suffer with some kind of SEN or MH issues.

The other thing I'd say is that the old dragons, as people call them, totally exist, but a lot of the time are the most reliable volunteers - the ones who always turn up, come rain or shine (which is definitely not always the norm), the ones who stick around long enough to know how the til works, the ones who will hang around to count up at the end of the day. So you have to balance your desire for nice smiley customer service staff, with your desire to have enough volunteers to open the shop at all.

My local charity shop is staffed by horrors as well. I think they think because they are volunteers that somehow they're a cut above everyone else and forget that the people who have gone to the bother of sorting, washing, bagging and delivering donations are also doing A Good Thing. I've recently found another local charity who will come to collect my offerings!

Duh! Don't know why I used the word donator! I know the word is donor! Must have been having a brain fart.

Not RTFT but I do know that most staff are volunteers and think they are doing everyone a favour by being there. Hence are selective about what they will do and aren't always pleasant to customers and don't see the need to be, or offer any kind of customer service.

There's not much worse than an entitled and sanctimonious volunteer.

Entitled to what exactly? Entitled to give their time up to help out? Some of them may lack customer service skills but the same can be said for some people who work in shops and supermarkets.

This and the "letter to volunteers" thread show just how many people despise others who volunteer their time. Sad, and a very odd attitude.

I know this is beside the point, but donator appears to have its roots in Latin;

"The terms in the Latin text are donator, a giver of a gift, and donatus, a receiver."

...and from this American novel more than a century ago;

"This subtlety was past the vision of the donator of the Dabney House.

V. V.'s Eyes Henry Sydnor Harrison "

I didn't know any of this but was curious and looked it up.

Meanwhile, back on topic, the Gift Aid giving for other charities (PTAs, for example) has been simplified recently. I'm surprised charity shops haven't been able to use the revised rules tontheir advantage and make it easier for those donating (see what I did there?)

As you were.

"Forced to work for no wages, Gwenhwyfer? How can you be forced to work? Because your benefits might be compromised, I suppose..."

Yes. People are being forced to work for no wage (not quite for free, but a whole week of 30 or 35 hours for 70 pounds a week). They are forced to work for no wages and charities that exploit them should be ashamed.

So what if they refuse?

They lose their benefits.

Why do you think people shouldn't have to do anything in return for benefits?

im beginning to wonder which charitys these charity shops staffed by rude, ignorant, cant get any work cos they dont have brains are for, i volunteer at a cat charity shop not a major national charity but a medium independent one, there are currently two shops for this charity in different towns, all of our paid and unpaid people are polite and always say thank you even if someone gives us one book in a carrier bag (which does happen) we always take the donation politely then take donations to the sorting area,
funnily enough the gift aid bags are where we find most of the tat for some unknown reason
all profits after costs yes thats 100% profit goes to the charity all books are kept recorded and sent in at the end of the week to the trustees
in two years of working there i have probably bought 4 items from the shop and donated hundreds of items
i work at this particular charity shop because the orginisation is one i am passionate about, ( i have worked as a volunteer at the cat centre for ten years, foster kittens for them, do talks in schools with kittens for them, have two cats of my own from there)
and for people who say volunteers are the people who cant get a job anywhere else i work paid work for a major food diner chain
and i have a degree so please dont tar all volunteers with the brush of the minority you may have met

If they are having to work, they should be paid in wages, not benefits

You're not really being unreasonable but everyone has bad days - maybe that worker had just been told off by their boss for some health and safety violation. When I was working in a charity shop (worked for two periods in the space of 3 years) the rules and regulations were always changing - sometimes we could accept certain donations, sometimes we couldn't. I always tried to be polite and nice to people dropping off donations but couldn't blame my co-workers for getting frustrated and being less than polite at certain donations.

Also when I worked in the charity shop it was sort-of forced labour - I had to take up some kind of work placement otherwise I wouldn't get my unemployment money (this is not in the UK, but elsewhere in Europe) and a good amount of the other workers were in the same position, while some were older retired ladies who volunteered, and some were people doing one year full time but subsidised by the State, plus the boss who was employed by the charity. But all of us took the job seriously, cared about it, and followed the rules. I only got 9 euros a day working there but I still worked the same as I would at a salaried job.