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)?

NVQ

Gwenhwyfar 'I know that some charity shops also use workfare.

Oh no you don't , as workfare finished in November 2015

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-scraps-mandatory-work-for-your-benefits-scheme-without-fanfare-a6750041.html

How can charity shops use 'workfare' anyway when the volunteers don't get paid?

Local Oxfam shop was exactly like this. Was clearing out stuff from an elderly relative's house as she was downsizing - all washed, all folded, crockery stacked neatly and in plastic crates. Constant rudeness and treated as if the whole thing was a massive inconvenience for them. As we were logged for gift aid etc. we had a sheet of the stickers you just put on the box as they had all the details already. That shop went out of business soon after, unsurprisingly given their attitude. The unit is still empty. I feel sorry for the charity as these people who are public-facing give them a bad name, and there are enough people without jobs that need work and references, surely it would be easy to find a replacement? I find it hard to understand why charities put up with this sort of behaviour from their staff and volunteers. I have worked in the back office at a charity before (on the finance side) and they had proper HR procedures in place and were quite careful to avoid problems within their teams. I can only guess there isn't enough oversight or people simply don't report issues when they arise at local charity shop level.

and there are enough people without jobs that need work and references, surely it would be easy to find a replacement?

It's really, really not that easy. We don't have anyone on the rota of volunteers at the shop where I volunteer who is actively seeking work and needs references, out of about 40 people. The only "CV-builders" are the 15/16/17 year olds who are doing Duke of Edinburgh and help out a couple of hours a week.

As for not standing for rudeness of course that should be the case and managers will deal with issues as they arise. Managers are not omnipresent though and will not see every incident which happens in the shop. Either they're not in at all that day, or not on the shop floor. In the year I've been there we've had one complaint through Head Office about a volunteer which wasn't entirely justified but the manager dealt with it and spoke to the person concerned. That's her job.

It's a real balancing act - in an ideal world you'd have this massive pool of fantastic people with amazing skills all desperate to volunteer their time but it's not like that, there is a very small number of people who volunteer and some shops have no option but to work with what they're given.

"How can charity shops use 'workfare' anyway when the volunteers don't get paid?"

I don't understand your question. Workfare is when people are forced by the job centre to work for their benefits. They don't get paid a wage or anything by the charity shop, but they are not 'volunteers' as they may be there under duress.

Oldsu - I'm glad to hear workfare is now over.

To be honest if I was a volunteer and someone complained about me, I wouldn't say "I'll try to be more polite next time" like I would in a paid job, I would just walk out. Why work for free just to get told off?

I swear there is a college somewhere that trains people in customer anti-care and then finds them jobs at these venues. The first class honours graduates are in my local leisure centre.

Dreaming - I'm happy to know there may yet be a job that I'm right for.

Looking at it from another perspective you should try putting yourself in their shoes. Working in charity shops these days is very very stressful. For every bag of decent stuff you get 20 bags of rubbish. You just start to think the never ending mountain of crap is going down then someone comes in with another car load of junk. A lot of the time you work on your own and simply don’t have the time or resources to sort thru all of the tat that people dump just to get rid of it. Then they are on your back about the amount of stock you’ve got piled up in the store room. Most days you literally can’t see the floor for bags and just feel liked screaming. It never ends! It’s an ongoing never ending nightmare so please consider people that have to do this! The customer isn’t always right, especially in this business.

Beware of the zombies!

I was with you until your snooty comment about wealthy, middle-class people and better quality stuff.

🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️

I have to ZOMBIE agree. It's quite awful how ZOMBIE one simply must consider ZOMBIE not only the ZOMBIE but also, in fact, the ZOMBIE and ever more increasing ZOMBIE instances of ZOMBIES.

Ooooh Holy semantic satiation Batman! (ZOMBIE Batman)

I volunteer in a charity shop one morning a week.

1. I'm grateful for donations
2. I'm too busy trying not to be crushed by donations so I dont have time to get rude
3. someone donated their used pants last week so customers coming out the back is the least of my worries

Also I dont get paid so if it pissed me off in anyway I might rethink the use of my time. Sad really as I always believe volunteering should be enjoyable/ give you something back. It's not a punishment

@Owlzes

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.

This! 100%

We have a charity shop near us that I won't donate to as the woman who runs the shop has a business selling 'up-cycled' items she takes from the shop.

Anything unusual in decent condition that they get donated has a 'not for sale' sign stuck to it and if you ask why she says it's being used for shop display purposes. Then a few weeks later it vanishes and if you know where to look you can see the same thing, slightly tarted up and being sold on her business page.

I don't know if she pays the shop anything for these items, but she puts a high price tag on them on her business page, and she will obviously want to be making a profit so the shop won't be getting what she is making on them.

You're in cloud cuckoo land if you think the charity in question sees more than 20% of the profits. The majority is creamed off and put into the pockets of the fatcats that run it.

Not at my place. What's left after rent is put into the bowls of the skinny cats who we run it for.

We don't take the 'best stuff' for ourselves either. It feels like we're taking food from the mogs. Some hideous assumptions here.

Strangely enough I was in a charity shop today and someone came in and handed in a donation of items. I heard the volunteer say if he did it again she would shout at him! I thought to myself at the time he should have just taken them back and donated them elsewhere.
A few weeks ago I was reminded of the same rule when I dropped something off and thought to myself I shall be taking donations elsewhere which I have started to do.
I get the impression some charity shops think they are doing us a favour taking our things, when it is the other way round.

I went into a local British Heart Foundation recently to catch them rudely chasing a woman out with a donation be they were full up. Perhaps mistakenly, I arranged to have my bags collected. A date was agreed, I waited in all day but the collector never arrived. Shall have to look elsewhere in future,