AIBU to think charity shops are there to make money, not provide cheap stuff?

[TinfoilHattie]

Cards on the table - I'm a volunteer at a charity shop. One of the large ones which has branches nationwide.

We have one regular "customer" who is nicknamed the Smiling Assassin by the volunteers because she comes in a lot (3 or 4 times a week), smiles and says hello to everyone, then spends the next 5 minutes bitching about the prices. She rarely buys anything. She is of the opinion that our shop is there to provide her with cheap stuff. Cheap as in 50p for practically everything. She is horrified when volunteers explain that we're trying to raise as much as we can for the charity, and the best way of doing that is by pricing realistically - not giving away Jaeger suits or "mother of the bride" type outfits for £1.

She was particularly horrified and commented loudly on a bracelet we have in the cabinet priced at £170 - it's antique, 18 ct gold, emerald and sapphire, and has been valued by a jeweller. We would be daft pricing it at £19.99, even if it is the most expensive item in the shop by a long way

So anyway, what do you think charity shops are there for - raising money or providing cheap things?

(Disclaimer before everyone starts about their local charity shop which prices bobbled Primark tops at £29.99 - mistakes happen, stuff slips through the net. Even if the manager has a "price to sell" policy, she/he isn't going to check each and every item and some items will be priced too high or too low by well-meaning volunteers.).

Limited I'm in Merseyside and yes I was happy with it going for £30.
It was the Jackie type and had seen similar go for £65 to £80 on Preloved etc but didn't want to Ebay it (too much hassle).
We maybe could have got more for it if we'd sent it to another shop but I trust the people I work with now - not so much others as I've heard a lot of stories. At best it may have gone for £40 but more likely one of the staff would have got it for a few quid - or nothing even,
At least I know the £30 went into our own till.
Sorry that sounds awful - we are good people in the main, but you do get the odd bad apple. The first manager in the shop told everyone I was a thief (I'm not!) but it turns out she was robbing the takings and trying to throw people off the scent.

I go into charity shops a lot and don't mind paying up to £20 for something I really want. But they would have to be unobtainable on the high street ie my original 1970's fluffy coat.

Surely selling the clothes off cheap mean people buy more. As the shop doesn't pay for the clothes the model is different to buying in and selling on new stuff. There is no profit margin as such.They need to have as much stock sold as possible to make money. So six items sold for £6 is worth more than selling one item for £5.

Can I ask a question for those who volunteer in charity shops?

I don't know if all the big charity shops do this but a while back I donated a lot of clothes (incl a Gap wool coat with the dry clean label tag still on) and was asked to fill in a gift aid form, I did so and forgot about it. Last month I got a letter from them saying thank you, your donation raised £25 + gift aid. Totally unexpected, but I'm wondering if this is a good use of the charity's time and money? Obviously someone is having to keep a track of all the sales from stuff donated from individuals, tot it up and print and post a letter, I can't help but feel it's a waste of resources - or have they found that it encourages people to donate again?

Forgot to say it was Banardos.

We use price stickers with the donor's number on it.
When the purchase is made at the till the sticker goes on a sheet and the manager or assistant enter it onto the computer at the end of the day.
That's probably the most time consuming part for the shop staff anyway.
If we have a £100 worth of gift aid sales at the end of the day then another £25 is claimed from HMRC so I think it's worthwhile.

You will probably be able to sign up for email notifications (My charity lets you do this on the website) that will save postage.

I think it's increasingly standard practice ecumenical - though a lot of charities use texts which is a bit cheaper.

The point is that in order to reclaim the gift aid they already have to tot up all the money made by your individual donations (they barcode each label). So since they have your name, your address, and the amount they made from your particular donations, they might as well let you know how much it is in the hope that you'll be encouraged to give some more.

Thank you notsmartenough I'll dig out the letter and see if there's anything about going paperless. I wondered how they did it. I like giving to them as they're a good shop, they have a high turn over (I walk past the window often and it always has different stock), the staff are friendly and the prices are realistic. I hope it generates more for the charity.

And SweetCharityBeginsAtHome, sorry I'm trying to type and rock a baby at the same time

ecumenical It's so some people can claim back tax. To quote the HMRC website "If you pay tax at the higher or additional rate, you can claim the difference between the rate you pay and basic rate on your donation".

A charity shop I know we're charging 50p for shampoo samples that you get free in magazines.
Prices are often ridiculous.

Our chain uses stickers for gift aid too. We print off sheets of stickers with the donor's number and the bar code, when the item is sold the till operator scans the bar code and enters the price. That's all the admin side we do on it. It means we can claim an extra 25% on the sales price - so if a customer pays £10, we can claim gift aid of £2.50 and the total benefit to the charity is £12.50. Only tax payers can sign up to gift aid though as the amount we claim has to be equal to the tax you pay in the year - so this rules out many pensioners or students.

When we sign people up we always encourage them to give us their email - means head office can automatically generate emails to send out every so often to tell people how much we've raised using their gift aid.

A lot of what shops have what in depends on you area. Ours tend to be full of New Look as it's one of two clothes shops in the town and M&S stuff.one shop did have books for £2.50 but have now dropped to £1.50 whilst another only charges 99p

When I first started out I was saving like mad to buy my first place. I needed work clothes badly. The lady in the oxfam shop was fab. It was GBP70 for the one suit, which happened to be Joseph, which fit and way more than I could afford. She gave it to me because she could see I needed it.

That is what charity shops should be about. If people need something you give it to them or charge them a low price. If you are getting people in who have the money then fine. Personally I go to the car boot for my kids clothing. It is far cheaper than the charity shop.

Plus as soon as I walk into a charity shop and I see things labelled for £8 and £10 I just feel resentment. I won't even bother to browse after seeing that. It just feels greedy to me and not at all in the spirit of what charity shops used to be about.

Our local PDSA has ridiculous prices but always seems busy and they always seem to sell. When walking in you have to go past their furniture thats been donated. A few weeks back they had 700 quid printed for a pair of fabric sofas. I was a bit

You are lucky to get dresses and stuff under 8 quid. Unless you are a size 30 or a size 4.

A lot of charity shops these days just seem like normal shops with more choice...but same prices or even more in a lot of cases. No way is it just a mistake pricing a primark top at 7 quid when it is 3 quid new when it happens SO often and in seemingly all charity shops.

I completely agree about the smell!

Does anyone know what it is?
Well if the stuff doesn't get washed, I assume musty old BO mixed together

In seriousness though, I can 'smell' peoples houses. I don't know is this is usual or not but I could identify which family member/friends house I am in by the smell. Even if they have just cleaned seconds before. I wonder if the charity shop smell is a massive mix of the natural smell of all the people who have donated houses...

House smells a lot of the time are down to choice of washing detergent.

A charity shop I know we're charging 50p for shampoo samples that you get free in magazines.

How grabby. Surely they should go straight to the food bank, toiletries are needed there.

But people sell those free samples on eBay or at car boots- and the role of the charity shop is to get money for their charity, at the end of the day, so if people are happy to pay them 50p, why not? Again, I question the role of the charity shop as envisioned by the charity: I suspect few, if any, see them having a wider social role that many people accord them.

Thanks for the information on GiftAid - that was very useful.

Only a couple of people have mentioned the salaries of those at the top of the charity. But many of them are earning a lot. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11435754/32-charity-bosses-paid-over-200000-last-year.html

I get that you need someone knowledge about business in order to generate as much income for the charity. However I believe that it is sign of the increasing acceptance of capitalisation in which getting as much money as possible is sufficient justification. Over the past decade or so there has been a proliferation of cheap shops such as primark, poundland et al, which are generally so cheap at the expense of poorly paid overseas workers. At the same time, some charity shops price their goods too high for poorer people who end up going to primark, and in turn unwittingly support their equivalents in developing countries.

Some people are essentially arguing that high prices are justified so that the amount of money going to the charity is maximised. Some will also say that the ceo of charity X deserves their salary because they have increased the revenue by Y amount. But it does mean that less money goes to the end recipient of the charity. It is hard to swallow for some us that find such salaries morally objectionable. It seems to me that in their pursuit of as much revenue as possible some charities have lost sight of their caring aims, which should include catering for those with less money rather than passing them onto primark and poundland. It is so sad that we live in a world in which a charity shop effectively prices the poorer out of its shops to make more money, including rewarding those at the top handsomely.

All true postage - all true

One issue is rent however - are the prices also high because they need to cover exhorbitant rents ?

I think the whole model needs a massive overhaul . It's definitely
Needed we can't keep co aiming new stuff and the pre owned arena I think will evolve over the next decade a lot

At the same time, some charity shops price their goods too high for poorer people who end up going to primark

Is there really any evidence that a significant proportion of Primark's customer base are people who have been priced out of charity shops?

I work in family support and many of the families I come across can't afford the bus fare to the greatest Primark so it would never be a viable alternative to shopping in one of the many charity shops on their doorstep.

I can't afford charity shops. They are over priced and don't take into consideration that the stuff is used.

My local one had several 99p Primark t shirts for £8. I did point it out to them but they got really snotty.

Charity shops end up shooting themselves in the foot by their ridiculous pricing. It puts people off even going through the door.

The shirt should have been about 30p not £8

My local one had several 99p Primark t shirts for £8.

If Primark sells T-shirts for 99p I'll eat my (charity shop) hat. What rubbish.

Even if they don't sell T shirts for 99p (and I've never seen them at that price) they definitely sell them at 2.50, so 8 quid would be a hell of a markup.