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.).

I think actually under-pricing isn't fair on the people donating. I remember arguing about a child's wool coat priced at £1.
There was a brand new dry cleaning label in. I pointed out that the donors would have been better to throw the coat away and donate the dry cleaning money.
I've also seen collectable books that are worth far more and sold them for the charity shop and donated the money.

Leather handbags - we do get quite a few of these donated to our shop but they are very popular and don't hang around for long. I priced a couple of those little cross body pouch type bags this morning, one red and one green. Can't remember the brand but we googled them and they were fairly pricey, around £50 new. One was split new, never used. The other slightly more worn. Brand new one was priced at £20, the more worn one at £15. Both sold within the hour. (Shame, because I quite fancied the red one for myself).

We also get a LOT of fake bags which we are not allowed to sell on, they all go straight in the bin.

I think YABU a bit. Austerity has hit a lot of people very, very hard and charity shops used to be more affordable than they are now. Charity shops could still make the money they used to and provide clothes etc for people that are so hard up they can't afford high street stores. Not everyone can now afford to buy clothes from charity shops like they used to, which I think is outrageous.

Now people can go to poundland and primark to get new cheap stuff that they could have once needed to get from charity
Ä shops. Charity shops are selling to make money rather than help people with less money to be able to afford things. I think it is a very reflection on something but my brain is too sleep deprived to figure out what.

I'm also calling bullshit on the 1million a year profit. Sheesh.....

things can be bought so cheaply that I struggle to understand the pricing in charity shops. Kids books always surprise me - we have some charity shops that charge sensible prices (10-20p a book) but others want over £1. I can buy sets on the book people new for well under £1 a book so why would I buy a tatty creased yellowing book for so much?

Along with pretty much everyone I know, I think charity shops are overpriced (greedy) now.

At the end of the day, the items are secondhand, and even from a good make, clothing that has been worn and washed is not at all likely to last long or look nice for long.

I used to shop in charity shops loads - the whole fun of it was finding a bargain and getting 'new' clothes without having to spend a fortune (when you don't have a fortune to spend) but now you can spend fairly decent money and what you still have in the end is second hand, pre-worn clothes that aren't exactly what you would have chosen if you could have afforded new. It doesn't make me feel happy anymore so I don't shop in charity shops anymore. As someone else pointed out, I can get sale items of new clothes cheaper than I can get charity shop second hand worn and washed clothes from the same label sometimes.

Tags or nor, it's secondhand. It's been owned by someone else. This thread reminds me of how idiotic some stall holders are at car boots - 'it cost £30 new - I'm not taking less than £20!'.

Take it home then, along with the other SECONDHAND stuff you presumably wanted to get rid of. Secondhand should never be any more than a third of cost price. Trying to sell for more loses that dual spirit of charity shops - money generated for the charity itself, and helping people out who want to spend the little they have wisely. No doubt loads of stock doesn't shift, the bog standard, ordinary stuff, and gets sent elsewhere.

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.

No, the shop wins national awards for its profit level

I've been buying the vast majority of my clothes from charity shops fot nearly 40 years (started when I was a student).

I do it partly fot the reason the OP stated - wanting not to look like everyone else - but also because no matter how cheap Primark etc are, the true price is paid by some underpaid and over-worked factory worker. If I can avoid being part of that, it's good enough for me.

Not sure where those random "fots" came from

I got a beautiful vintage (80s!) Jaeger jacket in lovely condition for the princely sum of £15 not 3 weeks ago. I think turning your nose up at paying more than a tenner just because it's a charity shop is a pretty silly thing to do because you'll miss out on some great bargains, but as I used to tell everyone when I was working in antiques (which is like working in charity shops, only more posh and pretentious ) - it's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I also got a Whistles skirt for a tenner recently. I'm happy to pay a bit more for something of quality, charity shop or no, and I doubt I'd ever get something direct from whistles for £10. I love the charity shops round here! :)

Can you name the shop / town at least? I'm fascinated by a business model that generates £1 million pa profit. (Turnover at a stretch, but even £3,000 doesn't hit that).

not at all in the spirit of what charity shops used to be about.

But that's exactly my point - I don't believe that charity shops are about providing cheap stuff.

I also disagree that something brand new with tags is "second hand" in the same way as something which has been worn. Something with the tags on hasn't been worn, hasn't been washed, has probably never been out of the wardrobe. It is, to all intents and purposes, new. When we're pricing stuff at the charity shop things which have never been worn and still have their tags get NEW written in big bold letters.

I know people seem to see that charity shops have a function of helping people on lower budgets out, but I very much doubt that any charity has this as an aim-rather, the purpose is to raise as much as possible for the charity.

Charity shops should be about both raising money for charity and selling things at an affordable price so that people can afford to shop in them if they can't afford 'new'.

Charity shops that overcharge, pricing people out and trying to get every last penny for second hand goods when they have been donated are not providing the service expected. I'd rather donate to one that sold things on cheaply, therefore being doubly charitable.

The million profit is do-able. Knowing how busy the shop I volunteer in is, and what our profit is, 10 times that level would take you to £1m.

Some charity shop chains have specialist boutique stores only selling designer clothes, or book shops selling rare and antique books, maps etc. A specialist bookshop in central London which is pulling in high value donations from across the capital could potentially be making that (although their rent would be 10 times what our shop's is too)

I don't give a shit. Charity shops are often high street locusts who often drive down wages and depress the area.

They don't pay for stock or wages - except for the one manager - and pay peppercorn rents. Worse are charity shops dedicated to books or second-hand clothing. I've seen them drive out established businesses, but it's all for charidee, so that's okay

They have their place but a proliferation of them is not a good sign of a healthy high street.

So if the woman wants to bargain, let her. Maybe your manager, who unlike you, is the one getting paid, might decide to do a deal with her.

I love shopping in charity shops, you can get some total bargains in them.
I do think some are way over priced though. The ones that do really well in our town are the ones that price realistically and have things cheap though. The bigger, well known charity shops don't as they are so greedy price wise.
I mean, you might have nice stuff. Why would I buy a top secondhand that's £7 when it costs exactly the same or cheaper from Primark?
Same with shoes. I'm not spending £8 on a pair of shoes when I can go to Wyndsors and get the exact same pair cheaper.
As for £170?! You're having a laugh. Nobody sane would spend that much, surely?!

But that's exactly my point - I don't believe that charity shops are about providing cheap stuff.

Well, whether that's what they're 'about' in your view or not, that's what they're about to many people. They don't shop in them because they are choosing to support your particular charity - they're after a bargain. And prices have got greedy, and yes it's offputting. This can't be new information for you.

I think the premise is wrong OP. If you want to sell it, price it right. Near us the sally army is super-cheap and is incredibly busy. Our local Oxfam shop on the other hand I never go near, because they massively overprice imo. They are constantly putting out begging messages for stock -and no wonder, because everybody I know locally (including me) donates to the sally army as they know it'll be sold for a reasonable price. I would take a bet on which shop's profit is higher!!!

I don't think sometimes charity shops do understand pricing very well, it isn't just the odd mispriced item that slips through. I'm not for instance going to pay 5 quid in a charity shop for a book that I could get for 1p +2.80 postage on amazon!! Whenever I've gone into Oxfam I've been completely flabbergasted at the prices they charge for books. Ditto some furniture - you'll see a sofa or a side table that might if you are lucky fetch a tenner on eBay priced at about 90 quid in the local Red Cross furniture shop!!!

I have worked with commercial properties and some charity shops do get peppercorn rents as it's a way for landlords to not have to pay business rates, insurance etc for empty units.

The company I worked for owned several shopping centres in the UK and in the ones where we might at some point have 3-5 empty units, our managing agents would actively look for charities to take on short rentals/contracts with short notice periods at no or nominal rent to fill some of the units - it would make the whole of the shopping centre seem more attractive so helping the other tenants as well as prospect of future lettings.

I left that role about 5-6 years ago so I'm not sure how common it is these days - I guess it would depend on the local economy.

I was really shocked the other day when someone tried to haggle a photo frame down from £2.50 to £1 in a charity shop. The frame was one of those 'family' ones with four or five spaces for photos, I would guess it'd be at least £8 new. The volunteer wasn't budging so the customer put it back.

Where I live there are more charity shops than any other shop. We must not have got the memo yet as almost everything is £2.50 or £3; skirts, trousers, tops, bags etc.

Just because something hasn't been worn doesn't make it new. It will likely be well out of season, often by years. And has been stored in someone's house where there could be pets, smokers, children, dead bodies, flea infestation etc.