To be annoyed the charity shop would not accept my donation

[Bearbehind]

I've had a bit of a clear out and had some stuff to take the the charity shop.

I checked on line it was open today then took the stuff into town.

You can't park right outside so I carried the stuff, in the snow, to the shop only to see a sign which said they no longer open on Sundays.

Oh well, I thought but, all the lights were on and I could see at least 3 people inside so I knocked the door and someone opened it.

He said they were shut and I explained I didn't want to come in, just drop these donations off.

He outright refused to accept them, because they were shut, and I'd have to go to another branch of theirs that was open today or come back tomorrow.

AIBU to think that if someone has made the effort to bring a donation to a charity shop and if there's are people there, they should accept them.

I'll be buggered if I'm taking stuff to them again.

The thread seems to have been hijacked by a gang of charity shop workers 😂. To be fair, most seem nice/passionate about what they do and I have read their posts with interest. A few otoh leave a lingering smell that makes me focus more on the bad attitude that seems to prevail in all 4 of our local charity shops. A sense of superiority and suspicion towards people dropping stuff off. Two ways of looking at it. I can't imagine it being an easy task, more thankless. It's not easy dealing with members of the public as i do 3 times a week as a market trader HOWEVER there is definitely an issue with many volunteers. Too many MN posts on the subject saying the same thing to prove otherwise. One charity shop worker posted a few posts back a very snotty post about a middle aged man dropping a coat off. Yes, his coat did sound near on rank BUT talk about being fucking judgemental. He may have been hard up and thought his donation was a good thing. Some volunteers seem to have delusions of grandeur

Oh, I wouldn't dream of denying that some charity shop workers are true jobsworths. Many are. Others are clueless, some have no social graces whatsoever, others always seem to be looking for a bunfight (maybe that's why so many of us post on AIBU ).

But, there are a couple of things I'd take up with your post ohhereweareagain

The poster about the coat explained in full why, nice as the gesture was, it was misguided. She didn't tell the gent to fuck off, she just explained here why torn clothing, no matter how good the quality, is often of no use to a charity shop - the cost of repair far outweighing any possible ticket price.

And very many volunteers are all that have been described for countless reasons. In the one small shop I volunteer in their are a coupe of people with LDs; others have had a stroke or other medical hiccough that makes it difficult for them to hold down a 'proper' job; others have been there so long they have dibs on the place, mess with them at your own peril.

And one is a virtual recluse, but she comes out once a week and insists on 'doing the till' for a few hours. Its the only human contact she has, so she gets to 'do the till'. I hate to think what some customers think of her (well, I have a good idea form comments here) but nobody would dream of stopping her, an most of the locals are fully aware of the situation.

Charity shops aren't simple places!

Oh... and can I point out the hypocrisy in your post? You seem to think it is OK for you to judge people!

curious i do get it, honestly. I understand that shite taken in is costly & time consuming but some people don't want to feel they are being judged by what they take in and certainly don't want the third degree. Others who have stuff that is of a lower standard, they don't know that their stuff is and in their eyes are making a kind gesture. In an ideal world, if it wasn't costly, charity shops should graciously take the rough with the smooth. I know our local charity shops have a fair few volunteers with LD but there are plenty who at a guess i would say do not and the rudeness tends to come from them.

Totally agree, Samphire. There is a huge mix of people volunteering at our charity shop, from 14 and 15 year olds doing their Duke of Edinburgh, through to the oldest volunteer who I think is 82. We have one long standing volunteer who has learning difficulties, she can't cope with sorting and pricing, so does the till. She can often come across as rude or inappropriate, she has no "filter" so says what she thinks. Had to intervene the other day as she was getting flustered, said "Don't rush me!" to a customer who then started yelling at her. Regulars know her and will stop for a chat, others seem to leave their manners at the door.

curious too fucking right. I will judge a miserable rude person when i have had dozens of bags of new donated clothing binned. You bet i will

OK... enjoy your tirade ohhereweareagain !

The stuff sits for four weeks in Goodwill, not indefinitely. It is discounted before it gets baled or auctioned or sold on to scrap or recyclers. The attraction of Goodwill is that there will always be 'new' stuff to browse through.

Even with differences in scale, much could be improved with better management and a more realistic vision. The aim of being a boutique is just plain counter productive - common sense should tell you that you are wasting time, effort, and lots of donations too when you take on the work of selecting and presenting items as if they were in a retail shop.

Fair enough to run more of a boutique if you do it on a consignment basis, with the donor getting a percentage of carefully chosen items that are placed and sold, and the rest going to the rent and the charity. But the idea that every item in a charity shop needs to be assessed and priced individually is a problem. It causes hurt on the part of donors when they see their stuff sold for less than they thought it was worth, and it makes customers resentful of piss taking.

If you know that your Boden stuff will be priced at $4.99 and the Walmart stuff likewise, you may just shrug as thousands of Americans do and take comfort in the fact that at least it is sold in an efficient manner, the organisation practices good stewardship of its resources both human and material, and someone else will use it or even make some money selling it on eBay. It makes the process of giving to charity much less of a personal thing.

Uniform pricing makes for more traffic, with the possibility of someone taking a CD or something else off your hands along with their haul of kids' wellies and winter jackets. As I mentioned, the Goodwill near me is always busy.

(They also hire people who have little or no chance of even being allowed to volunteer elsewhere, and the vast majority of customers bear with them).

The proliferation of small operations is incredibly wasteful too.

Most charity shops will ask if you can sign up for gift aid now, making the most of your donations.

It could also be a lack of space as to why the shop wasn't open when it should have been, they often have more stuff than the few volunteers can cope with. Think you could give them the benefit of the doubt on this occasion.l

Mathanxiety - I think you're just going to have to accept that the UK and the USA do things differently. The big charities here will have looked at the Goodwill model and for whatever reason have decided it doesn't work here. Lots of things which are hugely successful in the States don't work here, and vice versa.

As K2 said, it works differently here.

For example
The proliferation of small operations is incredibly wasteful too

The small charity I work for was set up to support a local hospice. It would have closed without long term support. The NHS could not afford to keep it open but the rural area really needed it to remain open.

So now the hospice is still open, 4 small shops support it, employ people and any number of other local businesses are supported. Local residents use it because they know where their money is going, may have relatives who use the hospice.

None of that is wasteful. It is all a sign of a good community.

Yep, k2. It’s different here :).

The boutique model can work very well. There is a fab boutique run by Shelter in north London - crouch end ie posh area with lots of ££££. I know of others. They only ever offer almost perfect stuff.

At the other end of the spectrum is a large shop near me with racks and racks (goodwill style) of items all priced the same ie tops £1, jumpers £2, shirts £2.50 sorta thing. They do very well too - different area, different expectations.

Oxfam does well online and with insta. I think other charities will follow suit but it needs a robust infrastructure to set it all up - good national networking, huge online customer service staff, warehousing specialists. Charities in the uk are working on a smaller canvas without the massive economies of scale you get in the US.

Samphire, your shop sounds just like mine :) we have one lad with quite serious LDs who has to come with a carer. He loves his two hours and the work he does is genuinely useful but he couldn’t manage in many other places.

mathanxiety - the other side of the coin when it comes to a proliferation of small organisations versus massive leviathans like Goodwill is that when such organisations become too big, they can become exploitative and bloated in their attitudes. Goodwill does not provoke 100% good will in the US, where it has been criticised for being exploitative of disabled workers and trying to drive competition out of the market (along with the usual complaints about vast executive salaries when some of its disabled workers earn only cents an hour - possibly more offensive than being able to see themselves as volunteers!). One size does not fit all in all countries and not everyone will buy into the Goodwill model. Sometimes it is nice to have alternatives. I really do not think replacing all charity shops for something like Goodwill would be a fair exchange at all. By all means look at what they do and learn from some of their good practice, but they do not exactly sound perfect themselves.

There are also comment forums on the internet where Goodwill employees claim it trashes tonnes of perfectly serviceable clothes every month, so in that respect, its vast scale does not seem to protect it from localised poor practice and having too much stuff rotting in warehouses. Its business model also does not seem to have protected it from having running costs which far exceed its profit from sales in some areas, resulting in store closures. Small charity shops where staff have discretion to respond to the actual market in their area and do not leave clothes festering in warehouses don't seem so bad in comparison after all on that basis!

I'm with the OP. It would take seconds to take the bags to save the bother of someone hauling them back to their car.

I wonder what posters think a small charity shop should do when its back room is completely full of donation bags and more come in.

If its rude to turn down more donations should they just start stacking them up in the store front?

Math, I love the Goodwill stores, I shop in them when ever I'm in USA (going next week actually and hope I'll find one!) but what works in a vast country isn't always going to work on this little island.
What about the tiny 'one off' charity shops? They can't do anything on a large scale. I lived near one (I think called Quit) which had NO paid staff..all were volunteers. It didn't last long.
Where I live now...until recently was a tiny charity shop , a complete one off that supported local rescue ducks and hens! I loved it, but believe me they struggled (probably why it's shut now)
There's no point saying 'this is how it should be' as it's not how it is or will be, even if people agree with you . The exception perhaps being Oxfam and Scope (have worked for both) where things do tend to be standardised... layout, price banding etc. But many are stand alone. My last one to manage was RSPCA but it was still stand alone/ self supporting despite being a huge international charity.
And I totally agree with Samphire! (great name by the way.. one of my pet's names) In my first job of managing, I had an elderly group of volunteers in their 70s and 80s (one even early 90s), well they'd done quite nicely before I came along and didn't they let me know it ! ;) They didn't like the fact I'd been newly trained as 'we've always done it like this' . There was no adaptability whatsoever. In fact they tried to manage me. We all became friends against the odds and I couldn't have done without them but they were hard work! If (on my bosses instruction) I had to introduce something new, I was told to 'fuck off you silly cow'. These were tough old Cockney ladies who'd lived through WW2, nothing phased them, I did kind of admire that but it was exhausting at times! They had my back but they would not budge and they frequently got me into trouble... especially with foul language (calling customers the C word, throwing shoes at a man's head, wearing innappropriate clothing...so many incidents!) I was told so often (by customers) 'you need to have a word with your staff' My reply -'they are twice my age, do you think they'll listen to me?'' It was.. an experience though! And actually I still miss them (even if I couldn't do it again)

Walking, I wasn't allowed to turn them down so we often had to put them in the back yard (sealed) and hope they'd survive rain falls :(

Lol :) :)

You make $8.86/hr as a sales associate at Goodwill afaik, and about 50% more as an assistant manager. This is comparable to Walmart. There are two interim grades.

The running costs are part of its mission - to provide basic retail training and experience at various levels, a reference when people seek another job, and a stipend while they are also gaining experience to put on future job applications, to people who might otherwise find barriers to employment. They employ people out of employment for a long time, teens/first time job seekers, people with LDs and SNs, felons, older people, and people with various physical disabilities, people who are somehow outside of the mainstream. They also provide a room with computers, internet access and job postings, interview training, help with a CV and filling out applications, and mentors to help those using this resource stay on track. All of this is free to those using the services and subsidised by the organisation as a whole. It's not a simple matter of running costs.

Therefore some Goodwill shops are in areas where people will not be donating stuff anyone would want to buy, or they have competition that is easier to get to. DD3's university town has a fantastic Salvation Army shop within easy walking distance for about 40,000 students who can donate and shop without hassle. It makes no pretense of being a boutique - the merchandise is all set out just as it is in any other SA shop. The Goodwill shop in the same town is located two bus trips from most students, on the other side of an interstate highway. DD3 and her roommate made the trek one Saturday and warned me not to even think about it.

The charity shops I go to are in low rent storefront locations and attract people from all over. I nearly always bump into someone I know from my U/MC area. There are cars parked outside with various school stickers from private schools whose tuition I happen to know. The merchandise varies widely.

at the Cockney ladies. DD4 has a friend whose (sadly, late) grandmother was a war bride from Liverpool who would have fit right in with them.

In reply to a pp, I am the volunteer who received a good quality, but heavily stained men's overcoat. It was good quality .but filthy. The lining was also ripped beyond repair. He'd given up the ghost of a chance of making it wearable. The cleaning and mending would have cost upwards of fifty quid. None of out men's coats are priced over a tenner. Of course I thanked him profusely. I always do. But a filthy coat with ripped lining is no more use to us than it is to him. It wasn't worth his while to get it fixed. Even if we had the wherewithal to gst it cleaned and re-lined, we could not ask the price it would have cost us. Of course he was thanked, and left thinking he'd done us a favour. As a pp said, I'm pointing this on here, on this thread, for the sake of truth and fact.

.

Today,we had a large donation of biro pens circa 2010. None of them work. The ink has dried up. That's cost us money.

Afaik, Goodwill does not have to pay its disabled employees the same as its other employees, and its disabled employees do not have to be paid any kind of minimum wage. There's a Salvation Army shop in our town and it sells lots of good stuff. And various other charity shops, all with interesting stuff in. No bloody way would I get in my car and pollute the surrounding countryside to go to a big warehouse out of town to look at it, though. The US has a different shopping culture to the UK. We copied bits of it, but it was never the same, as we don't have the same huge roads, huge spaces and huge cars, and trying to copy the US on that has just created a lot of clogged up roads and pollution.

And I haven't noticed anything boutique-like about our local charity shops, either. The fact is, every charity shop is different. I like that.

Goodwill made a right balls up of its operations in Ontario, Canada.