Charity shops

[Worzilgummidge]

To think they have become a tad expensive.

spudina

Most charity shops give clothes they can’t sell to a rag merchant - they will usually pay £15-20 per kg and they recycled.

If you have school uniform that’s in good condition, offer it back to the school. Every school has families who would appreciate good quality secondhand uniform.

@spudina, when I volunteered in Oxfam (which is nearly 10 years ago now so take with a pinch of salt!) we had a skip for cloth waste that was not sellable. It was not thrown away but taken to be recycled. We'd put everything in there, even ripped clothes, but it was easier on us if people told us they were donating fabric waste rather than clothes!

I have to admit I'm torn on the issue of pricing. Charity shops aren't there to provide cheap items for shoppers - if they can make a profit, they should, and it does strike me as grabby when people assume they should be dirt cheap. OTOH, I really hated having to do stupid things like put a lovely designer jacket in the 'scrap' bag because it had a tiny rip or a missing button (really!), rather than selling it with a note saying what was wrong. Back then, that was Oxfam guidelines, and I don't think it has changed much since.

And yes, people steal from charity shops. Like another poster, we had volunteers who had learning disabilities and one of them was very easily tricked. It made me so cross that people would target her, but they absolutely did.

@Spudina

I'm sure somebody who works in a charity shop can answer your queries better and more fully than I can, but a lot of charity shops send unsellable clothes for rags to be used in industry etc. They don't get a lot for them, but it all helps.

They're always glad to take bags of labelled rags from me (usually along with a few bags of decent clothes) - they can sell them straight on for a small amount and they don't have to spend any time going through them I'd be very tempted to have a quick look if it were me, though!.

I picked up
this in new condition for £1.50 on Friday in a local charity shop for my friends son. She was shocked at how much it would have been...

As far as I know clothing that can't be sold in the shop usually is sold for rag recycling.
I buy books from charity shops all the time. It will vary from 5 for £1 to £2.99+ depending on the shop. But I like the fun of seeking out certain books, finding books that are now out of print, coming across something I haven't seen before that just catches my eye. I love it. Recently I have bought a load of graphic novels for my daughter. Mostly American books - some of which aren't published in the UK so I won't find them in Waterstones or Whsmith and if I don't know they exist before I come across them I couldn't order from Amazon.
I would say 'charity-shopping' is actually one of my hobbies so I go there for that rather than 'cheap'.

I think some of it depends on where you are. My mum has a brilliant one near her, kids bargain toy bin 20p. Books 50p or less. Proper charity shop and they're always busy.

Round where I am they are all stupidly overpriced. I used to buy loads of books from charity shops. Not anymore. Paperbacks for £4-5. I can get the ebook (or often even a hard copy) cheaper on amazon or from somewhere like book depository.

Round here they are still very cheap.
Recently I have bought 2 lovely tailored winter coats, 2 cardigans in perfect condition, a PH Baking recipie book and 3 dvds all for under £30. I love a bargain I often buy books for myself there too.

I think it is absolutely daft when a charity shop looks on ebay and prices something in their store at the same price. Ebay is for a worldwide market, not the few shoppers in a small deprived town, so why are you pricing up a random LP (not checked for scratches) at £10 just because one achieved that on ebay, including post and packing?

The other bugbear is the "sifting" of stock by volunteers. I know this is outlawed by some charities, but a school-gate mum was telling me that her dm worked in X, and she'd instructed her to be on the look-out for Mini Boden, Joules etc and she'd got loads of stuff.

I donated a load of dh's (posh) work shirts to a charity shop and when I went in a few days later they weren't there. So I asked, airily, if they had any work shirts and the woman got a bit shirty (boom boom!) and said that none had come in for ages. Hmmmmm.

I live in one of the richest areas of London and have volunteered for years in the local charity shop's back room, sorting the donations.

We do make money, but equally we are there to serve the community, so prices are regulated. Mostly by me

A hell of a lot of charity shops have no intention of serving anything but their directors' salaries, I regret to say. Small charities and religious charities are way better - less chance of 15 'retail executives' on 100k each sponging up all the profits.

Oh, and as for nicking from charity shops... there are two types of shoplifter. The professionals - we await them every Sat afternoon; and the desperate. If you're so skint you're after pinching a secondhand mug or a pair of socks, shame on anyone who gets spiteful about that.

lanaor, I think there's a third kind. The people who do it for the heck of it. Where we were we got masses of teenagers who thought it was funny. They were not skint, nor were they professional.

True, I'm sure.

I think charity shops should help both the charity *and the customers!
Our cancer research is dreadful. £15 for a bobbly cashmere cardigan.

YANBU although at least most now actually do take a good look at the clothes before sticking it on a hanger. We used to dread going to the two in our town as kids as the stuff was cheap but it was more often than not stained, stinky and damaged.
You have to do your research now, we have a couple local which are ace. I live now in quite a well off village so we often find some quality stuff for under a fiver. The next one over though takes the piss. I saw a big box of records, all 12 inch singles, and asked how much. I was told £3.50 each. I said I'd give her £50 for the lot- I knew from chatting to a volunteer before they hated getting records in as they didn't get many people in who bought them (was before the hipsters went mad for them again). Dozy woman said no, she wouldn't do them as a joblot. They were still there months later.
Our local one knows me so well now they let me have first dibs, and know I won't rip them off.

Irma are you sure that your donation had been processed? We are currently overwhelmed with donations and some bags are just being stored or passed on to other shops just to try to keep on top of things.

We have been getting an average of 200 bin bags of donations a week recently - I am short of volunteers so struggling to sort through what is coming in.

Completely agree OP
I once read that charity organisations only have to donate 7% of the profits to gain registered charity status!
After which they are eligible for rent rebates, voluntary free staff plus god knows what else.
I frequent ebay regularly and see more and more charity shops auctioning items for the highest price. Many times I've enquired if I could simply buy, yet they always refuse, clearly they want as much free money as possible.
Didn't I once read somewhere that the RSPCA was the biggest landowner in the UK after COE!!
These days charity, especially bloody animal ones are merely a smokescreen for raising effing £1000's not to mention the millions that are left to them in wills....and yet only 7% need actually go to the cause the charity is set up for...bah, I wouldn't even waste spit in the RSPCA charity box now!

I always thought charities were like politicians...honourable and with good intentions until the money starts rolling in.

I once gave a small piece of china to a charity shop. It had cost £2.50 new. Next time I passed the shop it was in the window for £4.50. Charity shops are actually big business these days.

Mixed bag near me - some are very reasonable some are very expensive
I only know of one pound shop version locally which I love - bought 2 leather handbags there recently
The dearest in my area are the local hospice shops (3 different hospices) and air ambulance
YMCA and some smaller local charities are the cheapest

charity shops are there to raise as much as possible for their chosen cause. Not to give the opportunity to buy cheap stuff

I disagree. Yes charity shops are there to raise money. But they’re also there to give people the opportunity to buy affordable second hand items. Everyone wins - people get rid of unwanted stuff, the stuff gets recycled, the charity shop gets a bit of cash and shoppers get a bargain. If you remove the “bargain” part of the equation it no longer works.

I live very close to a HUGE rock star who regularly donates his clothes to be sold in charity shops. Some are sold in store and some on ebay. His Mum sells her handmade jewellery in one of the shops too!

Recent TV documentary said amount of money getting to the actual frontline of the charity was 15p in the pound from the cancer shops and 5 p in the pound from help the aged shops.

Lana..my friend works in a cs and her manager was told she had to raise the prices as the shop was in a platinum area. Do most charities grade areas and charge according to how rich the area is considered?

The ones near me are very expensive. I still look, but buy things quite rarely. One of the problems is that their prices are based on how much the item may have cost new, rather than thinking about what it’s worth now.

I have found the ones in our town vary. The bigger charities - oxfam etc seem to price really high. But we have a few that are more local charities that seem to price lower and there are some real bargains to be had.

The charity I volunteer with doesn't grade areas at all. It's all left to the manager and the staff. We know what sells and what the right price is. Other shops charge more or less.

It's an art, not a science.

Also on the volunteers taking stuff - most big charities have policies. We have to write in a book everything we buy. We can't price something we want to buy ourselves. That's not to say there aren't volunteers who help themselves but most good charities strike the balance between allowing volunteers a perk for their time and making money.