Charity shops

[Worzilgummidge]

To think they have become a tad expensive.

I go thrifting with a good friend, and it's nothing for us to hit 10 shops in a day.
We use coupons (make a donation and get a coupon for 10.00 off if you spend 25)
On 50% off days, and get some wicked deals.

I go for high end knitwear( merino, cashmere), leather goods, and decor, while friend goes for estate jewelry, quality furniture and tools.

You can get amazing pieces, but you have to work at it

I thknn it depends on area and the shop. I have nicely mentioned to staff in two of the shops near me about prices. The one was an interactive toy (still new in the box) . They had priced it at £8 which was probably less than its original price. The entertainer had been selling it at £5 for a few weeks and still had it in stock in our local store. The lady thanked me, and took it off sale to reprice. The other had Asda baby vests at 99p each. They are only 2. 50 for 3 when new. I mentioned it. The manager was about to check the stock that had been put out the afternoon before as a few volunteers sometimes got confused. I think they should have been £1 for the set.

For those of you who work in charity shops, do you research items before pricing? I'm not talking about clothing so much but collectibles. I've often pointed out to staff antique / collectibles on display that could command a much higher price as they've not been recognised as such. My mum is a bugger at taking advantage of this (and I've told her I'll sell her "bargains" on eBay when she dies and give proceeds back to the charity!).

Yes, shops do band by price when there are a few of them. Some chains move stock around to this end.

7 per cent profit only.... sad, isn't it. Decent charities deliver a lot more, but there are a lot of easy do-nothing jobs for 'senior management'.

Yes we do research, but bear in mind prices should be lower than ebay to make sure the item is sold. Ebay has 13 million customers; we can get 200 on the same day.

Good things should be researched yes. But there are lots of things which could be happening which lets things slip through undetected.

We have one (ancient) computer in the office. Not all volunteers are equally competent at performing internet searches. Some refuse to use the computer altogether. And that all depends on you recognising that something is worth looking up in the first place. We're lucky in our place that we have an ex-jeweller who comes in weekly, we put all the watches and jewellery which we think are decent to one side and let her take a look. But to the non-expert eye it can be very hard to distinguish costume jewellery from precious metals.

Also we have so many donations coming in that there's just not the time to google everything. We'd be drowning in bags if we did that. So you use your judgement - and mistakes sometimes slip through whether that means an item of clothing gets overpriced, or a collectible gets underpriced.

I once read that charity organisations only have to donate 7% of the profits to gain registered charity status!

That’s why I always buy my Christmas cards direct from the charity’s shop or online from the organisation itself so the charity gets 100% of the proceeds.

Charity cards sold in supermarkets only need to have 7% donated to the charity and the rest goes to the retailer.

I once read that charity organisations only have to donate 7% of the profits to gain registered charity status!

I've "once read" a whole lot of stuff. Doesn't mean it's true.

Any registered charity has to disclose lots of income and expenditure detail. It's all on the charity commission website or OSCR if you're in Scotland. It's not a secret. I think the industry standard is that about 70% goes towards the end goal of the charity. And by spending £1 on overheads and fundraising, that generates another £6 in additional revenue.

Agree that supermarket "charity" Christmas cards are a different thing entirely.

We had one that years ago you could get bargains in I brought a beautiful silk LV scarf for £1.50,
Last year they got some Mac makeup and other high end brands the make up was on sale for £1 less than Debenhams and it wasn't brand new, it's now closed as no body was buying I don't think the fact that the area it was in was a poor area so nobody could afford that stuff anyway

There has certainly been a huge shift in pricing in charity shops in the past few years especially the big names. Around here we do indeed have shops like BHF or Oxfam selling clothes for more than retail or still expecting to command high prices for branded clothing despite it being stained, damaged or in poor condition just because it is branded.

There is also a huge increase in the amount of shops listing using Ebay as a guide. Normally they don't even look at sold listings just that someone has put the item on for x amount and they then copy this. I am pleased to see some workers on this thread posting recognising that Ebay is a huge market and a small shop is no comparison. However it sadly doesn't stop many pricing it in this way.

I also think some shops have certainly lost sight of the fact they used to help those on lower incomes. Yes its great they are trying to earn more for their respective charities but if you price too high you are excluding a very large market of those who genuinely cannot afford to buy new. Poverty in this country is huge and people are rightly going to spend £1.50 a Primark if they need a new t-shirt, if charity shops are charging £2-£5 they don't care if it is a 'good' label if they just need a new t-shirt.

I do have to ponder though how much these shops make compared to the few who still adopt the price it low get it out of the door shops? I would imagine the shops who price items cheaply probably make a damn sight more in the long run. They will get people who pick up lots of extras because its only a £ or 2 and they are more likely to get people coming back to look for a bargain. Surely selling 10 dresses for £1-£2 each is better than hoping 1 person buys a dress priced at £10 and it would enable the shops to process stock quicker as they would have space to put more stuff out?

Lots are mega over expensive and the percentage arriving to the actual cause is often tiny like Oxfam it’s less than 10 percent

The British Heart Foundation have taken over a huge store, previously BHS, in our shopping centre. It has had a commercial makeover. If it is true that charity shops pay much lower business rates plus their stock and most staffing is free, perhaps the competition for retail businesses is unfair. It wouldn't seem so bad if more money than 5-15p from every pound taken actually reached the charitable cause.

Charities are obliged by law to maximise their income towards their stated goals. Unless their stated goal is supporting homeless/low income people in the local area, charity shops are not there to provide cheap goods for people. They need to be able to price their goods in a way which maximises revenue. Sometimes that will mean selling things for more than the cheapest new alternatives.

Yes, people make mistakes, get brands wrong, don't always spot the stains or hole in a garment, but in general, charity shops don't owe you the cheapest possible prices.

It was a two way street. Receive free stock sell for low prices for people who could not afford retailers prices, while part if the profit supporting a charity.
Most are over priced and give a small percentage, these days they make even more profit with clothes recycling and selling the crap abroad.

I volunteer in a charity shop and, like others on here who work or volunteer in them, I can confirm people absolutely do steal from them.

Regards Primark , usually nightwear, they are all put into a bag and given to a man from another branch where every single item in it is a £1..
Prices seem ok to me but I don't study them really

I will say that just before Christmas I was told to put a X though the prices on suit jackets (not the whole suit) and regardless of make or price drop them all to £3 .

the percentage arriving to the actual cause is often tiny like Oxfam it’s less than 10 percent

that's just not true.

that's just not true. There's lots of the % figures here that just aren't true!

I find it odd that so many are so eager to slam charities, others who seem to make a business out of trawling them, and so much 'it's not fair' posts.

Maybe posters don't use local charity shops, don't see or understand the true benefits of them to the charities involved The one I volunteer in is very local, the hospice would not exist of it weren't for the fucking hard work one woman started 30 years ago. Still many locals complain about the 5 shops she has set up, staffed, maintained and kept that hospice open. Even when they, or their family, use the bloody place people complain that the shop pries are too high!

It really annoys me, as does much of this thread! But then most of the charity shop threads do!

I volunteered in a charity shop about 10 years ago, the ladies who I volunteered with were of the generation who brought a few good quality things and made them last rather than throwaway fashion. They had been pricing up some primark/supermarket stuff for more than the RRP because they couldn't believe you could buy a t-shirt for so little money.

We did get shoplifters but I found it quite upsetting because it was usually people who were absolutely desperate.

The worst people were the hagglers, we once had a 20p sale of lots of lovely, good quality baby clothes as we had been given so many, we had people trying to haggle white company baby clothes down to 5p an item!

The charity shops in our town have much better prices lately, I think it's because we've had so many new ones opening that there is now competition.

Curious I was restating what the TV documentary said were the % figures.5% help the aged 15% cancer..it was about a place where they have lots of Cs so perhaps about those individual shops.

You stated that he % is often tiny - a blanket statement. Ignoring the posts from some others who work / volunteer in shops.

Local and national charities have very different ways of working. Help the Aged etc are enormous and that % of monies is still a HUGE amount. So they employ lots of people and raise money for research etc. Every shop front is also an advert, raises awareness etc. So in truth ALL of the money raised supports the cause, in many, varied ways.

I have tried to explain the extended work of all charities (social, financial as well as main aim) for years. But very many people refuse to see the point, focussing instead on the cash money going towards the main aim of the charity. TV documentaries such as the one you refer to, really don't help set out a clear picture, they too prefer to denigrate and diminish!

And people have selective retention - they hear one story about a rogue charity only sending 2% of funds to a good cause and tar everyone with the same brush.

We don't have the "desperate junkie" stereotypical shoplifter. The last person the manager caught was a well-dressed, well-spoken middle aged woman who was spotted putting a cheap £3 necklace in her bag. Manager challenged her. The response was along the lines of "Don't know why you're bothered, you get the stuff free anyway". Also, all these attitudes about charities being fat cats, not giving any money to the charity anyway and being full of volunteers who haven't a clue make shops fair game, to your CF brigade.

DH works in a charity shop (part time, for a few pence an hour over minimum wage despite his management role, before some posters get their knickers in a twist). They need a decent turnover of stock, but at the same time their purpose is to make money for the charity - so the price is what someone will pay. They aren't also there to provide cheap stuff for local people as some PPs have suggested, as that is not the purpose of the charity.

I assume those of you quoting weird percentages don't believe that paying staff to do the work of the charity is the "actual cause". I invite you to consider how emergency famine relief will reach its destination in a developing country and be distributed there if it's up to Bob* the retired volunteer to organise.

("Bob" is a star in his local charity shop, he gives his time gladly and is a great draw to the customers who come in for a chat with him as well as spending money. But he's a retired gas engineer not an experienced logistics professional.)

veggie I'll be stealing that to add to my explanation.

Ye gods, I too steal from charities

I fully agree staff should be paid in a charity shop, most stores have permanent staff with volunteers.
I just had a read up on the Irish ones, there is not a massive amount goes to the charity but a decent amount. Every bit helps.

It’s the books that get me ...
£3+ for a tatty paperback, one that clearly states “free with X magazine” or one of those that is 3for£5 in the Works ...
I look & rarely buy nowadays whereas in the past i’d Spend At least £1 a visit usually £3-5 but i’d Leave with a bag of books for that which i’d Read & return so they’d sell the same book maybe 10 times, now they seem to sell very few ...