Charity shops

[Worzilgummidge]

To think they have become a tad expensive.

If the prices were more competitive in favour of the customer- they’d sell more.
It makes no sense to sell secondhand stuff at the same cost / or more ( sometimes) than brand new!
Charity shops used to help the financially challenged members of the community.
Don’t know what’s happening these days?

Elderflower we must be neighbours

There must be a turnover problem in a lot of charity shops. As LucyFox observes, the book pricing is often ridiculous. Why price 50 Shades of Grey at £2 ?! And then they have signs up saying "No book donations, thank you". Then sell all your chick lit books that have been lingering there for years on end at 10p each!

I think charity shops face the problems of having to compete for donations with Ebay/Gumtree/FB selling pages and to a lesser extent car boot sales. Additionally, some decades ago when I used to haunt Oxfam, the stuff they had was "proper old stuff" of good quality. 1980s students were very partial to the charity shop look. But since the advent of cheap supermarket/Primark clothes, that is what mostly ends up in charity shops and so the quality and "trendiness factor" has reduced.

Can i ask why there are so few baby/children's clothes in charity shops anymore? When I had first DC I used to come out with bags of good quality clothes, coats, shoes from birth upwards. Plenty of toys and books too. When I had last DC, after a gap, any charity shop I went into had maybe a dozen items squashed on to the end of the rail, a few of those cheap Barbie books, and maybe a teddy or two. Where have all the clothes, board books, moses baskets, baby bouncers etc gone?

Also the over pricing is awful. I know someone who donated a sofa to our local charity shop. The manager put it up for £150. Small rural village in deprived area. The donor was livid, it was a nice sofa but not worth a quarter of that, and the manager of the shop is notoriously money minded pockets being lined

Most of the children's clothes we get aren't fit for sale.

Things like coats, snowsuits, smart shirts, party dresses and special occasion clothes which don't get as much wear sell well. Most of the t-shirts/tops/trousers we get for kids are worn to death, faded, stained and we just can't sell them. We do sometimes get some good baby stuff, probably because lots of people are deluged with 0-6 months clothing their child never gets round to wearing.

But older kids' clothes are slim pickings.

Re baby clothes donations. The shop I work in is in a very middle class area. We don't really do baby clothes - the only ones donated tend to be supermarket/primark etc which don't last well. Rather than have people complain about paying x amount for a bobbly primark top which they could have bought new for almost the same price, we just don't put them out (straight out to rag merchant). Occasionally we do get more high end donations and we do put them out. They sell quickly.

On another note, all those posters who complain about the condition of the clothes on sale, please remember they're all donated. Someone thought they were worth something when they donated! Or else they just wanted to get rid the quickest way possible!!

People sell stuff a lot more these days - eBay, Facebook even car boot sales. There's good money to be made from baby and children's clothes in good condition, so it doesn't get given to the charity shops so often.

Can i ask why there are so few baby/children's clothes in charity shops anymore? No idea! We don't get many any more. As others have said, the rise of ebay probably has a lot to do with it!

Charity shops used to help the financially challenged members of the community. That was probably their remit. Many still do. But if you mean give stuff away to someone who asks cos it would be nice then no, that would break their charitable status agreement - as in the person who donated did so for that charitable cause, say cats! So giving donations to say kids would be breaking the donation contract and could cause a lot of legal issues (and yes, people do get very arsey with charities).

That doesn't mean lots of donations don't go to the needy, single parents, shelters etc. It just has to do so through more official channel, charity to charity, and be accounted for!

Or else they just wanted to get rid the quickest way possible!! Yes! That's why we have HUGE signs explaining that leaving things on our back door costs us a bloody fortune.. it is fly tipping, we have to pay for the bins and shite you can't be arsed to take to the tip has to get there somehow. If you dump sorry, leave it at our back door we have to pay for it to be taken away!

All the broken prams, for godsake! Will noone think of all those broken buggies and prams!

Sorry, it is pouring down and we just had the speediest of fly tips at the back door: 3 buggies and really old pram, all knackered! We have working CCTV you sly, lazy bastard

Although the shops are run by volunteers I dont believe the owners do it all for charity. It was my understanding that 50% goes to the charity and 50% to the owners, No doubt someone will correct me

Do charity shops not have a by weight rag man these days to shred clothes for recycling? Alway ued to be the case so even un sellable clothes were sold by weight

I love a rummage.

I found a Prada winter coat for £60. I had it valued with a second hand dress agency and she said it was a food price as it was three seasons old.

Books - I buy them in the shed loads. Then Ziffit them.

I had a superb Danish made coat perfect for dog walking for a tenner. I've been lucky with shoes too. And a couple of Thomas Pink ladies shirts for a fiver each. Lots of work gear. I don't buy George stuff or Primark.

I think there's always a place for charity shops on the high street. I like the social value they bring and I have some excellent bargains.

My last Ziffit haul was £96. That was from boxes of books that went to a post office where they sent the proceeds to the newborn unit. I paid £45 for eight boxes of books. It helps charity shops to shift their stock.

I have seen some dreadful pricing too. But, I'll always support my local charity shops.

It was my understanding that 50% goes to the charity and 50% to the owners, Depends entirely on the charity!

For example, one local, well supported charity ALL the money goes to the owners. They use the money to pay for their living expenses while they go about their cat saving work. They have others who are Trustees/Directors, unpaid and they are officially employed to run the rescue. A precarious way to earn your living, but they have a lot of local support.

Others have very different set ups. Your understanding will be accurate for some, wildly inaccurate for others!

@Confusedbeetle - yes. When they have stock rotation days, most charity shops will rag their excess stock.

And yes, we all have a rag man!

My last bargain was a Paul and Joe cashmere jumper for a pound. Yes please, I'll have that!

I've just found two huge pieces of upholstery fabric in our local one, £1.50 each- enough for several new cushion covers and to cover a chair that I've been meaning to do for ages. Bargain- would have cost me £40+ I reckon (hence my inactivity)

Yes we have a rag man but that's all he takes - rags. Clothes, cushion covers, bedding, shoes/bags. He comes on a Monday and a Thursday and usually takes 30 sacks a time.

The problem isn't the textiles. (Although we'd love you forever if you mark your bags of old knickers and ripped t-shirts as "rags"). Textiles can be recycled and live again as sofa or mattress stuffing. Same with books and paper products - we can recycle those. We even recycle plastic carrier bags. Old spectacles are taken to the local optician for sending to Africa. Mobiles are cashed in as are foreign coins and postage stamps. We don't take electricals but the charity shop along the road does so we'll take it to them if we think it's worth selling.

The problem is the other stuff. The chipped mugs, empty DVD cases, jigsaws with half the bits missing, headless dolls, half used toiletries and dried up felt tip pens. Stuff which is really only fit for the bin.

We have one of those massive dumpster things at the back of the shop. It gets emptied twice a week and it's always full. That stuff costs us money to dispose of, and donors could just as easily have thrown it in the bin themselves.

Macarena Do you feel we could tag team each other with our nigh in duplicate posts

Maybe if more people know more about the weirdly huge workload there is in unpacking black bags, the fear factor every time you start a new one, the % of sheer shite you find and all the things we do to make sure that as much use and money is made out of every single donation the fewer posts like this one there would be!

Then again, I also give hours with our local food bank, the sharing of information doesn't seem to stop some truly weir posts about them, so maybe not

Does the decoration of a charity shop decide you about going in or not or is it the charity you feel most allegiance too matter?
I go for the latter.
A charity shop I don't use(they support animal testing)recently took over a shop in town.it was a lovely shop before.but they spent a month or more and goodness knows how much money on gutting it and fitting it out like an expensive shop.
Will that reap rewards I wonder or will it put people off,thinking their money is not being spent where it really matters?i.e. Directly on the cause or purpose of the charity?obviously not all money can go direct,there are many other outgoings for every charity,but when a shop is completely refurbished to a high standard?

Last year they got some Mac makeup and other high end brands the make up was on sale for £1

Mac makeup is one of the most faked brands. I'd lay odds it wasn't real and probably full of lead

I've spotted a few fakes in our local ones, I've pointed this out but they still leave them on the shelves.

KarmaStar If I'm making a donation then the particular charity definitely makes a difference and I'm quite selective about which charity shops I donate to (especially when donating decent items which ought to fetch a better price)

If I'm shopping then I'm less concerned about the specific charity and whether I agreed with their ethos (unless shopping for new items like Christmas cards which I would always buy from one of my favourite charities)

I love a good mooch in the charity shops and have picked up many a bargain. I tend to stick to the smaller independent ones, they are generally cheaper than the larger chains. I tend to avoid Oxfam and British Heart Foundation as they are ridiculously overpriced, charging over the odds for Primark and Asda clothing!

I love my local independent. We're in an area that values high goods that have been worn once.
Amazing bargains but I refuse to pay for the well leafed books

Can i ask why there are so few baby/children's clothes in charity shops anymore?
I don’t give the DC clothes to charity shops anymore because of the high pricing, by giving them to the charity shop, my thinking was they could help those in need and make a small profit.
I put them on the local sites for free, I usually check who has requested them, their feedback incase they're chancers, see if they have DC in their sales or photos etc and off they go.
Those looking for clothes should keep a eye out for free bundles online.