To think charity shops have got just too expensive?

[Arnoldthecat]

The high streets of even the fairly affluent towns now often have a selection of charity shops because no one else wants the retail space. Inevitably i often browse them and i dont think im alone in thinking that they have just got way too expensive.

I tend to look for factual books but as a matter of interest, i look at other stuff and prices. Example,used mens shirt £8 ! It was nothing special either.

I spotted a woman looking at a teapot. The label was partly obscured nd she thought it was £1.99 when it was actually £19...oh i dont think so,she said,as she put it back on the shelf.

No one is buying anything. They get it all for free,why not just keep prices reasonable,shift volume,get the money in and get new stock on the shelves/hangers?

Can't say I've noticed this tbh. Get some bargains in my local cancer research. New next jeans for £4.50, and a H&R london dress for a fiver. I love a charity shop rummage :)

the pile it high and price it cheap method is going to generate more money.

I agree, partly. But in order to maintain a rapid turnover of stock you need good quality donations in the first place, which are fit for sale. And a team of volunteers to process, price and fill the shelves.

Our shop really, really struggles to get committed volunteers to process stock. It's not easy.

We're lucky enough to be given some really lovely brands like Reiss, Hobbs, Jaeger, LK Bennett. I'd be doing the charity a disservice by sticking a Jaeger dress out at the same price as one from Primark it has to go out at more because it's about getting the most money we can. There aren't endless Jaeger dresses in the back shop to replace it with.

Our local charity shop charges £1 or 50p. I got a brand new with tags pair of Next jeans for a quid! A £29 saving!! Of course I gave more money than asked but that pricing means that the charity has a constant income and local people are dropping donations in daily. They are usually overstocked.

I was gobsmacked to see a couple of full kilt outfits donated in there recently. They're worth hundreds of pounds each, even second hand so I do hope they priced them more than their usual charges.

You can also go in and take free sanitary products and nappies if you need them. No one takes the piss as far as I know and it's only the needy who do take the offer. It's such a nice shop.

Just because it sold on Ebay for £20 doesn't mean someone in a small town is willing to pay the same amount!

Absolutely - but it might mean it goes out in the shop at £15 rather than £1.50. The really good stuff goes off to auction, mostly pictures and jewellery.

I volunteer in an 'independent' charity shop ( linked to a community project).
All books are free.
Clothes are fab quality, think M & S and are all £1 each. Childrens clothes are 4 for £1 and all school uniform clothes are free.

I am clambering over school uniforms at the moment. No one wants them, even though they are good quality, free clothes.
Very few people take free books.
Very few people take £1 clothes (good quality and all).

We took a selection of nicer things (very subjective), and priced them up at £5-£10.
People snapped them up thinking they had a bargain. The very same clothes that had been in the shop for months with a price tag of £1.

Nowt as strange as folk....

The charity shops in our area seem to be good at pricing. Unless it is shoes. All of them usually want at least £5 for shoes no matter how tatty they are. Asking £3 for a pair of used flip-flops is a bit weird when you can get new ones in Primark for £1.

Some are extortionate. One near me prices used Primark tops at a higher price than they were new and jewelry at £4/5 for a fairly cheap fast fashion necklace.

The new tat is also an annoyance to me as well. I'm not really sure why donations are being spent buying door mats, feather dusters etc that are pound shop quality.

Another oxfam tries to be too much like a vintage shop and so sells any older clothing marked up like a boutique when it's really a nothing special piece of 80s clothing, or worse fairly nondescript 90s high street.

I'm all for paying for quality etc but sometimes I think some shops are driven more by greed on individual items (so I know lots of people don't go in & there's low stock turnover) when they'd probably sell more if they priced things a bit more fairly and got the people through the door regularly.

I think charities have to raise more money to continue to provide their services.

I was browsing in one the other day and the variation was amazing
There was a bn pack of next to me crib sheets 50p
A out stretched faded bundle of 5 sleepsuits £8. They were primark so cheaper to buy new?

I’ve noticed that the independent ons are usually more realistic. One or two of the bigger ones I tend to avoid now as the prices are too close to new.

Charity shops make an average profit margin of 19%. So for every £1 the charity spends on the infrastructure needed to run charity shops, recruit volunteers, pay the manager etc, they make £1.19. I don't think that's unreasonable -- much less than that and it's not worth doing as a way to generate income.

www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/uks-largest-charity-retailers-revealed-in-league-table.html

If you compare the cost of clothing with previous decades, the cost of clothes relative to inflation has been steadily dropping. We're paying 10% less for women's shoes even than we were in 2010 (see link). My point is that prices are lower than ever but the fast fashion race to the bottom made possible by economies of scale and cheap labour in foreign countries means we're less willing to pay.

www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/how-have-prices-changed-over-time

I think charities have to raise more money to continue to provide their services
In my area local charities tend to price fairly in their shops and they have a good reputation for services offered.

Every one of the shops that over prices is part of a large national charity that seems to be able to throw money at 24/7 TV advertising campaigns, endless chuggers in town and so on. (Not all big charities over price but all the ones that do in my area are big charities)

LolaSmiles

That pretty much mirrors my experience as well.

I bought a brand new work dress (original store label said £45) and thick wool formal coat both M&S yesterday for less than £15. Yes, possibly above what I'd have paid when my circumstances were different a few years ago, but still incredible bargains.

I have the same pot luck attitude when I go in TK MAXX - sometimes you get a cracking bargain, others its manky old stained blouses for £8. Luck of the draw!

Very few people will be looking to pay £20 for a teapot in a charity shop.

You only need one person to buy it though. We have a regular customer who comes in and buys mismatched vintage china which she then sells on to cafes or rents out to people having vintage events. She would absolutely pay £20 on a teapot. Also there are people who trade in all sorts of second hand and vintage and are in the shop two or three times a week. There are a lot of collectors out there too.

My particular thing I like to sort is the craft stuff. I know they value of most of it and know what it sells for new. Last week I had 10 x 100g balls of 100% wool. New, it's like £4 a ball. So the lot went out at £25 and sold within 2 hours - when that happens I always question whether we should have put a bit more on it...

I think it depends where you live too. I used to work for a charity which has shops over the uk, the stores are classified by the value area and the pricing structures differ - so places like central London or expensive suburbs would be ‘high value’ and the prices would match accordingly. Usually this worked out donation wise too, in places like Notting hill or Kensington you would get donations of barely worn designer gear. But in lower income areas they would normally only sell lower value items, some for example sold everything for under £4, and the donations were more likely to be supermarket clothing ranges etc.

Some stores also have individual eBay pages for unusual items or donations which might have specific buyers and are sought after online.

In my experience charity shops are still genuinely cheaper, some things may be mispriced by they are retail businesses looking to turn a profit. I think it’s quite luck of the draw.

I walked past a charity shop and saw a set of kids books...about ten thin paperbacks in a box set...second hand. Went in to buy...it was £20! Even the lady working there thought it was ridiculous. Why would I shop there when you can buy kids books in the pound shop or the works?

Some are very overpriced. I once saw some unopened Lego in a battered box in one and thought it was £1.99. It was actually £11.99. I’ve seen the same set brand new in lots of other shops including the Lego Shop for less than £10 so where the charity shop got their price I have no idea!

I think it's good that different charity shops have different approaches to appeal to different people.
I shop a lot in local charity shops - mainly for environmental reasons.
I'm happy to spend more on a good quality used item than I would pay for a new one in Primark - I was delighted recently with a pure wool sweater for DD for £8. My favourite local charity shop charges usually between £2 and £6 per item for children's clothes, which I usually feel is good value for the things I end up buying. They hang everything on hangers with the right size label on, in size order, so it's easy to browse.

Another shop is much cheaper, 50p per item, but they shove all the children's clothes in a box and you have to rummage through and have to look at the labels in the clothes to find out the size.

For me it's worth paying more to have everything laid out neatly, others prefer to rummage for a bargain.

It all depends on the particular charity shop.

There’s a wide variation of prices in the charity shops in my area, some selling things v v cheaply, and some with prices much nearer the new price.
It does tend to be the smaller or more local charities that have the cheaper prices.

Our area has a good mix. Hospice shop has a boutique vibe, very fussy about what they put out, and charge accordingly - I’ve seen them charge fifty quid and up for high end shoes for example. I don’t often buy stuff there because that’s not what I personally go to charity shops for, but if you’re a designer/vintage fiend then I’m sure you’d be happy to shell out.

One national charity on a posh high street takes a middle of the range approach - nicely presented, high turnover, middle of the road pricing. I just bought a good quality pair of jeans and a basic Zara top there for eleven quid. I assume I could have got a pair of trousers and a T shirt new from Primark for the same price but I prefer what I’ve got, and am happy to reuse and for the charity to get the money.

National charity on poorer side of the tracks has just introduced a huge Primark/Tesco’s/Asda container at a pound a throw for adults and fifty pence for children. I’ll be interested to see how they do with that - personally I’d probably only rummage through it for one-off fancy dress but it’s potentially very useful if you’re skint.

Makes me laugh when you see a primark t shirt for a higher price than primark were charging! Charity shops near me are quite reasonable aside from one. A few months ago one of them had a pair of boots on for a tenner and primark had been selling them off at a pound because they had been really unpopular. I told a staff member and she reduced them to a pound. She said I guess if they were struggling to sell for a pound in primark then no way will they sell here!

The church run one in our village is amazing, always full of decent stuff and really good prices. I go every week as it's completely new stock every few days.
I once had a funeral to go to and picked up a Ted Baker black formal coat there for £8.
The only drawback is that we can generally work out who donated it

Was in a posh town today. The charity shop was over priced and the stock is out of fashion more often than not.

We have three locally, one advertises loads online and allows an almost click and collect system.. which is great if it’s a larger item so you’ve got a chance to bring the car, one does 5 books for £1 on a certain day £1 clothes another ( it’s great forever getting ds new stuff with the tags on it for a quid) and the other has an ikea high chair rrp £12 sat out for £30... she compared it to the local “naice” baby shop who’s cheapest was £50 (Joie multi position fancy number) so it’s a bargain apparently.. I don’t think my eyebrows came down from the confusion yet.