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?

I think it really depends on the shop. Some are really good and are almost like small boutiques. If the clothes are good value you won't mind paying £10 instead of £2.50.

But if it's poor brands in obviously worn condition, you're only going to shift the items if you price accordingly.

One thing that surprised me when I was pregnant was that none of our local shops stocked maternity wear. It would seem to be the obvious thing to stick as the items aren't used for long, are expensive to buy and will stay in good condition. But I can only assume that people just hand them onto friends/family and they never get to a charity shop.

The problem is that old stuff isn't "old" any more, if that makes sense! So when I were a lass, shopping in Oxfam would yield really good quality old ladies' clothes. One time I bought a cloche hat and a fox fur (I was into granny chic at the time!) and also started my long obsession with Barbara Pym novels when I took a punt on Excellent Women.

Now, however, the clothes of 20 years ago are supermarket tat. And the books never seem to be anything interesting, just yards of chick lit and 50 Shades of Grey etc.

I do think the pricing now is mad. Just because it says Boden on the label does not mean you can price a bobbly, misshapen, faded and out-of-fashion "fun" skirt at £12.

Dh and I had this discussion this morning, after visiting a large, out of town charity shop - everything £3 or under unless it's brand new products sold but the company or non-clothing goods otherwise priced - large stuff.

Their children's books are often fantastic - 4 for £1. I've bought plenty of barely touched books. Puzzles and games are a bit more hit and miss but we've had some bargains for £1-2. Adult books are 2 for £2.

But their clothing! There are a few nice bits which end up there but 0930 bang on the dot there are a hardcore group of charity shoppers waiting outside who swipe up everything half decent and then sell it on eBay for a higher price. This just leaves the often bobbly, shapeless or faded clothes.

Essentially I don't have a problem with that as the charity shop gets the money they wanted and the purchaser may well be in greater need of the money.

But it bugs me when they literally clear out the bargain goods sent in. A woman walked out with a whole pallet of kids pull-ups the store had been given and were selling very cheaply. I'd got the the shop just a few minutes after her, specifically to take advantage of this offer as we had small twins in pull-ups and a tight budget at the time. The store hadn't limited purchases to X number per customer (which I had expected) so one person bought them all. We're talking around 100 boxes!

Charity shops I always thought were set up with two reasons in mind, to allow for vital fundraising but also to enable those less well off to be able to afford nicer things for a cheaper price. And it's that ethos which very much falls by the wayside now.

I think it's a difficult one. Obviously they need to maximise revenue but equally they need to sell things. There's been a few times i've ummed and awwed over clothing and walked away because it was too pricey.

I have to reiterate that I do feel that people shopping at charity shops are primarily looking for a bargain. Saving the environment is a good secondary issue, as is looking for a hidden treasure - something vintage for example, but to save the environment I might have more luck buying sustainably grown cotton items, made into clothes in a British factory. Or something high quality, that's timeless and long lasting.

But I'm not here to argue. it's just my view.

I am.in town now and have just seen the following items - one at cancer research and one at Primark.

I can understand that items have to be processed etc, but in some cases is it not better to sell some items for rag making rather than have them on the shop floor for months? Donated items of poor quality can surely be sold for rags too. Oxfam do this, or say they do, so it must be worth while...?

Most of the big chains will have some sort of way of noting when an item goes out for sale. Our chain uses week numbers. Others use coloured stickers, or letters, or whatever. So when I was going around tidying up this morning it was easy to spot the stuff that's been around a while, because we;re in week 20 and there's stuff with week 17 or 16 on the label. We usually work on a three week rule - if something hasn't sold after three weeks it's half priced, if it still hasn't sold a week after that, it gets sent off for rags (if it's textiles) or boxed to be sent to another store and see if they have any more luck.

Stores which don't have some sort of stock control system do run the risk of having stuff hanging around for ages because you just don't know how long it's been out.

I think they're subject to the same market forces as anyone else. If you think their stuff is too expensive go somewhere else. They'll soon have to drop the prices if enough people do it.

Dear god don't get me started on charity shops...
They are just a bloody smokescreen to create lots of money.

I once read that charity shops need only donate 7% of the profits to be recognised as a charity. Given that most are heavily subsidised and volunteers help out with staffing I think they need reigning in.

Is it not true that the RSPCA was/is the UKs biggest landowner after CoE?

For me it's the bloody animal charities, really gets me. I wouldn't donate spit in their fucking tins!!
We do give stuff to bluebell wood but that's simply because we don't want to throw and don't fancy all the begging cheeky fuckers at carboots
I've noticed that a lot of charities now use ebay, they never offer a buy-it-now price, always out for the maximum.

I think a few are very sincere and honourable, the rest are like politicians, out for a cause until the money starts rolling.

I'll walk on by

When I had nothing I used charity shops because I had pennies as a budget not pounds.

Now I am in a different position, I donate expensive good quality items (sometimes new still with tags still in bags/boxes).
I ONLY donate to the shops where they price cheaply.

Without the cheap shops, I would have had nothing for my son when he was a baby because expensive charity shops were outside my budget.
I don't care if charities say they have the obligation to do their best to rip off customers by overcharging as much as they can, I won't donate anything to them.

So, it was cheap priced (small local) charity shops I gave my Gucci boots too, along with the Prada shoes (in perfect condition still in boxes with original wrappings included) etc... & I hope that someone really brassic got them cheap & enjoys them - they probably think they are knock offs but they were real.
I would have thrown them in the bin before giving them to a charity like Oxfam.

I find it offensive that on the one hand charity shops expect free donations, people to understand their erratic staff/opening hours/uncared for premises/appalling way the staff often treat customers & people trying to donate etc.... but on the other hand want people to pay over the odds for tat whilst complaining it can be too much like hard work/the timing isn't convenient to be given free stuff/whatever.

I think some definitely have. Some are still fabulous value. Today I went out shopping and I bought a new Debenhams shawl/wrap for £3, 4x high end brand children’s tops for £1.99 - that’s for all four! And a pair of perfect condition Adidas tracksuit bottoms for £4.99. I am over the moon. Couldn’t afford the stuff I just bought if I purchased it brand new.

I work in a huge charity shop - all clothing is £2, books are 4 for £2.50, CDs/DVDs are 5 for £3, 10 for £5 or 20 for £8. We turnover a huge amount of stock.

Dear god don't get me started on charity shops...They are just a bloody smokescreen to create lots of money.

Eh? Of COURSE they are out to create lots of money. That's the whole purpose of them.

Otra
Did you read the rest of my post? No, I thought not!!

Prices have definitely gone up and fair enough if the shops are savvier as to what things are worth. We’d all like to stumble across some Chanel haute couture for 50p but the shops are there to make as much money for their associates charity as they can.

It’s when things are waaaay over-prices that I start to get annoyed. My local Oxfam bookshop sells knackered secondhand books for more than it would cost for a new copy from Amazon. I actually like secondhand books but I can still get them more cheaply from Amazon Marketplace or Abe Books.

And one of my local charity shops has done away with its changing room, and now insists that (unless you want to try the item on in the middle of the shop floor) you buy the clothes, try them on and take back any you don’t want. Aside from having to schlep back across town, I’d feel bad asking for a refund from a charity. So I just don’t buy anything in there at all.

(Try them on at home, that should read!)

Our nearest one is ridiculous now. I always used to get books in one but now even old paperbacks are between £4 - 6. They are two doors down from a bookshop and library. All their clothes are really expensive, including primark stuff and primark is 6 doors away. They realised that vinyl is popular so now are charging the same as amazon, even on ones where the sleeve is damaged. It is always empty now, never see anyone in there. There is also a pound shop on the same street.

Another one recently jacked up prices too and when I asked, said they were doing it because the other charity shop is charging more. Never mind they have exactly the same issues and will probably be empty soon too.

I did read it, but it didn't make sense.

Any registered charity has to report all their accounts and expenses to the Charity Commission. All the information is there online if you want to look at it to see how much money each charity is generating through shops. Shops aren't really subsidised either. Some get cheap rates. But most pay the going rate for rent, utilities, waste disposal and everything else. We even have to have a public performance licence for the CDs we play in the shop.

All the rest of your post about spitting in animal charity tins was just a bit ranty and odd.

Of course charities are "out for the maximum", that's their job.

And one of my local charity shops has done away with its changing room,

We had to do this too as an attempt to cut down on shoplifting. We know it's a ballache and we are more than happy to refund, no problem as long as you have the receipt. But so much stuff was getting stolen from the fitting room that we had no alternative.

The BHS Furniture store near me sells IKEA LACK tables for £20. I think they cost £4 new. Daft.

I love the fact that everyone thinks they are a expert on charity shops . All charity shops (unless small independent ones) will have very sophisticated sales analysis systems so if their turnover & takings (by category) is not robust enough questions will be asked by Head Office.

I have only ever shopped at charity shops for at least the last 20 years, I have found countless bargains and lots of good makes, and of course the 'point' of a charity shop is to raise money for the charity . In the shop I run there are very few people who are genuinely hard up looking for items, it is nearly always people who are environmentally conscious or seeking vintage, alternative items. We put out a rail of brand new (with tags) school uniform from a well known High Street retailer for £1 an item and no one wanted it.
There is some sort of reverse snobbery around about shopping in charity shops, many people will admit to refuse to buy second hand clothes.

@Ragwort I think we may be talking about the same chain. We had the same brand new school uniform items and very few sold. (Although I did get 2 pairs of age 15-16 extra long trousers for my super skinny teen boy).

The stuff which sells the best is the quirky, the stuff you can't get on the high street. This morning I was pricing pretty 1950s tablecloths, placemats, table runners and other textiles. Yes you can buy a tablecloth for less in Ikea but it's not the same.

Yanbu-many of them are getting savvy to people like me who used to buy eg Boden/Joules for a £1 and sell it for 5x as much after my DC had finished with it.

As an aside Primark is getting ideas above it’s station recently with some of its prices.

I love the fact that everyone thinks they are a expert on charity shops

You don’t need to be an expert to look up the price on Amazon (or wherever) and see that the charity shop is flogging a used version for more than a new one!

In the shop I run there are very few people who are genuinely hard up looking for items, it is nearly always people who are environmentally conscious or seeking vintage, alternative items.
This is key.
In the shop YOU RUN you've worked out what your customer base wants.

What many of us are saying is that some of the shops near us they aren't considering their context.
In the shop you run there's clearly a market for the more vintage side of things.
In a shop in a less affluent area selling used Primark for more than new and having lots of dated stock that's overpriced doesn't work. In which case that shop needs to spend less time over pricing things (and relying on a couple of sales to bump things up) and start thinking about who is shopping there or would shop there if the shop was better.
Surely this is common sense.

There's lots of people on here talking about what they like in their local charity shops. People aren't being snobby about them. They just think they should be fair and match their customer base if they want to make a sale.

I think we need to address a very important point here
Charity shops are just a business under the banner of the charity they donate too, the donation isn't what is raised...far far from it I would suspect.

Personally I think they are greedy, hence why I don't go.

I actually know of a charity in the city where I live, Obviously its a animal charity - The guy who set it up 3 decades ago has never worked in his life, unusually he is both the director and treasurer?? I know that many people have bequeathed their entire assets to his charity, we are talking millions of ££'s here. The animal pictures on display in the photo section are yellowed from being there for the past decade or so, Every xmas the local paper does the xmas charity thing and the old animal pictures appear in the paper will sowful eyes and matted fur.
I know the kennels he used to use 30 yrs ago to keep his abandoned animals, the animals have long since gone, yet his charity shop still stands, and donations continue to come in.
I'm guessing he'll be nearing retirement age soon...retirement from what?? I'd also guess his pension pot will be much much higher the mine and yours.
This is why I'm so cynical, it opened my eyes I'll tell you that.

No sorry, I'll donate my unwanted stuff, but I wont give them my hard earnt cash.