What do charity shops want?

[Emergencycake]

I have been having a bit of a clear out and found some bikinis that will very unlikely ever fit me again, and that got me wondering would it be ok to donate them, or is that a no no?

Any advice on that and other items would be helpful. Thanks

free CDs or DVDs you get with newspapers

they clearly state "not for resale". That includes charity shops! We send them off with the books for recycling. Some of the decent music compilations we keep to play on the CD player in the shop.

Oh and we also happily sell earrings. They're very easy to clean.

Also remember that anything really nice won't reach the shop floor, it will go home with the volunteers, maybe for a few pence.

I can reassure any one who has doubts, that the charity I am working for has a 3 days on shop floor policy before staff can buy items at their discount. We are also got on the heels of any potential thief. (Big national one)
Everything that comes in gets logged by the store manager, together with your gift aid number. So if you declare gift aid, there is a paper trail / digital trail of your donated goods.
As often, stock does get rotated between shops.

Charity shops near me (market town) sell used swimwear all year round. I bought a lovely linea costume once :-) ours also take children's clothes, soft toys etc. I guess it depends on the shop and your area.

Could freecycle bikinis, I bet. I've bought 2nd hand no tags swimwear in a charity shop (adult & child sizes).

Also remember that anything really nice won't reach the shop floor, it will go home with the volunteers, maybe for a few pence.

Bullshit.

@DontCallMeShitley so how many hours do you work for free to help society every week - come on now, all us volunteers are dying to know.

the cat charity shop i work in will take books they sell well at 50p each for paperbacks
clothes of all genders and sizes, any not fit to go in the shop go to rags
electrical small goods as we have a gentleman who PAT tests for us
bric a brac, dvds, CDs yes the freebie cds sell at 5p each,
vintage stuff
basically everything that is sellable
we are lucky our shop is an ex pizza hut so the shop is spacious and plenty of storage upstairs
we do not take videos, bicycle or motorbike helmets, chefs knives,
and no volunteers and staff do not just help themselves to whatever they want for nothing, items have to be on the shop floor for sale for 24 hours before staff or volunteers can buy it at the shop price, paid staff get no discount volunteers get 20% discount
and it is a fallacy that all animal rescues welcome old duvets, no they dont our centre has a domestic sized washing machine so while knitted squares for the cats are welcome, duvet covers, pillowcases and duvets are not welcome

Also PLEASE ask before you hand over boxes and boxes of coat hangers. We have our own hangers in our shop and we just can't use random ones anywhere - straight in the bin, costing us money to dispose of. Other charity shops might use them but please ask first.

I wasted a couple of hours trying to get a vast number of DVD's up to the £5 minimum acceptable for sale to CEX only to have the site crash as I was trying to input payment details

Couldn't face doing it again so started to ring round the local chazzers to see if they wanted them. The very first one was more than happy to take them off my hands so I'm quite surprised to see them described as near unsaleable especially as I still buy them and have to elbow others out of the way to peruse the racks

I live in a big city and within a few miles we have loads of different charity shops. The usual 'big chains' such as BHF, PDSA etc may have rigid policies in place but there are loads of smaller charities that will take almost anything that is not junk. They tend to have an ethos of sell it on as quickly as possible and have price tags of 50p to £3 pounds on lots of items. So everything is sold and they are always busy. Let's face it, if we see a bikini in December that we love and vow to fit into it in summer, for a couple of pounds we would probably buy it. Priced at £5 it would sit on the rail.

They're not unsaleable... but are definitely on their way to being obsolete with downloads and netflix. I know our manager has seen a real drop-off in sales recently, we've had a BOGOF running on all DVDs since summer because we just can't cope with the amount we have.

I had several spare duvets - charity shops wouldn't take them (bulky, cleaning issues, although I'd washed them) - Dogs Trust took them, but not all animal rescues would, so check first.

After I'd done that, a friend suggested taking them anywhere that homeless people congregate.

Supersimpkin, I don't get paid for anything I do. I give my time when I can.

And yes, it's because I don't have a life so I try to help where I can.

DontCallMeShitley - I really think you need to not frame your experience in a one off charity shop, in a shop that seems to have terrible or no management - as the norm for the charity shop sector.

Its really unusal for there to be no checks or logs on what volunteers take home.

It's really unusual for volunteers to decide the prices on the items they buy.

It's really unusual for volunteers to 'reserve' items for other volunteers.

Most chain charity shops do have proceedures and policies - they have management who have the aim to maximise profits, so letting people steal the good stuff is pointless.

Given what you say you've witnessed first hand, I would suggest you let the charity trustees know, particularly if as you say this branch of the charity relies on the shop income. This isn't normal at all. It's not tolerated through the sector and could be easily stopped.

My local dog pounds and rescues can’t take duvets anymore because they just get soaking and then take up all the room in their bin. Towels and blankets are always urgently needed, along with quality homes for the poor pets.

I work next to 3 charity shops i.e. we all share the same car park and therefore a drop off point for them to the back door.
It really saddens me to see the stuff they dump out the back into shopping trolleys for the local beggars to troll through them take to the skip for them. Unspoken agreement.
They will thank people for their donations then dump them as soon as people leave the car park. They recycle what they can into rag bags.
Think excellent condition car seats, buggies, Moses Baskets, bouncers etc. Obviously a liability issue.
I wish they would just tell people they can’t accept them and they could pass them on through other methods. They don’t want to offend anyone’s feeling and simply say “thank you”
Cancer Research is the only one who can PAT test electrics but the others don’t pass stuff they receive onto them.
The other side of the coin is: I see the embarrassing condition that people that folk “donate” stuff in. Ripped clothes “someone will be grateful for it”. Pictures no one would ever buy, and general broken past-it’s-best stuff etc.
A lot of it is from a deceased relative. They don’t want the guilt of dumping therefore pass the burden on.
I’ve often wondered if the Council had a drop off/collection point for those donating/those in need would work. I think a PP poster said their council did such a thing.
Don’t really know what the solution is but surely connecting supply with demand would reduce landfill?

The elderly care home my Nana was in are always grateful for good condition books/magazines for residents and crafts stuff - the items they make in their craft sessions is incredible - they're like the A team of haberdashery

Sorry @PineappleDanish
Also remember that anything really nice won't reach the shop floor, it will go home with the volunteers, maybe for a few pence.

Agree in some cases too actually

Maybe not the volunteers, I was disgusted to learn that as the part time paid manager my SD, the staff and their mates were all having complete free dibs in a top location London store.

I made my disgust blatantly clear.

Our doctors surgery has a book swap (maybe it's a difn you'll have a long wait!I 🤔) maybe suggest it if they have a space,I'm sure people might appreciate it.

BookCrossing.com has places to drop off books all over the country.

The charity shop I worked At had a manager who was found to be doing a lot of selling at car boots. This isn’t usual.
It’s the smaller organisations with only a few shops who are least fussy. A friend was distressed when clothes she took to a large charity’s shop in an expensive suburb were not put in the back. Instead they were taken out and examined in front of her, they were her late young daughter’s. This isn’t usual either.

My DH manages two charity shops and I often volunteer for him. There is a reason why he wont let people go through donations left by the counter these donations need to be checked before they can be sold, we had an incident once when someone donated a bag of DVDs and another customer went through them and selected some to buy, unfortunately they were 18s, the charity wont sell 18s that's policy when the customer was refused the sale they went ballistic, its easier for me and DH just to tell people they cant look through until its sorted, it saves us and the other staff getting a mouthful of abuse. As for not telling people when we cant sell something instead of just accepting it, again there is a reason for this, a customer wanted to donate good quality biker wear, but when she was told we couldn't accept the crash helmet she got the hump and took all her donations back, if DH had kept his mouth shut and just binned the helmet he would have had some lovely stuff to sell, so he doesn't tell people anymore the only time he will do is if people donate really good electrical stuff which is worth a few bob which they can take somewhere else and oh yes the reason why he wont accept it and take to another charity is because the donor may have an objection to a certain charity and wouldn't want their donation to end up there.

But his biggest bug bear is people just leaving stuff outside the shop, one of his shops has a vestibule and there have been times when there is so much stuff left outside he cant even get to the door to open the shop, yes people cant always get to the shop when its open but the other shop he has opens the same time, so do other charity shops in the same road, BUT they don't have somewhere where people can dump stuff as their doors are flush to the pavement and they know they could get done for fly tipping, its a serious problem for his shop.

Most of the 'donations' left putside are utter crap bags get raked through and stuff left all over the ground, stuff gets stolen, large items like furniture which he cant sell or store have to be taken away, a sofa bed, that was damp and smelled and totally unsellable cost his charity 40 quid to get removed, yet anyone coming in to the shop or looking through the window MUST know that the shop does not sell it, so basically it was dumped by someone who couldn't be bothered to take it to the dump themselves. Signs don't help people ignore them

Charity shops have to be a bit discerning about what they can accept in.
Its pretty obvious,that regarding clothes items,that they would prefer seasonable items, but will sometimes take other clothes,,to store for later,if they have the room to do this..

I have a lovely charity shop near to me, Its the best ever. It is a local hospice charity shop..

They will take decent quality electrical item,as in lamps, toasters,hair dryers, curling tongues and sandwich makers etc, as all are checked and dealt with , and passed as safe,by an electrician in the shop.

This charity shop.will take some nightwear, as in nice nighties,and dressing gowns and nice petticoats ha ha, as for the older ladies.

They have load of books, as of which I am always buying, 2 for £1.
And I can never believe,how many lovely, brand new curtains,that people bring into this charity shop..

I used to trawl through many a charity shop years ago, in other places that i have lived in,and a lot of them went ott with their prices,and had shoddy shops. But my local one is great, The staff are lovely,the window displays are lovely always and they are cheaply priced.

I agree that charity shops have to be selective in what they accept but it is very difficult to explain politely to generous people why we cannot accept their donations.

The charity shop I manage is very small and we can be overwhelmed with donations so that it’s actually hard to sort through them. Unfortunately many people do donate items that are totally unsaleable and even if you try to recycle responsibly you can’t always, we don’t even have ‘bins’ where I work so have to physically l take items to the council tip. (And then try to pretend it is just general household rubbish).

The worse things are big plastic toys, often with parts broken or bits missing - how can these be recycled responsibly?

Old shabby books, cookbooks with stains on from the 80s, your university text books for the 1950s etc really have very little value.

Like others, textile rags are no problem, we can easily recycle these.

I love what I do, and from my sales figures know that I run a successful charity shop, but moving on the unsaleable items is the hardest part of the job, and if I didn’t have a car I don’t know how I could do this job.

And just to confirm, all volunteer purchases are clearly recorded in a book, no discounts given.