To think charity shops should be cheaper?

[Chocolatelover45]

The prices in my local charity shops are ridiculous (small northern town) .
E.g.
£2.50 for a rattle
£1 for a scuffed pint glass
£3.99 for a children's t shirt (George)
£1.50 for dog eared children's paperbacks
£4 for hardback puzzle book with half the puzzles already completed
£2.49 for 4 small plain Christmas baubles

Why do they charge so much? Surely they'd sell a lot more if it was cheaper? Or is there a good reason?

WorldsOnFire - no, they all have their stated purpose.

Why charge the poor for second hand clothing? Surely any price is too much for people truly in need?
If the aim is to provide clothes could they not be free?

I must be the ultimate idiot according to this thread , I'm that person who paid £2 the other day for a Primark children's Christmas T-shirt.

I didn't mind though - I'm supporting the charity and not Primark (our nearest one is miles away anyway) and it's in good condition. I'll donate it back when dc outgrow it.

CripsSandwiches your best bet for direct donation to the needy is probably the Salvation Army.

PineappleDanish Thu 12-Dec-19 09:43:30

Selling a 100% wool Hobbs coat, silver jewellery or expensive homewares for £1 is not the answer

Buying a soft, fully lined black coat that is a blend of cashmere, angora and lambswool for $9.99 makes me consider going through the rest of the racks for nice things at a reasonable price for myself and my DDs, and coming back next week to see what else I might find...

It should be possible to please everyone though - sell the designer stuff for £30 plus (or on eBay) but the primark stuff for 50p an item. I am not interested in designer stuff - but would buy plenty of the cheaper things. Clearly I'm not the only one judging by this thread. I want to avoid buying new for environmental reasons but that doesn't mean it needs to be expensive brands. Perhaps charity shops would be better off aiming for one sector of the market and selling off donations that don't fit in to other shops!
I also think bulk buying deals could work well.
I'm not intending to bash charity shops in any way - I know they are mostly volunteers /low paid staff. It was more the overall strategy that I was questioning.

I volunteer in a charity shop. Lots of the stuff isn't priced and we ask buyers to suggest what they think it's worth. Only very good condition and clearly almost new stuff is priced. We do have a price list but it's just a guide and price is decided acccording to condition. We'd rather things get sold so 4 paperbacks for £ +1.00 is normal sort of price.

Sand, I think the people agreeing with the OP are saying they don’t now shop in charity shops, but plenty of customers do
Was just going to say this. I volunteer in a charity shop in a small but moderately busy town centre. It takes between 2/3k a week depending on weather, school hols etc. We can't listen to customers who don't come in but the ones that do are more than happy. A lot are regulars and you get to know them. Takings go up year on year which is what we plan for. Selling stuff £1 per item feels like the wrong way to go. We're generally pretty busy.

I think the point is also why would you buy the stuff from there if cheaper new? I have to say my local charity shop is amazing, books for 30p, children's leggings for £1, toys for about £1 in general. They also sell more expensive stuff and they do make a lot of money as they are hugely popular. I also dont see why a charity shop would charge so much.

I'd rather hand my unwanted items straight to someone who needed it rather than a charity shop.

So do that then. There's no law or commandment that says thou shalt take thy unwanted clothing to the charity shop.

I think a lot of people would rather do that now @formerbabe, especially as prices are rising and they're becoming unaffordable for people who perhaps used them in the past because they had no choice.

YANBU.
I saw a violin and case in the window of my local Oxfam. Went in to investigate as I was looking for one for DS. They were charging £85 and one of the strings was broken.
I bought the same make and model brand new from the School Music Service for £75.

I shop in charity shops for most of my clothes, footwear, and handbags, and for my DDs too. I would estimate that 90 percent of my clothes are second hand.

I wouldn't set foot in a place that was essentially selling rags for rock bottom prices. Not would I bother going to the trouble of shopping online for a far more expensive second hand item that I can't inspect with my own eyes. The whole point of uniform pricing is to entice people in to find something really nice for a great price, and it works. It doesn't have to be the lowest possible price to have this effect. Just uniform - like lottery tickets.

I'd rather hand my unwanted items straight to someone who needed it rather than a charity shop

Few local charities ask for donations for specific use where I am. Ie Women's shelters, baby bank charities ect

formababe - why don’t you then? Genuine question.

Often people don’t want second hand clothes, it’s totally different to being able to choose a bargain for yourself, or search for a ‘vintage’ item from a charity shop to being so hard up that you have no alternative than to accept ‘second hand cast offs’. I volunteer at a Food Bank and we are frequently given bundles of clothes ‘to give to the poor’, it really can come across as quite patronising and condescending. Someone came to see me last week to say that she had been buying coats all year for the ‘homeless’ and would I distribute them. I really didn’t want to have to find 30+ people to give to coats to and she was quite offended with me when I steered her towards a homeless shelter.

I volunteered for an Oxfam branch, once. We piled it high and sold it cheap, and we had really good numbers. The shop was busy and the till didn't stop ringing. Then... they decided they'd make it more.... 'upmarket'. The same shite we'd always sold, but for three times the price. The 'powers that be' reckoned they'd make more money, but in truth, most of the customers fucked off to Primark...

Our Oxfam shop was like that sammybins - I used to get all my dcs' clothes there when they were little, and I could happily buy stuff when they weren't with me, as it was a small donation to a great cause if they didn't fit.
Then, Mary Portas happened.
Oxfam shops have gone ridiculous with their pricing now - the on-line shop is just shocking . It's such a poor business model if it means customers don't go in / don't buy stuff.

@Ragwort she sounds like a right cow buying coats for the homeless.

I agree op, so much stuff must end up in landfill, surely they would shift alot more if they sold the goods at cheaper prices?

I think the "trendy" factor of buying second-hand now, especially for clothes, has contributed to pushing charity shop prices up.

However my local BHF furniture store is just ridiculous. They advertise beds and sofas in the window that cost a similar amount brand new.

As for BHF furniture specifically, when they get stuff in they price it high. If it doesn't sell quickly they drop the price, and drop it again, and so on. So it pays to visit often. If an item "sells" then gets refunded due to delivery problems (stuff not fitting through doors usually), it could be put back on sale again at a higher price than it sold for the first time!

Moominfan I suspect people would take advantage and dump all sorts of unusable crap, generating work sorting and cleaning, and the headache and expense of disposal.

True about Oxfam, ours is always empty and you don’t feel like going in because you look at the prices and realise they are trying to take advantage of you.

Sandaled, of course she isn’t & that’s not what I meant, it’s just that it is not that simple to ‘buy stuff for homeless’, without thinking through how you are actually going to get things to the people that need them. There are organised schemes & channels for distributing clothes, food etc to the homeless without trying to be Lady Bountiful and handing out stuff on the street which can cause embarrassment and resentment.

I completely agree- so many charity shops charge high prices. There is an amazing one near me in London that sells high quality, sometimes designer clothes most of which are £20 max or often far far less. They generate loads of revenue for their charity as they turn over stock like crazy- a much better model than the stagnant stock at high prices model of most and it is so well run it is like shopping in a regular shop plus filled with customers.

Volunteering for Oxfam is like wearing a straight jacket. They are very picky and strict and demand a great deal from unpaid staff.