Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think charity shops should be cheaper?

289 replies

Chocolatelover45 · 11/12/2019 21:54

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?

OP posts:
Ragwort · 12/12/2019 08:33

We have complete autonomy to price according to our local market in the charity shop I work for, I occasionally do a pound rail or ‘buy one get one free’ and I don’t find it makes any difference. If a customer seems to be hesitating over something I will say ‘make me an offer’ but it’s rarely a price issue ... many customers are much more selective about what they buy and don’t want ‘lots of stuff’ just because it’s cheap, they wasn’t quality items at a fair price.

Dongdingdong · 12/12/2019 08:34

I recently heard that some people haggle in charity shops! Wtf!

If they feel the item is overpriced (and from previous posts it sounds like a lot of charity shop items are) then what is the problem?

Ragwort · 12/12/2019 08:35

Hello Pineapple, yes this discussion seems very similar Grin.

lowlandLucky · 12/12/2019 08:35

I love charity shops, there is one in a town close to where i live that is a community charity shop and every week a different group from the local community get their turn in stocking the shop, Friday is change over day when the outgoing group have to clear the shop which means the customers get to fill a bag for£1 or make an offer on any large items. Whatever is left gets collected by £1 for a 1lb recycle company. The whole concept is fantastic and the money stays in the community.

Salene · 12/12/2019 08:35

Totally agree which is why I no longer bother going to them.

Toddlerteaplease · 12/12/2019 08:37

I've donated to a furniture shop near me, and always thought they overprice some stuff. Especially when we have an Ikea very nearby.

Logjam · 12/12/2019 08:40

Th furniture shops can be very over-priced. Stuff hangs around and they refuse to take a lot of stuff because they have no room.There has been an Ercol sofa for sale for at least 3 months - put it on ebay - get it moved, makes no sense to me.

Elphame · 12/12/2019 08:46

Oxfams bookshops price the books very high. I always check now against Amazon before I buy from them as often it’s cheaper to buy through the commercial secondhand market.

I rarely bother going in now

Ijustwanttoretire · 12/12/2019 08:47

I was in a Sue Ryder shop the other day and spotted a flour sifter - it still had the (TKMaxx) label on it - £1.99. They had it marked up for..... £2. Now it's only 1p but even so... at least take the original label off! This happens all the time - I did tell the staff in one shop that the tat they were selling for £3 was actually Poundshop branded stuff. They just shrugged. I buy a lot of stuff from charity shops - mainly books - but I'm not paying more from a charity shop than I can get stuff for new!!

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 08:54

People who work in charity shops probably hear this complaint a lot and turn a deaf ear to it.

Sometimes an injection of just something new stirs interest back up again. I think the Mary Portas programme did that for a while.

I'm not working in the industry so I don't know but it just seems that no much imagination goes into charity shops, just same old same old etc. don't like it don't come.

Do they ever have days when everything is down to one price just for a day? Like all shoes £x all skirts £x all bags £x etc.?

I've never seen it and if it does exist it may be on just a small scale where it needs to be something that is made big and prominent and nationwide so everyone knows about is - like Black Friday.

BerwickLad · 12/12/2019 08:58

As pps said, the price of goods has changed relative to income over the last 20 years. Thanks to the likes of IKEA and primark it's now possible to get perfectly good quality clothes and furniture for a smaller portion of the average wage than it used to be. Also every bugger sells second hand now and eBay is full of toot that you have to wade through. These two factors combined mean that buying second hand isn't necessarily going to give you that much of a saving but will take up a fair bit of your time.

Btw bhf electrical items which I agree are generally overpriced do not come with a warranty and are not tested.

Genevieva · 12/12/2019 08:58

I agree with the OP. I give really nice things to a charity shop in our nearest town. I am signed up to their system so that I am meant to receive e-mails to tell me how much they have made selling my donations, but I rarely get any communication from them. anymore. The things in the shop have become really expensive - sometimes more expensive than buying something new that has been discounted (almost everything is discounted these days). I think that there prices are putting people off buying and consequently the stock is bulk sold for almost nothing when it hasn't sold.

Kazzyhoward · 12/12/2019 08:59

They're not jumble or car boot sales, they're shops. That means they need to have a broad range of goods on sale, and they will need to hit targets as regards sales/takings values, and they will have a limited amount of stock being donated to them.

They have probably worked out what the "price points" are for things like paper back books, at a price where they sell a steady amount. Too low and they lose money as people may have been willing to pay more - too high and they'll sell fewer. If they sell 10 books per day at £1.50 - that's £15 - would they sell more than 15 books if they were only a pound - if not, they're best selling fewer at a higher price.

They don't buy stock in, so they can't sell too cheap and risk running out of things. It's all about balancing supply & demand.

Like I say, they're not car boot sales or jumble sales where they have to sell everything every day.

piscis · 12/12/2019 09:00

One near me had a kids T-Shirt for £2, they are £1.50 new at Primark! Ridiculous...

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:01

I have noticed more and more charity shops closing. A town near me just has one large one rather than a street full of them. Seems more sensible. Time is also a factor so people may feel they just have 1 place to pop into not waste time shop to shop in high street which, essentially, contains all the same stuff anyway.

Kazzyhoward · 12/12/2019 09:01

the stock is bulk sold for almost nothing when it hasn't sold.

Which is common sense. Why have slow/non moving stock taking up shelf space when you could have more popular/higher income items there instead?

It's all about getting the most revenue from the available space in the shop - that means making decisions about what to stock and what to sell in bulk.

PineappleDanish · 12/12/2019 09:01

Do they ever have days when everything is down to one price just for a day?

Some do, some don't. We had a "flash sale" at the end of summer to get rid of all the shorts, t-shirts, summer dresses before bringing out the winter stock. Everything £1.99. Because that's better than trying to sell shorts in November, recycling it, or taking up staff time to take it off sale, remove all the hangers and store it for next summer.

Every shop varies in the stock levels they get through the door, and the quality of those donations. I'd estimate that only 25% to 30% of what comes into our shop is fit for sale.I also have a theory that a black bin bag is more likely to be packed with Hobbs, Boden and Toast and the expensive cardboard LK Bennett bag will be full of tat.

Logjam · 12/12/2019 09:01

Mind you when I donate very good quality clothing , I make sure I take it to the most expensive charity shop in town as I know they will sell it at a high price, and I won’t feel bad about getting rid of it.

Kazzyhoward · 12/12/2019 09:02

One near me had a kids T-Shirt for £2, they are £1.50 new at Primark! Ridiculous...

It's only ridiculous if they don't sell any. Perhaps they do actually sell them, i.e. to people who don't go into Primark, or people who know they're more expensive but want to support the charity shop rather than a far Eastern sweat shop - i.e. people effectively making a donation?

PineappleDanish · 12/12/2019 09:03

Have we had the point made yet about all volunteers siphoning off the good stuff for themselves and stealing it yet? Hmm

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:03

One near me had a kids T-Shirt for £2, they are £1.50 new at Primark! Ridiculous

Oh, come on! It's only 50p more and it IS for charity! Wink

Kazzyhoward · 12/12/2019 09:05

These two factors combined mean that buying second hand isn't necessarily going to give you that much of a saving but will take up a fair bit of your time.

But people are becoming more environmentally conscious so perhaps more of us are looking to buy second hand to re-use to avoid landfill rather than constantly (unnecessarily) buying new stuff made from scarce natural resources.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:06

I'd estimate that only 25% to 30% of what comes into our shop is fit for sale

Agree

MockersFactCheckMN · 12/12/2019 09:07

Local charity shop makes it clear with sign in window. They do not sell anything. You make a donation in return for a gift.

(Screw your consumer rights and think of the orphaned hamsters.)

heartsonacake · 12/12/2019 09:07

If they feel the item is overpriced (and from previous posts it sounds like a lot of charity shop items are) then what is the problem?

dongdingdong Firstly, it’s a shop, not a jumble sale or a market. The price is the price. Would you haggle in M&S or Waterstones? No? Why not? Apply that reason here.

Secondly, the majority of the time those on the tills are volunteers and could not agree to changing the price even if the charity shop allowed haggling. If you insisted upon seeing a manager you would be holding everyone in the queue behind you up (because most charity shops only have the one till) for them to come down and say the same thing: no haggling. It’s a shop not a jumble sale.

Lastly, I have volunteered in several big name charity shops and not a single one has ever allowed haggling. It’s always been a blanket no.