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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:
AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:08

Does the whole idea of the CS need a complete overhaul? In itself isn't just dated? Or should it just all go online? They are quite depressing.

hifolks · 12/12/2019 09:11

I volunteer in a charity shop, a small one and my partner in one run by a large charity.

The items the OP mentions are overpriced in my opinion.

hifolks · 12/12/2019 09:13

re the siphoning off......it's damn hard work. I am not a grabby person, I have had a couple of things which I pay for.

ButterflyBook · 12/12/2019 09:16

Also, if you think you can do better, why not actually go in and volunteer

The paid manager usually does the pricing using guidelines from head office. If things don't sell within a couple of weeks they're reduced. If they're really good quality and don't sell they get rotated between shops.

Ylvamoon · 12/12/2019 09:18

I find all the charity shop bashing threads so depressing ...
They try and raise money for something worth while, reaserch, hospice care, animal shelter, support groups, you name it, they are there for you should you ever need them.

Everything costs money, if you don't want to support them, don't shop there.
On the flip side, if you are donating something, don't you want them to make the most of it?

PineappleDanish · 12/12/2019 09:20

I know @hifolks! I regularly buy from the shop I volunteer in too.

but you always get someone popping on commenting that their friend's mum always leaves with a car boot stuffed with designer gear that she's paid 10p for, that everyone's at it, and that charity volunteers are only in it to grab what they can, not because they support the charity's aims.

We;ve already had the charity is big business, charity gets free rent stuff so I just thought i'd preempt the other main complaint from people who have never volunteered.

Thornhill58 · 12/12/2019 09:20

I complained about that yesterday to a charity shop. I said you are selling retail even with second hand stuff.
She said they had costs to cover. I said you are selling donated stuff.
I was shocked at their prices.

Ragwort · 12/12/2019 09:21

Annie have you read the thread? I made the comment that I do try ‘£ rails’ or other offers and they rarely work, it really is not as simple as ‘everyone wanting a bargain’. I recently had a whole bay with a sign ‘any reasonable offer acceptable’, still couldn’t move the stuff. I even put out a box with ‘help yourself’ on when I have too much of one specific product (eg; we recently had 100 picture frames donated Grin), still no one wanted them. Customers really are much more discerning about what they want these days.

And many charity shops clearly do well, there are 16 in my small town and we compete in a friendly way, certain shops are know for books, others for toys and games, others for ‘good labels’ etc. Plenty of customers (clearly not on this thread!) love charity shops. I have regular customers coming in every single day to see what’s new. I know what my regular customers like and will point things out for them.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:31

I genuinely don't mean to 'bash' them. It's fantastic for the shops that are doing well.Some shops just don't seem that they are doing that well and that may be because of the pricing.

CottonHeadedNinyMuggins · 12/12/2019 09:31

On the whole our womens aid, scope st Andrew's hospice , age concern are good prices.

Our sense shop is a mix of the two, especially DVD wise...2 for a fiver when everywhere else is 3 or 4 for a pound!

British heart foundation however....eshk. their prices are ridiculous. They have closed 2 of their stores here due to low sales, one being town centre with the highest footfall and they STILL charge ridiculous prices. We are a little backwater town with high poverty levels but their prices are nearing new!

swampytiggaa · 12/12/2019 09:31

I work in a charity shop. We get vast amounts of donations 🙂 our shop is tiny.

We are lucky if 50% of donated items are fit for sale but we take anyway and it goes to recycling if we can’t sell it.

We are allowed to price to sell as we are in a relatively deprived area. Anything amazing quality gets put out on the shop floor at a decent price and if it doesn’t sell it goes to eBay.

My main problem is lack of volunteers. If I’m on the till I can’t be upstairs sorting donations. Currently everyone is clearing out before Christmas which combined with the volunteers we do have being busy leads to a backlog.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:34

if it doesn’t sell it goes to eBay

do you know if when it goes on ebay it usually sells, even if it didn't sell after a long time in the shop?

notacooldad · 12/12/2019 09:36

*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 there are many shops that I do haggle for prices in my town and get good results. I have had everything fr a fiver to100 quid knocked off household furnishings or asked for extras to be thrown in.

It really does depend on the shop.

swampytiggaa · 12/12/2019 09:37

Oh and it’s dirty unpleasant work at times sorting donations. For every bag of freshly washed stuff we get at least one of dirty stained stuff including dirty underwear and sick and poo stained baby clothes as well as stuff that stinks of smoke or pets 🤢

GhostsInSnow · 12/12/2019 09:38

Compare 2 Charity Shops in my local town.

One is as some of you describe, expensive. £3.50 a Primark T Shirt. £20 a non brand denim jacket. Week in week out the same stock is on the shelves. The same coat has been in there for months. The same selection of books etc.

A few doors up is charity shop two. There is a sign on the window, 'everything £1'. Turnover of stock is high, every week the whole shop is completely different.

I'd love to see the profits between the two of these shops because I suspect the time it takes shop one to sell their £3.50 Primark T Shirt shop two has sold a dozen.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:41

few doors up is charity shop two. There is a sign on the window, 'everything £1'. Turnover of stock is high, every week the whole shop is completely different

Seriously, charity shops take heed - this is most probably the answer.

ButterflyBook · 12/12/2019 09:42

know @hifolks! I regularly buy from the shop I volunteer in too

Ditto. We're not allowed to buy until it's been on the shop floor for 48 hours either.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:43

...and more people will come through the doors more often because they know the stock is always changing.

PineappleDanish · 12/12/2019 09:43

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

swampytiggaa · 12/12/2019 09:44

@AnnieGlypta it generally sells on eBay because we check on there for sold prices and popularity and we have a dedicated team doing the listings. They tell us regularly what no longer sells well. So far this year our tiny shop has made about £1000 in eBay sales 🙂

FestiveFavourites · 12/12/2019 09:44

In my town there are 3 charity shops that have a high turnover of stock. One has everything priced at a pound, including furniture, one has nothing over 3 pounds (prices start at 50p) and the other has everything priced between 50p and a pound. They are all for local charities. The corporate charity shops don't do well at all. No-one is going to pay a tenner for a jacket when they can get something brand new in Primark.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:45

here is a sign on the window, 'everything £1'. Turnover of stock is high, every week the whole shop is completely different

Ghost is this a small, independent charity or one of the big names?

CripsSandwiches · 12/12/2019 09:48

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 there are many shops that I do haggle for prices in my town and get good results.

That's actually a fairly stupid point for obvious reasons. When I worked in a charity shop we just priced fairly randomly based on a guess of what is was worth we had loads to sort through and wouldn't have had the time to looks carefully through every book to see if some of the puzzles have been filled in on page 234. If someone asked and we agreed it was over priced we'd be happy to reduce it for them. Massive stores like M&S have had the prices chosen after careful calculation by people with access to huge quantities of data and are obviously not negotiable.

I do wish there was somewhere obvious I could donate clothes etc to which would work as the equivalent of a food bank. There are people I work with via volunteering who literally can't clothe their kids, let alone buy extras. It would be more efficient if decent quality clothes could be donated more efficiently.

swampytiggaa · 12/12/2019 09:51

Our charity has £1 shops. Anything obviously designer/expensive gets sent to another store so that it gets priced appropriately.

AnnieGlypta · 12/12/2019 09:51

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

But you wouldn't do that. 99% of CS merchandise is not a wool Hobbs coat or silver jeweller etc.