To think this is not right

[Member869894]

Just tried to buy something on Facebook Marketplace and realised the seller runs one of the charity shops in the town where I live. She has a trade profile and looking at it sells all kinds of things regularly, almost on a daily basis. I suppose she could be have paid for it all and then it's hers to sell as she wishes but it just seems wrong. Aibu to write to the charity and let them know so they can investigate?

She's probably selling things on behalf of the shop. Lots of small charity shops use FB marketplace in this way.

Yes massively unreasonable. She's going to get dibs on buying good stock. She will be on a low wage too
The charity have had their cut once it leaves them

Is she selling for the charity though, so a certain percent, or even all of it goes to them?
A lot of people are ‘charity sellers’ on eBay too and the sales profit the charity. I think they have to declare that on the sale though, not sure.

Scottish badger I get that the charity gets its cut (assuming she has paid for them) but as manager she'd be responsible for pricing the donations as it comes in.

I don't think it's right if she's profiting. Most charity shops now have an online business too and will sell some stock n ebay etc.

If you can be bothered, or just refuse to buy from her.

This doesn’t sound right if she’s not selling for the charity.

If she’s a manager then does that mean she is not a volunteer?

She's the manager and no mention of charity on the profile

I think she'll be selling for the shop, why don't you ask her?

Someone near us does this. It’s for the shop. She doesn’t say that on the profile so that she’s not classed as a ‘trade’ seller

ScottishBadger massive conflict of interest. There is no way of knowing if the seller is buying from the charity at the appropriate price or if she is paying at all. She may well be just taking the best bits before putting into the shop. Not appropriate at all.

Damnthatnxiety you put it so much better than me.

Go in to the shop and see if the products are available in there too. If not, consider reporting it.

If they are say "oh I saw this on Facebook marketplace" and she'll likely say "oh yes, I've set up an online shop".

They are being sold from her home

Why assume she's cherry picking the charity shop stuff? She's open about where she works on her profile surely she would make a new account if she's got a nice side line going. It could well be her own items or family items. I sell loads of pil stuff daily, they have a huge 4 bed house full of stuff that they are gradually selling and they don't use fb plus I sell all our dc's clothes toys books etc and dh's hoard of music memorabilia.

Huge assumptions being made here, is someone who works in a charity shop not allowed to sell anything? Alternatively many charities have online selling.

They are being sold from her home

How do you know that? You only put in a postcode area, not an exact location, when selling.
And she still may be selling online then arranging for buyers to collect the next evening once she's collected it from the shop.

Conflict of interest comes to mind.

I once worked with some one who stole with impunity from charity donations. We used to support local radio Christmas charity appeals to help disadvantaged families and collected donated items (new) from members of the community and take them back to our office. When we had a car full we would drop of at Radio Station. She always cherry picked and had first dibs and took stuff for her own family. She used to also ‘gift’ to other people in the office (to keep them on side) and we’d arrive at work to find stuff on our desks. I always put mine back on the pile and challenged her on it, only to be shot down in flames. I thought it was a despicable act to take items people had donated to charity. If they only knew.

I would apply Occam’s razor to this.

How do you know they aren't her own possessions that she's selling?

Hi again. I say she's selling from home because her home/pets/kids are in the background. She's on every day selling stuff. I can't of course say that it's not hers but it's a lot. I'm not assuming anything

If shes selling for the charity she wouldn't necessarily put it in her profile because FB has rules about that. If shes paying for the stuff then selling on then the charity shop is getting exactly the same amount of money for the item (and probably getting the money quicker) than if anyone else is buying them from the shop.
She might be stealing the stuff and selling them on but that's not very likely.

YANBU to contact the charity to mention it.

If she's doing everything legitimately with the charity's approval they'll already know. If she's defrauding the charity I'm sure they'd like to know.

as manager she'd be responsible for pricing the donations as it comes in.

No, OP, not necessarily. I’ve volunteered in a string of charity shops and most of the pricing was done by experienced long term volunteers, not managers.