To disagree re: charity shop shopping

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Read an article in a student newspaper saying better off students (we are talking Cambridge here) should 'check their privilege' and not buy clothes and homeware from charity shops so that poorer students and townspeople can buy them. But honestly almost no one I know who is on a really low income wants to shop there - they prefer sales, fewer clothes or hand ons from friends and family. So is the writer right(YABU)) or am I to carry on shopping in charity shops for the odd item - which often aren't that cheap anyhow?

@NicholasTopliss

Why do people think students at Cambridge are all well off?

It's well known that Oxford and Cambridge have a large intake of privately educated students.

@Lockheart

Shop where you like, it's a free country.

Matter of opinion. I know I can, but because you can do something doesn't always mean you should

The benefits theory could apply to charity shops. As long as certain benefits are universal, people don't feel bad about claiming them (eg state pension, or how child benefit used to be). As soon as there is a perception it is only for the poor, a proportion of people don't want to be associated with it (hence the negativity towards people in council housing, because others think it is related to being on housing benefit). So long as fairly well off people are shopping at the charity shops, it makes it socially ok for poor people to. As soon as charity shops are seen as on a par with food banks (you should only use it if you need it) the status goes down, the prices go down, the profits go down, and the operation stops being financially viable.

Yes, this kind of poorly-thought-through article is the perfect way to attach a stigma to shopping from charity shops.

If you're seen going into one now, then you're clearly part of the underclass...

I'm a charity shop volunteer. I talk to lots of customers. Most people are not choosing to shop with us because they cannot afford to shop elsewhere.

Most people are choosing to buy from us because we have stuff they can't get elsewhere, whether that's garish 70s homewares, artwork, clothing, craft stuff or anything else. They also like the idea of not buying new stuff all the time.

Is the shower thing because some rentals are un modern and only have a bath?

I agree about Primark and some people are snobbish about second hand and charity shops.

The prices are too high if you are actually looking to save money. Saw a North Face kids fleece jacket for £6 in a charity shop, it's been there a few weeks at least. You can get similar in the sale at Mountain Warehouse from the same price, with choice of colours and sizes. The best charity shop I've been in was always busy, they kept prices low so stock moved quickly and there was new stock every week.

@m0use

The issue is the number of older teens/students buying bulk from charity shops, to sell on at a reasonable profit on depop. There's nothing wrong with more well off people choosing to buy from charity shops, but in some areas the above practices means there's very little left for the people who need it

If they're attracting that many resellers then it means their prices are too low. I used to occasionally buy the odd item from a charity shop and resell it, but in general with the shops I've been to in London, it's rarely possible any more because the staff know the labels and charge accordingly.

Part of the problem is caused by large charity shop chains where the prices are set by the head office, where they say all tops cost x, all skirts cost x, all jackets cost x, regardless of the brand or quality. It's much better to let individual shops price the items how they see fit, because in most shops the staff get to know brand names, or if they see one they don't recognise then they can google it and charge accordingly. If they carry on selling designer items for ridiculously low prices, they will continue to attract resellers, whereas if they charged enough in the first place then it would make more money for the charity. The charities have the power to sort this out but it's been stalled by head office policies which could easily be sorted out by making more use of the staff's local knowledge.

especially in university towns, a lot of homeware type stuff ends up in charity shops as third years leave, so theres generally a lot there for first years to buy up when they arrive. Its the circle of life. And given that a lot of students will buy/have stuff bought for them new theres probably more going into the circle than out.

Charity shops charge far too much. It's more expensive than buying at places like Primark or Boohoo, you can't return things and they (obviously) have limited range/sizes. Can't see how anyone shops at them for much at all.
Also, Cambridge students aren't richer than other students. Cambridge students get the same funding as other students and pay the same fees. Why would you assume Cambridge students have more money!?

Apparently only something like 10-15% of stock ever actually gets sold. The rest ends up as waste.

Apparently, people can post any old twaddle as long as they prefix it with "apparently".

Obviously I can only speak for my charity shop. I would estimate that around 40% of what comes through the door as donations can be sold. Because a lot of people send us any old muck which we have no hope of selling - DVD box without the DVD anyone? Thought not.

But that doesn't mean it goes in the bin. Any bobbly, marked or torn textiles get recycled. Someone picks up any books we can't sell. We recycle phones, spectacles, foreign coins and stamps.

Anything which makes it onto the shop floor or online is given 3 to 4 weeks to sell, then either it gets a 50% sticker or gets shipped off to another branch to see if they have better luck. Or recycled, if it's clothes.

We are asking people to make appointments to drop things off at the moment. Not because the shop is packed, but because we have been told that all donations have to be quarantined for 72 hours before we even start to sort them. We just don't have space in the back shop to store things safely. As soon as that requirement is lifted (or even reduced to 48 or 24 hours) we should be able to take in more stuff.

@ladybee28 Please tell us on what grounds it was argued that showering is classist! We all want to know.

I think charity shops especially need to lower their prices now that you can't try on the clothes (as no option to try on at home and return).

I’ve seen an entire market in Pakistan that was clearly selling thrown out stuff from the U.K. and I imagine a lot of it was from charity shops. It was fairly easy to tell where it was from as they had things like Charles and Camilla memorabilia and English toys. A lot of it was still in very good condition. So much stuff gets thrown out that it has created an entire industry. It gets sold by the kilo to the vendors, who sort it and swap between stalls.

It was eye opening to say the least to realise just how much crap gets bought and chucked in the west. So much that there’s no chance the charity shops can flog it all.

Well from what I've seen charity shop shoppers are almost exclusively middle and upper class anyway. Working class prefer designer brands paid for using credit

When I worked in a charity shop there was no shortage of donations. Charity shops also aren't usually a particularly cheap option nowadays, at least not for clothes. I've bought new t-shirts for £4 from Sainsburys, but similar items would cost the same or more from a charity shop. If you want budget homeware and clothes, there are supermarket clothes and homeware departments, Primark, IKEA etc.

People just fall over themselves to be more woke than the last person.

[quote tectonicplates]@ladybee28 Please tell us on what grounds it was argued that showering is classist! We all want to know.[/quote]
I think they're referring to this: www.reddit.com/r/TumblrInAction/comments/bmt57u/washin_ya_ass_is_classist_yo/

You have a right to shop where you like. And the biggest purpose of charity shops is to raise money for their charities; so if 'privileged' people don't use them, then the charities get less money. At a time when they are already losing money because of the effects of the pandemic.

The whole point of a charity shop is that the charity makes money by selling donated items. They don't care who buys them.

The Varsity hacks very often write complete twaddle, and the Cambridge charity shops are pretty expensive at the best of times. Shop there to your heart’s content.

your student rag needs a higher standard of journalism - the enviromental cost of new clothes/things is the main reason to shop secondhand as much as you can.

When I was volunteering overseas for NGOs we found that many UK donated clothes are sold on to huge markets in developing countries (and sometimes bought by NGO volunteers from the UK.. )

Just got back from raiding my local charities they have some great stuff right now.

interesting question.
i dont see how anyone should check their privileged and decide not to shop in a charity shop. it is reduce, reuse and recycle. better for the planet.

@whirlwindwallaby

I think charity shops especially need to lower their prices now that you can't try on the clothes (as no option to try on at home and return).

you can try on at home and return for a full refund.

Even students from "privileged" backgrounds are likely living on modest incomes and at Cambridge they are not permitted to have a paid job during term time. Very few of them will be rolling in money, even if their parents are. And there are plenty whose parents very much are not.

Shopping in charity shops seems eminently sensible, whether it's for reasons of income, environmental responsibility or just because the clothes are nice. And given that the wider population of Cambridge is also (on average) pretty wealthy, I'm guessing that some of the clothes are very nice indeed!