Charity shop donations

[Seymour5]

I'm a volunteer in a charity shop, and it's an eye opener. The items for sale are gratefully received, even unsaleable old and torn clothing is sold in bulk, as are damaged books.

However, donations regularly include: Chipped and cracked ceramics and glass; bog standard odd plates, cups, saucers; odd bits of cutlery; ancient plastic utensils; bags full of plastic coathangers; shoes with soles hanging off; opened and part used toiletries; broken toys.

My question is, who do donors think would buy a broken toy for their child? Or a filthy, plastic drainer, or a torn lampshade?

I wonder if there a difference in what people who shop in charity shops donate versus what people who don't...
I'm thinking that if you don't, then maybe you believe they're all still old-school, selling off anything they can get for 20p 🤔

The local chazza due a fb post recently about being given used nappies and other horrors!
I would love to manage a charity shop that might be my dream job right now!

I think some people are also a bit out of touch and think that someone might actually want their rubbish.

@thedevilinablackdress

I wonder if there a difference in what people who shop in charity shops donate versus what people who don't... I'm thinking that if you don't, then maybe you believe they're all still old-school, selling off anything they can get for 20p 🤔

I think you're onto something there. Lots of people walk in with their bags, dump them at the door to the sorting room and walk straight back out. SIL is a bit like this - she wouldn't dream of actually buying anything in a charity shop as people might think she couldn't afford new. So she scuttles in, dumps her stuff and runs away before anyone sees her. Other people who take time to browse might see that a lot of what we have is very high quality.

The other thing I've noticed - wonder if other volunteers would agree - is the inverse relationship between the quality of the container and the quality of the contents. So the posh paper carrier from the independent chi-chi boutique is most likely to be be filled with rubbish. On the other hand, the best stuff I've ever found has come out of a plain black bin bag. Higher chance it'll be Toast, Cos, Hobbs, Monsoon, Ted Baker or Reiss.

People seem to be struggling with the concept that different charity shops have different standards. The Oxfam in my city centre is picky about what it will accept and sells things for higher prices than many might expect of a charity shop. The Children's Society shop in my local area middle of the road, neither trying to be hip and posh nor reaching for the bottom end of the market. The big Barnardos nearby sells the sort of thing the OP expressed her disgust about people donating. In my most financially challenged days the Oxfam I mention was as far out of my price range as Selfridges is now and the Children's Society was for when I actually had a spare bit of cash, and the '50p for a bobbly top with maybe a hole under the arm' Barnardos kept me clothed and meant if we broke a plate or glass I could actually replace it. Each of the shops I mentioned have a different role and a different mission and each are worth having.

@Notcontent

I think some people are also a bit out of touch and think that someone might actually want their rubbish.

I think some people are a bit out of touch and assume that what they categorise as rubbish will be viewed the same way by everyone else. OP listed a bunch of stuff she sees as rubbish- maybe to her, but to me and many pp most of it really isn't.

Some old cutlery is much nicer to use than modern stuff (that you could buy for an equivalent price) - heavier, nicer design, doesn't feel so flimsy. I have second-hand butter knives, soup spoons and long-handled dessert spoons; all quite hard to find new of an appropriate quality but bought for pence and really appreciated! So much better than them going to landfill.

Some old cutlery is much nicer to use than modern stuff

Or if you live in a house like mine where teaspoons regularly seem to go missing, you are quite happy to have a draw full of mismatched ones from charity shops!

We also often see things like fancy wee cake forks or grapefruit spoons which people don't buy new any more but like for the vintage aspect of it. We are next door to a cafe which gets first dibs on cake stands and stuff like that.

Many charity shop 'chains' have a corporate structure and have their own hangers - British Heart Foundation, for a start.

Old clothes are fine, rags have value but please no chipped crockery, games with bits missing, scuffed shoes etc, it costs us money to dispose of them.

Happydays

I've had that too. Hardback unused or gently used children's classics and untouched book gifts taken to Oxfam bookshop and told they have too many books. Then passed them to a more grateful Salvation Army where I now take everything I'm passing on to charity.

@BahbaraHumbug

Happydays

I've had that too. Hardback unused or gently used children's classics and untouched book gifts taken to Oxfam bookshop and told they have too many books. Then passed them to a more grateful Salvation Army where I now take everything I'm passing on to charity.

How are they not being grateful because they don’t take them?

They have too many books, and not enough room to store them. That’s not being ungrateful for your oh so kind and naice donation, that’s just practical.

They can’t take everything you deign to give them.

@BahbaraHumbug

Happydays

I've had that too. Hardback unused or gently used children's classics and untouched book gifts taken to Oxfam bookshop and told they have too many books. Then passed them to a more grateful Salvation Army where I now take everything I'm passing on to charity.

If they have too many books then they have too many books. We literally have THOUSANDS of DVDs in the back room despite selling them at 10 for £1. We can send easily 40 crates of books to World of Books every WEEK despite books being 4 for £1.

The other thing I've noticed - wonder if other volunteers would agree - is the inverse relationship between the quality of the container and the quality of the contents. So the posh paper carrier from the independent chi-chi boutique is most likely to be be filled with rubbish. On the other hand, the best stuff I've ever found has come out of a plain black bin bag. Higher chance it'll be Toast, Cos, Hobbs, Monsoon, Ted Baker or Reiss.

Also, how much they tell you how lovely their stuff is. People who donate, give you their gift aid and leave vs "There's some items in there still with their tags on, very good brands too."

This and another recent thread (where the OP wished it was the 70s/80s again and more acceptable to chuck stuff than worry about donating or recycling*) just reinforces to me how we have Too Much Stuff nowadays!
*Not that a lot of people necessarily did this, because of repairing, keeping for longer, and donating to charity.

I think people just put everything in a box and take it there, as it's easier than queuing for the tip is some places.

I buy a lot of books from charity shops, and I’m constantly confused by some of the absolute shite that makes it to the shelves. Is anyone seriously buying a 2001 edition of the AA pub guide? Or road maps that are a decade out of date? I can understand that someone may want them for an art project, but not for £3! My other favourite was seeing a paperback book so battered that it was parallelogram-shaped, with a ridiculous price because it was the US edition and thus had a higher RRP. In fact, I could’ve walked down the road to Waterstones and bought the exact same book (just the UK edition) for cheaper than the charity shop was charging.

A PP’s comment about Booker Prize shortlists makes sense. The used prices on Amazon for the short listed titles are high, and they stay high for a good while. Charities could make decent profit out of books if they followed the trends, not charging £3 for tat and turning away stuff people may want. (And yes, I’m well aware that there are rules and pricing structures in place, and that autonomy isn’t always an option, but sometimes it results in ridiculous pricing, and no one wins then)

I'd much rather see items recycled and sold on or given away to people who can make use of them. But as others with charity shop experience have pointed out, if it's only fit for the bin, please bin it. We have huge general bins and we are waiting for bin day to fill them again.

We have a whole room shelved and filled with books, dvds and cds. We'd prefer not to be given tapes and videos! Mountains of spring and summer clothes, and toys and bricabrac we can't even get to because we have so much stuff in our back shop.

I started this thread to find out people's thoughts on charity shops. As a volunteer who works to support a charity, a big thank you to the workers and volunteers who have similar thoughts and to everyone who buys from, or donates to charity shops. Without most of you they wouldn't exist.

I think people just put everything in a box and take it there, as it's easier than queuing for the tip is some places.

Yes. Come next month, we will get bags of tat because people have obviously just tipped out their kids toy box into a black bag to make room. Broken toys, toys with bits missing, toys which are brand new from the pound shop but are donated to us battered, toys covered in felt tip, books with pages ripped out etc.

We can send easily 40 crates of books to World of Books every WEEK ...

Ah, so that's where they get their stock from; they're all over ebay and I'd sometimes wondered

Where I live there are a few care homes. I also volunteer for my local charity shop.
We sometimes get a couple of bags of hastily filled bags of clothes i.e. just stuffed in, unfolded.
When we open them to sort through we have found , worn down backs and old slippers, often with dried food on. Unwashed stained clothes and mightiest , random odd shoes . Wash bags with slithers of soap , fusty damp flannel etc
Families called to care homes after the death of family members, filling up the bags and then just bringing them straight into the shop. I find that very sad .

Is anyone seriously buying a 2001 edition of the AA pub guide? Or road maps that are a decade out of date

Yes, me! Old road maps are fascinating, you forget where the new roads have gone in, and it's interesting to see how it looked before.

The pub guide - not so much

I don't often give to charity shops because I can't be bothered with gift aid etc. If something is rubbish it goes in my bin. If it could be used for rags it goes in with the decent stuff which may still have tags on and goes in the clothes container at the recycling centre. But I tend to wear my clothes to death (especially now with not working in an office) so they are not worth donating as they literally wear out.

I take your point about broken and dirty stuff- should be binned!

But I often look in charity shops for random odd plates (for putting plants on) so I'd think those would be ok.

This thread contains the following complaints:

Charity shops are too expensive.
I donated good stuff to a charity shop and they sold it too cheap.
Charity shops are full of unsellable crap.
A charity shop turned down my donation as it wasn't good enough for them and I'm offended.

And so on. They literally can't win.

I am an occasional charity shop volunteer and have given up Saturdays to be the person who drives the van full of crap to the tip. My time is free but the charity had to pay for a commercial waste certificate to use the tip and for the hire of the van to get there. We do not know what to do with a prosthetic leg any more than you do, we are there to raise money for the charity we're volunteering for not to act as a sort of central clearing house of good deeds.

Also, I'm fairly certain that no charity has a policy of encouraging volunteers or staff to be rude to people donating stuff. On the other hand many have a policy of accepting volunteers who are new to customer service, or who are not neurotypical and are using the experience to build on their understanding of social norms. If one random volunteer in one random shop is rude to you why do you then feel the need to slag off that entire charity all over the internet? You never see those posts about supermarkets. "10 years ago a woman stacking shelves said they'd run out of Frosties and didn't know when they were getting more in and I think she had an attitude about it, so I'm never going in Tesco again. They're all in it for themselves!"

The other thing I've noticed - wonder if other volunteers would agree - is the inverse relationship between the quality of the container and the quality of the contents
Also the quality/ size of the car.
When I see a fancy car pull up with donations 9 out of 10 times its shite!