Stuff dumped outside charity shops

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

We've had this regularly at our local charity shop (the small one which isn't in the town centre and has parking outside). They have a big notice in the window and even a permanent swingy metal sign outside in the doorway, both saying, in very big letters, not to leave donations outside, as they will be stolen.

What makes people do this? Surely, even without deliberately ignoring the two signs, they must realise that their 'donations', even if potentially good enough to resell, would be waiting there for weeks or even months before the assistants would be back and have to move them to get into the shop - a shop which is far too small to house several big bits of furniture anyway.

They must know that the items will be stolen (if any good), end up strewn across the streets and/or, should they still be there once the shops can re-open, any remaining items that were once saleable will now be damaged by the weather, dirty, have been weed on by animals, attracted foxes and rats etc. - so they will have to pay business rates from their charity funds to get the rubbish taken away - along with the stuff that was always rubbish from the start - and clean up the resulting debris.

Tips are open (free for domestic users). If you have good stuff to get rid of, you can leave it in front of your own house with a sign saying 'Free - please take' and it will go quickly.

What possesses people to do this? Are they genuinely thinking that they are doing a good thing? Are they deliberately trying to cost a charity money? Do they know that they're behaving badly, but hope that the fact that there happens to be a (closed) charity shop next to their chosen fly-tipping zone will act as their deniability get-out clause, should they be challenged?

Surely it's easier to move it to the front of your own property for passers-by to take? If it's good stuff, but no longer needed by you, wouldn't you want to make sure that it's taken by people who can make use of it and not just left out for days/weeks to get ruined? And if you've already gone to the trouble of putting it in your car, why wouldn't you just drive a little further to the tip?

Just why do they do it?!

Flytipping with a clear conscience.

My husband manages 2 charity shops, even before lockdown sometimes he couldn't get into his shops due to the amount 'donations' left outside, the Charity Retail Association have acknowledged its a growing problem but apart from notices (which get totally ignored) they have not got a proper solution

YANBU, that's disgusting. People are scum.

I take stuff to the charity shop and they assess it there and then. I take back what they don't want. This is all PC of course.

Yep, happens here too, loads of junk which then gets ruined by the weather and has to be binned at the shop owners expense - despite the shops being closed, metal gates across the front and many, many pleas on FB for this not to happen.

Lowest of the low

It’s being lazy, you drag it all the way there and can’t be bothered take it back. You feel like your good intentions weigh out what will happen next. Most donations I see are open and presumable good stuff pinched and just rubbish left.

What makes people do this?

Stupidity.

Retail workers have many stories of people just not reading signs, no matter how obvious they ought to be. Combine that with not even thinking that the shop won't open tomorrow or that the "donations" will get wrecked by the weather.

Do people not realise charity shops are closed right now? We're still getting donation bags through the letter box though. Just wait for one to come and then stick everything outside your own door for collection, simple!

People lug their stuff to the shop and then can't be bothered to bring it home again when they find the shop is closed. They don't care whether it's stolen or collected by the shop - they just want it out the house.

People want the stuff out of their house and don't really care if it's stolen. As Clymene said - fly tipping with a clear conscience.

Tips might be open and free, but the queue for ours is frequently over 3 hours long.

Its flytipping pure and simple.

Cos people are idiots.
One local to us emptied the shop and whitewashed the windows. Feckers still dump stuff

We have signs up at our doors detailing exactly how much it costs us to get rid of items left at our door.

Initially we got a lot of abuse for it!

Longer term nothing changed.

People convince themselves that they are doing a good thing and blinker themselves to anything to the contrary.

If anyone else on this thread is looking for places to take clothing they don't want my local supermarket has a pink clothes bank. I think most people are still able to get to a supermarkets (if my work is anything to go by, still get bored shoppers in for a browse) or retail parks where these types of recycling facilities are - a quick Google gives me loads of options within 15 miles. My local homeless charity has also been asking for particular items as they have more and more people in need at the moment. There's options out there, it just takes a little more effort than a black bag and trip down to the local charity shop doorstep.

I think most people doing this, particularly at the moment are just lazy. They even feel good about leaving it there even if the items will still go to waste. They feel they've absolved all responsibility for them the moment they leave them outside and don't really care what will happen to them.

A town local to where I live tried to prosecute someone for taking the bags that had been left outside the charity shop on the high street overnight and treated it as theft, which is crazy as the ship had signs up in the window saying anything left outside overnight would be destroyed.

Surely it's easier to move it to the front of your own property for passers-by to take?

We only "Please Take for Free"! stuff out front of homes in good weather which has not happened recently. Plus there aren't many walkers past mine, anyway.

I can't get worked up about it.

I would be willing to go to charity shop doorways & sort thru & put the clothing in bags into clothes banks, which would reduce piles, but not been told this is ok.

*Flytipping with a clear conscience"
Yes this people just dump their crap as long as it's out their house they don't care!

Absolutely this. People think they can dump it and then they've done their "good deed". It's such bollocks.

I just did a clean out of my cupboard and the stuff for the charity shop I've bagged up and put back onto the top shelf until I can take it in. Doesn't seem like rocket science. We had a lot of DD's old stuff too a few weeks ago so I bagged it up and DH put a notice on free cycle that we had 2 bags of girls age 4-6 clothes. And a lady picked it up the next day.

people refusing to understand that even in good times dumping at the charity shop isn't okay drive me crazy.

Our school actually does one of those bag collection things - where it's all by weight. We can't do one currently but usually do them about 3 or 4 times a year and it's great. People love getting rid of stuff and raising cash at the same time.

@Northofsomewhere

If anyone else on this thread is looking for places to take clothing they don't want my local supermarket has a pink clothes bank. I think most people are still able to get to a supermarkets (if my work is anything to go by, still get bored shoppers in for a browse) or retail parks where these types of recycling facilities are - a quick Google gives me loads of options within 15 miles. My local homeless charity has also been asking for particular items as they have more and more people in need at the moment. There's options out there, it just takes a little more effort than a black bag and trip down to the local charity shop doorstep.

I think most people doing this, particularly at the moment are just lazy. They even feel good about leaving it there even if the items will still go to waste. They feel they've absolved all responsibility for them the moment they leave them outside and don't really care what will happen to them.

Trouble is they are wrong to think that, if you leave something outside a charity shop even if it on their premises (shop doorway) ) it does NOT belong to the charity until they physically take it inside and accept it as a donation (high court ruling 2010) it still belongs to the 'donator', so the 'donator' is the one liable for any mess and any cost to remove it, of course its virtually impossible to identify who has left it so nothing happens to them, DH had an incident before lockdown, someone accidently left a bag with a good coat in outside his shop over night with some black bags , of course it wasn't there when he took bags in when he opened, the donator tried to sue the charity for the loss of the coat as she has left it on his premises (shop doorway) needless to say she got nowhere with the charity backing DH up,

My pet hate is people who dump (usually a load of rubbish) outside their house with ‘free’ written on it. Too lazy to take it to the tip.

It’s all flytipping.

I agree, I think with lockdown taking stuff to the tip has become too much of a fangle for many people so they just dump stuff.

@RunningFromInsanity well, it's not fly tipping if they remove it at the end of the day if they have no takers. We do it at my house (London) and everything goes, usually within an hour or so!

OP, it's awful where I live too with charity shops and it infuriates me!!!! Lazy fuckers.

Charity shop by us out up cameras. Then posted on local social media sites that the person who flytipped outside their premises could either collect it straight away or their image and name (small town everyone knows everyone) would be given to the police to deal with.
The bags were collected.

Many people are filthy skanks and teach their kids to be the same. Note the mess anywhere that school kids go.

We have that all the time, arrive in the morning to bags of stuff which has obviously been there for hours in the rain. It's similar to the people who donate stuff which will never sell, nobody wants a colouring book your child has half completed or the broken crayons they used to do it.