Charity shops and their hugely inflated prices..

[Charityshops21]

I've always loved charity shops and usually pop in whenever I pass one but I've noticed since they reopened post lockdown the prices have more than doubled in many places.

Take the Sue Ryders local to me, women's tops and dresses used to be between £3 and £5, I went in this afternoon and saw that the same type of clothes (not expensive brands in the first place) have at least doubled in price.

£9.99 for a second or third hand faded jumper with loose threads.

£7 for an atmosphere (Primark) blouse that I know only cost that brand new.

£15 for a battered pair of shoes.

I understand the need to recoup losses but AIBU to think this is bad and will alienate their most frequent customers? IE poor people me

Ours are cheaper than normal since reopening. I stocked up on novels which are normally £1-2 and all the local shops had them at less than £1. I felt guilty and gave them extra!
Prices on everything else seemed about the same.

I am surprised as I would think they have been inundated with stuff after people’s lockdown clear outs.

I can understand them needing to recover losses but I wouldn’t think that would be the way to go.

It's not on is it?
Everything has gone up lately :(
I know they have to pay some of their employees , but many are volunteers and the goods are donated , so you would think the prices would reflect this.
If items becomes the same price as something new out of primark ( for example) then people won't shop there.

Have you tried a few? I find they vary so much. Some are ridiculous. Seems to depend on the area too.

In the one near me I got a brand new skirt, tags still on for £4.50 this week. It wasn't a fancy brand but I thought that was pretty good.

The one i work in (cat rescue one) has put the same type of prices as pre lockdown and we have a large sale section as we are been inundated with donations at the moment

I’ve always found it to be a bit random on pricing in charity shops anyway.
Sue Ryder was always one of the pricey ones here.
Mainly I think it depends on the knowledge and experience of the volunteers and staff, if they know the brand and can appreciate what it would have cost new.
I can only guess that if this is a change in places you were familiar with, maybe they have a new bunch of people working there who don’t know about things so well yet. Certainly a lot of people who volunteered before have chosen to step away now, they’d had enough.
Or they might just be trying to make more money seeing as they’ve had low income for much of the last year.

I paid £8 for a vase this morning at a charity shop. I thought that was overpriced, but the vase was just what I wanted. The shelves were heaving with bric a brac though. They could probably shift it faster if it was cheaper and be able to accept more donations which they have currently put a limit on.
10-12 years ago, I used to love looking around them but there are very few good things to be had with the increase of FB marketplace/ eBay and harder times.

Sue Ryder I won't buy from on principle. Second hand jumper, a few buttons sewn on in random places...£15. A Primark vest £4. The list goes on.

I've recently bought a new looking Monsoon top for £5 and a new looking denim skirt for £4 from a sue ryder, which seems like a good price to me.
Agree some places take the piss.

Sue Ryder is very expensive!

When they first opened up after the last lockdown they all has Sales around here - really cheap and they also stopped taking donations.

Now they are taking donations and the pices have gone not just back but steeply up. I think the hike feel more beacuse of the sale prices as well.

So I assume they've cleared their back log but I'm buying less and less because I'm finding fewer good value items.

Our Sue Ryder shop sells almost everything for £1. (This is always, nothing to do with COVID)
So it must vary.

Most charity shops are inundated with stock so you'd think they' have massive clearance sales for a couple of months and get the tills ringing, wouldn't you ?

Charity shops around my way are really expensive and some of the staff, as well as volunteers, have adopted a rather snooty attitude as if they are in some high-end fashion boutique. I get that they receive donations of some premium brands but given the eyewatering prices on a lot of their second staff, I might as well go to a proper designer exchange place with much nicer customer service.

Ooops meant second-hand stuff

I think you've just tried the expensive end of charity shops. Sue Ryder round here is always really off on its pricing.

My haul this week includes:

• large quilter's ruler £4: £20 new
• large sewing box and contents (beautifully hand made) - £20: £50ish new and empty
• 2 x skirts, 1 x dress, all to be resized over the weekend - £10 total: somewhere closer to £130 new, and they are all barely worn, dress still has the spare button in it.

A couple of ours are now distribution centres which means all the good stuff gets skimmed off and sent to posher areas, so we get left with the rubbish which they still charge their normal prices for.

I haven't been in pound land for a few years now , but ventured in one today and was surprised to find very little is actually £1. Most items are 1.29 or more and the toothpaste was more expensive than it is in savers!
I was only after cleaning and toiletries type things, some sweets were a pound and the bigger items are always more expensive ( obviously) but mostly I thought it was a bit pricy! I knew everything would go up after all the lockdowns but I expected these type of shops to stay a bit competitive.
Card factory was still great though. I'm glad they are back open!

There was a great charity shop for a local animal shelter when my DH briefly worked in a Californian town they piled it in (no store room) and just sold it on and did amazing sales so one day you’d get the books for 10c say.. So I bought them read them and returned them.. and we got lots of stuff we needed for the kitchen there and then took all the stuff we’d bought new in when we left.. I can’t explain it well but it seemed to work much better than here, things were cheap if they had loads of them but right price if it was something worth more... the stock turnover meant it was worth regular visits and they seemed to make good money for the charity.

One near to us has put its prices up and frequently says no donations atm. Surely the point is just accept good stuff and sell it through.

YANBU. Some really do sell at prices that are unrealistic for second hand clothes (especially if they do put them in a special 'vintage' section which seems to be a byword for anything older or a bit kooky looking ). I know they're trying to raise money and selling stuff very cheaply wouldn't get them good returns (although arguably it would shift stuff faster) but I'm not paying £6 for a Primark sweater etc.

Oxfam are the worst, especially for books. I saw a book in there I wanted but a knackered 2nd hand copy was £4. I bought a nearly-new one from a charity seller via Amazon for less.

And worst of all, one of my local charity shops won't let you try on clothes any more, to the extent that they've removed the changing rooms "due to theft". They offer a refund but that a) means shlepping back into town and b) asking a charity for a refund. I want to do neither of those things so I just don't buy from them!

Vote with your feet then and try other charity shops.

I manage a charity shop and I price to sell and to raise as much money as I can for the charity. My shop performs very well and I have lots of loyal customers who seem happy with my pricing; if something hasn't sold for a couple of weeks I will usually reduce it but I generally find that pricing isn't the issue ... it's whether customers like the stock or not.

I went into a charity shop yesterday and saw a top that I liked the look of.. looked at the price and it was £6.25 it wasnt a named brand or any thing fancy, just a normal, black long sleeved top. Ridiculous if you ask me, yes they're there to make money but surely to help people out too? I cant imagine anyone buying second hand stuff with a prices like that so therefore they don't bring money in for the charity 🤷‍♀️
I walked out. (I think it was a cancer research one)
I did get a nice top on sunday from Oxfam for 3.50 and some really nice warm leggings for about the same price and I thought that was spot on.

I think chain Charity shops in the UK are very expensive - hospice shops tend to be more reasonable.

I collect ceramics and found that last time I was in the UK there had been some sort of realization about a certain type of ceramic that it was worth a lot of money. Well sure, rare or handmade items are but I had to laugh at some of the prices being applied to some of the most ugly or mundane examples. £50 for a chipped, brown monstrosity - ridiculous. I think they'd be much better served by preserving the 'Aladdin's Cave' type fun, that you never know if you'll find a fantastic vintage teapot for £2 or a lovely designer wool coat for a fiver. That was always my motivation when chazzer raiding as a teen. There's so much horrible crap in them, there needs to be a reward!

I think people sometimes forget that the whole purpose of charity shops is to raise money for the charity.

Some operate a ‘pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ model, others try to sell things for more even if it means less stock turnover. They need to think about how much stock they’re getting in, how many staff/volunteers they have to process it, etc. The canny ones know their market and price according (whereas some do seem less clued up on pricing and seem to over- or under-price).

But however they price the objective is to maximise the profit for the charity, not to provide help our people on low incomes, people looking for a bargain or whatever.