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

I got a brilliant bargain from the Oxfam online shop for a course I'm doing, one of the recommended texts is a very old book which was first printed in 1909 and has been out of print for decades. There's a pdf version but it's not the same. I scoured the second-hand sites for weeks before one popped up on the Oxfam online site, was absolutely delighted with it. Price was fairly high for a "second hand" book, but these books are like hen's teeth and don't come up often.

I am currently away for the weekend in a city and have spent a lovely afternoon going round the charity shops, everything I saw was sensibly priced and I found two tops, two pairs of jeans, a stunning necklace and a couple of homeware items for a total of less than £20. I thought that was very reasonable ... and I had a lovely chat with the manager who runs a charity shop in the same charity as I do ... picked a few good ideas as well. . I didn't see any evidence of 'over priced goods'.

Phase Eight and other good brands in prime condition selling for £4-5 per item in Romsey charity shops

I found it depends where the shop is. I once saw a pair of Primark shoes for sale for £25 in a shop in a wealthy village. New they would have been £15.

I used to volunteer in a charity shop.

Stock gets rotated if there are a various branches.

A good day would take around £200.

There were two paid employees.

I had a great day in the charity shops - I got a brand new, never even opened paperback today (non-fiction, rrp £12.99) for £1 and 5 CDs including one double CD for £1. That's £1 for all five!

LOL @Oldsu 'I understand you don't really know how charity shops operate'.

Sentences are a thing, you know.

@mathanxiety

LOL *@Oldsu* 'I understand you don't really know how charity shops operate'.

Sentences are a thing, you know.

Seems like cheap jibes are also a thing...

@mathanxiety

LOL *@Oldsu* 'I understand you don't really know how charity shops operate'.

Sentences are a thing, you know.

Is that your best shot?

There were two pretty good shots there.

Which one were you referring to?

Seems like cheap jibes are also a thing...

One of them was a direct quote.

Most charity shops round my way are so overwhelmed with donations they're refusing any more and there are people desperate to donate. If I was them I'd be selling everything even cheaper to shift stock.

I went in a charity shop the other day that has been a bit spruced up following it's covid closure. Their books were cheap - 3 for £1 type prices. However..... they had now decided to display books all pretty by spine cover and the kids books dumped in a rummage basket. I often seek out specific books so I need them to be in alphabetical order please. I don't want to have to go through shelves and shelves of books to see if they have ones I am after. Even more annoying is when ones by the same writer are separated by several shelves. And I really hate having to sit on the floor to rummage through a basket of kids books - which will be a mix of baby books to YA books.
So I went across the road to the BHF bookshop where the books might be £3 or so but at least it's like a professional shop.

Yesterday I got this dartmoorpaintings.co.uk/hound%20tor,%20dartmoor%20print%20enlargement.html in mint condition, frames for £2 in a charity shop.

Their clothes were expensive but if you hunt with charity shop eyes there are always bargains.

£150 on the site.

At least in the charity shop I used to volunteer in a lot of the pricing was done my volunteers and we didn't necessarily know what we were doing so it could ne very random. That was 10 years ago though in fairness.

...a case in point last week when I was in a customer purchased £40 worth of dresses, all of them had been in the other shop for 2 weeks reduced in price and taken to shop 2, that particular customer mentioned she didn't come in before it always looked tatty, for that customer her tremendous bargain was getting high quality dresses, Boden, White Stuff, Sea Salt for not much more than the other shops are charging for Primark, George etc and not having to trawl through an overstocked rail and disorganised shop to find what she wanted, that's what is going to get other customers coming in to browse, not the vain hope of finding a Gucci scarf in a 50p bin or a new Kath Kidston bag incorrectly priced for £2, once THOSE customer don't find those bargains they rarely come back, that customer will be back week in week out.

Has it occurred to you that a customer who finds a tremendous £2 or 50p bargain might come back for more? Do you not think you should be aiming at getting every single browsing individual back across the threshold?

'Uniform pricing' doesn't mean bargain basement pricing, btw. It means that everything costs somewhere between $3.99 and $6.99, with a few items costing a little more. Uniform pricing doesn't signify poorly presented merchandise either, or a tatty environment. It generates billions in annual sales.

@JackANackAnoreeee

Most charity shops round my way are so overwhelmed with donations they're refusing any more and there are people desperate to donate. If I was them I'd be selling everything even cheaper to shift stock.

It’s been explained multiple times on this thread that one of the biggest challenges charity shops face _ especially at the moment given the disruption caused by the pandemic - is volunteers. Sorting, pricing, steaming, displaying is labour-intensive. If they’re not accepting donations chances are is because they don’t have enough volunteers to process it, not because they aren’t turning over stock fast enough.

@4fingerKitKat#

Nope. My mum works in a charity shop and was able to continue during the pandemic with all of that, in fact it was all she could actually do since obviously they couldn't open. They had stock ready to go as soon as they were open but didn't have space to store extra.

[quote IMNOTSHOUTING]@4fingerKitKat#

Nope. My mum works in a charity shop and was able to continue during the pandemic with all of that, in fact it was all she could actually do since obviously they couldn't open. They had stock ready to go as soon as they were open but didn't have space to store extra.[/quote]
But even you had an empty stock room, it doesn’t mean shops would be able to cope with processing the pent up donations.

In general it’s a complete headache at the moment - there’s all the winter stock still unsold, and even if you’re basically giving it away people aren’t in the market for winter coats and boots etc now.

There’s shops on our high street with big signs in the window asking for donations of summer clothes.

And it’s not as though shops don’t mark down prices to get stock to shift - they do!

But people who keep thinking the answer to everything is just “sell stuff cheaper” are overlooking that it a lot more complicated than that.

[quote IMNOTSHOUTING]@4fingerKitKat#

Nope. My mum works in a charity shop and was able to continue during the pandemic with all of that, in fact it was all she could actually do since obviously they couldn't open. They had stock ready to go as soon as they were open but didn't have space to store extra.[/quote]
The issue many shops face is that some elderly volunteers feel too nervous to come back to work or would prefer not to work in a customer facing role. This is, of course, completely understandable.
An issue where I volunteer is that we can only have a limited number of people working upstairs to sort and steam clothes due to covid regulations. Naturally this affects how quickly we get the donations shop floor ready.

@mathanxiety

Seems like cheap jibes are also a thing...

One of them was a direct quote.

Your comment re sentences is the cheap jibe. But then you already know that...

One was both cheap and way off the mark. The double whammy.

@mathanxiety

You seem to be arguing that everywhere should operate like Goodwill. I don’t know anything about Goodwill but from a quick google they seem to operate quite differently from uk charity shops in a number of ways which mean the business model doesn’t necessarily translate.

I work for a national charity in head office in a role that involves finance and strategy. I can assure you that the retail shops are raising substantially more money thanks to an overhaul which has involved many shops being more ‘boutique-y’ - interior refresh, more focus on visual merchandising, stock quality and yes - higher prices. They use more local area insight to target where different strategies will work, redistribute stock and give individual store managers more latitude to try new things (though they do have tough targets to meet, not an easy job!). Trust me, you don’t need low prices in a charity shop to make money.

@Bathshebahardy

Charityshops21 - As you say you are in SE London and your local Sue Ryder was cheap, if it is the Catford one, it is because that's their Outlet store. If you go up the road to Forest Hill, Sue Ryder is expensive. The Salvation Army shop opposite Sue Ryder always used to be good value.

If you want a great store with friendly staff try Alex’s shop in Forest Hill, opposite the swimming pool. Set up in memory of Alex who had Leukodystrophy. They also have branches in Peckham an Walworth. No shiny shop fronts or advertising budgets, so more of your money goes to the charity too.

What Oldsu is describing is clean, neat shops, good quality merchandise spread between two shops, and prices for decent brands that are not too much higher than prices for downmarket brands in other shops.

I am also talking about shops that are well lit, with clean fitting rooms, clothing and outerwear sorted by type, by size and by colour, neatly displayed small appliances, crockery, glassware, cookware, home decor, seasonal decor, gardening items, baskets, sports gear, furniture, electronics, lamps, board games, puzzles, books, bags, footwear...
Also uniform pricing and $$$ billions generated annually.

£6 for a second hand Wet Wet Wet CD. Actual value 50p.