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

Totally agree, the ones near us are ridiculous. I was looking for a tea set and they were £6 a cup or £30 for a set of 6 etc when they weren't fancy brands so I could get the same brand new from Dunelm!

I volunteer in a charity shop. They are run very professionally these days - managers have sales targets etc set by head office. If the shops don’t make a profit, they don’t survive. So whether people think they’re over priced or not, they must be making money overall

I have noticed the prices skyrocketing at one of our local charity shops. They have some lovely items but the clothes prices are double what they were before Christmas. In consequence you see the same things for weeks on end. In contrast, our local hospice shop has kept to the same reasonable prices (think £4 for a top) and the turnover is much better.
I would like to add that although the shops are principally there to raise money for their respective charities, there is a community tie-in that they help people with very little spare cash.

I found my donated, good condition, Radley handbag on sale for £3.

Hit the wrong button.
It was next to a plastic tatty thing for the same price.

Charity shops are not there to provide cheap products for people - they’re there to make money for their charities. I presume they price at a level they think they’ll make money. My friend and I went to some London ones which were great but they’re prices were really punchy. They were trying to charge £25 for a jumpsuit that had some damage. It’s a trendy area though and the shops were quite like boutiques. We liked the Fara and the Traid ones which had really good stock. Closer to home we have less chance of a designer name but have more realistic prices so you take you’re choice.

@Englishgirl9 today I priced a pretty vintage sandwich set, large plate and six small ones, £3.99. Cream and sugar, £2.99. And all washed by me before they are displayed. Unfortunately there were only two cups so I couldn't offer a teaset. Most glasses average at 50p unless they are really good quality. We don't display clocks unless we have checked they are working, we put in new batteries.

Lots of real bargains, if anything that might be really expensive is donated its likely to be sent to ebay where they attract a wider range of buyers. Our aim is obviously to support the charity, but if we're too expensive, no-one will buy.

I like to mooch in charity shops after a activity I do once a week. It's a expensive town with two cancer research shops and one is much cheaper than the other. I did buy some things today.

Its definitely cheaper in the non chains. I'm always toying with volunteering. I would buy too much

I recently saw a Cath Kidston bag in my local charity shop. Went to look at it. It was far from pristine; OK but clearly a quite well used item. They wanted 35.00. I said I quite liked it but it was over priced. She told me they sell on ebay for a lot. It was nowhere near good enough for me to spend 35.00 on it.

One in pristine condition in an identical print for 16.00. They simply do not get it.

@cansu

One in pristine condition in an identical print for 16.00. They simply do not get it.

And ebay has many more potential buyers so you can sell the exact same item for more money. I don't think the few pounds for delivery matter on a £10 plus item as you are getting the convenience of shopping from home and delivery to your door for that.

I help out at an independent CS. I was there today and my co-worker held a Karen Millen dress aloft and asked me if she could get away with charging £3 for it. The dresses are usually £2. Tops are £1, skirts and trousers are between £1-2, depending on brand. Books cost between 20-50p. We do an absolutely roaring trade.

Blame Mary Portas from the TV show she did about 12 years ago. She told charity shops to inflate their prices so they did. I agree Nohomemadecandles - the one where she was trying to convince them to make the shop look like a boutique and to spend money on matching coat hangers, and then - my real pet hate - arrange clothes by colour rather than garment type.

But the charity's aim is to get the maximum donation for your item
no-one will disagree with that, but what a lot of posters are saying is it is better to get £3.95 for a top you have sold than it is to price the same top up at £7 and have it still sitting on the hanger 3 weeks later.
As pps have said, I donate my things to shops that price realistically, and shift stuff and get money in the tills. Seems good business sense to me.

The purpose of a charity shop is to raise money for the charity.
Agreed

There costs will have gone up and most charities are in dire financial straits due to the pandemic so they need to charge more in order to raise the money for the charity.
I think the point many are making, is they won't make any money (or will make less money) if things don't sell though. If things are priced at more than the customers are willing to pay, then the charity won't make any money if they walk out empty handed.
People want, and expect bargains from charity shops. If you want to altruistically give to a charity, then you can set up a standing order and no clothes need to be involved. Charity shops need to entice people in with reasonable prices - yes, for those that don't have much money, but also those that are after a bargain. It is exactly what they set up to do.

@Thatisnotwhatisaid

I haven’t been to one since before covid but I always thought British heart foundation and Sue Ryder overcharged for furniture. They sell really old fashioned tables and chairs or sofas for £100+ and there’s just no way anyone would want to pay that. You can get table and chairs for free sometimes on Facebook or at least for quite cheap and modern ones at that, not ones from the 1960s.

But mid century furniture is really fashionable and highly sought after at the moment. Please tell me where these shops are because the furniture I most want is from the 1960s.

my real pet hate - arrange clothes by colour rather than garment type.
My local Oxfam is terrible for this. All tops mixed together (whether short sleeved, long sleeved, jumpers, hoodies), sizes mixed together, sorted by colour. Colour is the easiest thing to just see, it's the last thing I would sort by. I just want to see the two pairs of jeans in a 6 and the tops in an 8/10/S, then move on!

@pointyshoes

I volunteer in a charity shop. They are run very professionally these days - managers have sales targets etc set by head office. If the shops don’t make a profit, they don’t survive. So whether people think they’re over priced or not, they must be making money overall

Yes exactly, I know a manager in 1 shop and a volunteer in another and both shops have very high sales targets - it surprises me how high and they are not allowed to price under certain prices for certain garments. That’s why all jeans and skirts etc are min £10. They do not have as much freedom as you think to set own prices. We have to view it as a donation too not just buying something cheap. They are a valuable part of the community and essential fundraising for the important local charities they represent.

Charity shops have been hugely impacted by the pandemic.

Sue Ryder shut all its shops during the pandemic, so they wouldn't have any money coming in, they still have to pay for premises, IT, head office staff were furloughed but not all, the list goes on. Not to mention that the charity shops fund the hospices, so they still have to be operational, nurses, medication, buildings, equipment etc.

So I'd say paying £10 for a pair of jeans rather than £4 is a small price to pay. If you don't like it, go and buy new and pay £45

I work with a number of charity organisations through work, and they are making people redundant, people who work in the head offices etc .

I understand charity shops are there to make money for their charity. However I am not sure how over pricing products achieves this. I live in a big city so we have the usual big names on local high streets and then loads of local charity shops who tend to be more realistic in their pricing. This is for clothes, white goods, furniture and one charity is selling on donated ex display kitchens. Most local charity's have a 'priced to sell' model so turnover is high. For example, they may sell a sofa at £80, add delivery and get it moved on quickly rather than it sit around taking up space for months. The same with clothes, household good etc. Price at 99p- £3 and get them out of the store. I suspect anything worth more ends up on ebay etc which is fair enough. BHF, Sue Ryder etc price used George and Primark goods at the same price they were sold for. Whilst their shops may be arranged nicely I am not sure why they continue to think this is a good business model

The shop I volunteer in - one of the big chains - doesn't have a centralised pricing policy.

Of course we have guides, but there is a lot of wriggle room. So for example our starting point for a top which is in good condition, worth selling, and hasn't gone for rags is £5. If it's supermarket, H&M or similar, knock off a quid. Premium high street like Reiss, Hobbs, Phase Eight - add a few quid on. 100% silk - add a couple of quid on. Designer - add quite a bit on, if it's still desirable. Something BNWT - depends, but starting point is a third of the original selling price. Before lockdown we had a donation of very expensive designer men's waistcoats from a premium brand which were £120 new. There is no WAY that anyone is going to spend £40 on a waistcoat when there are no trousers/jackets to match. Think they wernt out at £14.99, and sold.

Trousers / skirts don't sell as well as tops and dresses in my experience, in my shop most go out at £3.99 unless they are premium, 100% wool, silk or really special. Dresses are £6 or £7 for a high street maxi dress, up to as much as £20 for a ballgown style dress or mother of the bride outfit.

Bags are difficult, there are SO many fakes around and you have to know what you're looking for. It can be hard to tell PVC from leather if a customer has cut the label out. We're always on the "how to tell fake Mulberry bags" internet pages. We have to put the more expensive stuff locked up in a cabinet as so maby people steal from charity shops.

There's some very interesting debate on this thread. As a charity worker responsible for our one shop, I'd like to say thank you to all shoppers and donors.

Our shop provides employment, volunteering opportunities to people wanting to get into the workplace, a place for people to buy goods at affordable prices and a method of recycling unwanted items. Not to mention vital income for our charity, which has seen income decline horrifically while the needs of people we support rising dramatically. If we don't raise enough money to cover costs and provide a decent contribution to charitable activities, the shop will close and all of these benefits will be lost.

One request please - if you are donating items, can you please ask the person taking your donation if they are able to claim gift aid on your donation. If they do, they'll ask you to fill in a very simple form (if you are a British taxpayer) and then be able to claim gift aid on all the money raised through selling your donated goods.

I think it depends where the shop is, and how it's managed. Ours are considered to be in an affluent area ( who'd have ever thought there'd be charity shop snobbery - I have been reliably informed there is apparently 😳

I love the books, and bits of bric-a-brac. A friend shopped with me this week as we met for lunch. She picked up some vest tops in the charity shop, they were £4.99 each. She rang me later to say her daughter had told her they were the Primark brand and would have cost less than £2.00 each brand new 😳
She rang the shop and asked why they were so pricey in this particular charity shop. The Manageress stated ( and she used a brush clipped tone apparently 😂) that she "Had a discerning clientele and standards to uphold" It made me chuckle.
I had a clear out during lockdown, and tried to get stuff to charity shops, but they said they were either not taking donations, or you'd got to make an appointment to take donations. I ended up putting it in the clothes donation containers in our Sainsbury's car park.
Surely charity shops are there to provide clothing/ other items for people to help out if there are struggles financially?
Charging double for a 2nd hand items cost brand new is missing the mark.

Surely charity shops are there to provide clothing/ other items for people to help out if there are struggles financially?

Nope, charity shops are there to make money for the charity. As you say. Primark churn out new clothing very cheaply.

Most of the people shopping in our charity shop want something different, something you don't see on the high street, don't want to contribute to fast fashion. It's definitely not all about price.

A lot of our vintage stuff goes online, a lot is sold to agencies who supply costumes for tv and film - if they're filming a show set in the 60s they want to buy genuine 60s outfits, not try to source the fabric or have things made.

@bigbaggyeyes

Charity shops have been hugely impacted by the pandemic.

Sue Ryder shut all its shops during the pandemic, so they wouldn't have any money coming in, they still have to pay for premises, IT, head office staff were furloughed but not all, the list goes on. Not to mention that the charity shops fund the hospices, so they still have to be operational, nurses, medication, buildings, equipment etc.

So I'd say paying £10 for a pair of jeans rather than £4 is a small price to pay. If you don't like it, go and buy new and pay £45

I work with a number of charity organisations through work, and they are making people redundant, people who work in the head offices etc .

I get your point. But a big proportion of people shopping in CS aren't spending £45 on new jeans. More like £12-15 new from Asda or the like.

I know it's a balance.

Partly why I give decent stuff directly to the refuge - it would hack me off that it sat there, over priced then went to shredding rather than helping both buyer and charity.

Partly why I give decent stuff directly to the refuge - it would hack me off that it sat there, over priced then went to shredding rather than helping both buyer and charity.
I feel the same way. Of course if the charity can sell something for £10 rather than £4 then that's great. The most important thing to me though is that it does get sold. I don't want to donate something and it go to rags if it doesn't sell for £10 when someone would have bought it for £4.

I don't pay £45 for jeans and I can't buy from supermarkets as they usually only go down to a (generous) 8. I buy second hand online and occasionally h&m.

I get your point. But a big proportion of people shopping in CS aren't spending £45 on new jeans. More like £12-15 new from Asda or the like

Yes this applied to me today.

I ended up spending £12.50 on a pair of new maternity/jeggings from Tesco, because the only thing similar I could find in the charity shops was £10 but quite worn and had multiple snags in them.