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

GETTING you make a very valid comment, it often does come down to the individual manager of the charity shop.

The charity I work for allows a lot of individuality in the way we run our shops, we are trusted to make the best decisions according to where we are based, our volunteer team, what our customers want, our stock levels etc.

Some of the comments on this thread are disappointing but overall, if a charity shop is not making money, it will be closed down. I took over a struggling shop and within a few weeks had turned it round and it is now very successful, I never have a shortage of volunteers and my customers seem very happy so I hope I have got my pricing right and the level of customer service we offer is high.

Equally I know as a customer that I can go into another charity shop, not receive a greeting and just find lots of tired, overpriced stock. But it is like any other retailer - there are efficient managers and poor ones.

But to anyone on this thread, if you have the time, choose your shop wisely and volunteer ... it can be an incredibly rewarding experience with the right team.

I donate good quality children's clothes to charities who pass them on direct to kids who don't have any,

@user1487194234

I donate good quality children's clothes to charities who pass them on direct to kids who don't have any,

What charities?

If anyone has men's clothing, Care for Calais take things like coats and hoodies, jogging bottoms and waterproof boots. care4calais.org/get-involved/collect-donate/

Local ones,my DSis is a social worker and she has some contacts.

Cancer research near me has a used John Lewis own brand plain women's t shirt for £11

I was loitering near the the stockroom door of my local CR shop yesterday and they were discussing what they would put on eBay.
It only works when they know their brands though. I love my scandi and frequently find items dirt cheap because they're not a well known brand.

My local one the prices are creeping up and up and the only items under £2 are mishapen. Supermarket or Primark items.

I actually overheard the manager saying “ just bag up all the winter boots and jumpers and we will rag them “ ie bin them

I would buy stuff if they put it all out in a basket for 50p / £1 an item , it seems so wasteful

I walk out frequently without buying a single thing.

@JackRabbitSlimsTwistContest
This is why I vote with my feet with donations. I don't want good quality clothing thrown out when someone could use it. The charity shop's sole purpose may be to raise the most money for their charity but it isn't my sole aim when donating or buying. I have some children's clothes that I think I may just give away directly.

I buy lots of jigsaws. One shop near us sells them all for £1 which is great. It doesn't matter if they have a piece missing at that price.

All the other charity shops on the high street sell them at £3-4 I won't buy them there anymore unless they are brand new or marked as complete.

I don't mind paying more for branded things but I am another who refuses to pay much for second hand primark clothing.

A lot of the individual charity shops near us are verging on the expensive side, especially national names such as Oxfam or Cancer Research. More local ones seem to be cheaper, however.

There is also a warehouse of a local chain based in a town near us. It is where lots of items go that don't get sold in the shops. I went there recently with a friend & their prices are very bargainous- 50p for trousers/skirt/shorts, £1 for a top, 3 for £1 on DC clothes, 6 for £1 on books - all regardless of brand. It is all just on size rails & is massive so lots of rummaging required & there is a prevalence of Primark/supermarket brands, but also lots of good stuff to be found with digging.

@confusedofengland

A lot of the individual charity shops near us are verging on the expensive side, especially national names such as Oxfam or Cancer Research. More local ones seem to be cheaper, however.

There is also a warehouse of a local chain based in a town near us. It is where lots of items go that don't get sold in the shops. I went there recently with a friend & their prices are very bargainous- 50p for trousers/skirt/shorts, £1 for a top, 3 for £1 on DC clothes, 6 for £1 on books - all regardless of brand. It is all just on size rails & is massive so lots of rummaging required & there is a prevalence of Primark/supermarket brands, but also lots of good stuff to be found with digging.

That sounds great

It is brilliant! I spent £8.50 & got a big bagful of bits. Few people know about it, too 😍

The local charities don't seem to have increased their prices - Yorkshire Cat Rescue and Overgate Hospice were the same as pre-lockdown when I went in last week. In my experience the national charities such as British Heart Foundation are always more expensive. BHF want £2 for paperbacks whereas YCR have them at 50p.

I agree there seems little point in pricing a bobbly George T-shirt at a fiver but I simply don't buy things that I don't think are good value.

I think there are some posters on this thread who seem unaware of some families budgets

I’m well aware that many families are living in poverty and destitution. But the fact remains that for BHF or Cancer Research or Sue Ryder, then helping families in poverty (however worthy a cause) is not part of their charitable mission. Selling goods cheaply simply because it helps people in need is not achieving these charities’ objectives.

In some cases, selling stock cheaply and maximising turnover is the most efficient way to make money, depending on the market the shop is operating in - how much stock they’re getting in, of what quality, how many volunteers they have, who the potential shoppers are. A charity shop might also consider the benefit that low pricing provides to the local community but ultimately if they’re not making money they’re not serving the charity’s interests.

Despite the advantages charity shops have in terms of discounted business rates etc, many shops are operating on wafer thin margins and poorly managed shops can easily run at a loss.

I regularly donate to my local charity shops. I dropped off a load of lovely kids summer dresses barely worn but just basic h@m. I walked past last week and they were priced at £7 each I only paid £2.99 for them!

This is not a new phenomenon. About 7-8 years ago I used to get all sorts of bargains in charity shops. The donor got rid of stuff, the shop made a profit and the buyer got a bargain, so everyone benefited and stuff was being recycled too. But in the past few years I’ve noticed prices creeping up, mostly due to charity shop employees googling the donations and pricing them at what similar has sold for on EBay. There are no more bargains to be had so I don’t bother shopping there any more. Stuff isn’t being recycled and the cycle where “everyone benefits” has broken down due to greed.

I was loitering near the the stockroom door of my local CR shop yesterday and they were discussing what they would put on eBay
This is what I mean. If they skim off all the best stuff for eBay then nobody bothers going to the shop any more.

There's some many places having sales matalan, Asda at the moment that cost very similar due to the shops being closed they need to get rid of their stock. Its more cost effective to shop new at the moment and it last longer and can be cheaper.

@Happygirl79

A few years ago I bought a cookery book from a charity shop 2nd hand but still good condition for £5. The following day I saw the same cookery book for sale brand new in Asdafor £2.99 I was fuming. I haven't been in a charity shop since then

But people doing the pricing couldn't possibly know the price it's being sold for in every other outlet.

The onus is on the buyer to decide if it's worth that price to them.

I actually overheard the manager saying “ just bag up all the winter boots and jumpers and we will rag them “ ie bin them

Yes, I suspect a lot of completely saleable stuff gets ragged. I know of one shop that ragged every item of children's clothes for months because they had too much and didn't have the resources to sort them.

Charity shops are not there to provide cheap products for people - they’re there to make money for their charities
I do think it’s part of the social contract though. People buy second hand instead of new because it’s cheaper. The shop makes a profit and stuff gets recycled. Everyone benefits including the planet. I appreciate that the shop only cares about the profit but why would anyone shop there if it was the same price as new? The shop could achieve the same turnover by selling more items at a lower price.

The cycle where “everyone benefits” has broken down due to greed.

7-8 years ago a charity I worked closely with was literally losing money on its charity shops by having poor awareness of the value of what it was selling. I far from a case of “everyone benefits”, money was actually being diverted away from the charity’s beneficiaries to prop up the shops and facilitate people’s love of bargain hunting.

Clearly that couldn’t continue so yes, they have wised up to how to price their stock. Bad news for the bargain Hunter but good news for the charity. Call it “greed” if you like but making money for the charity is by some wide margin the primary purpose of a charity shop.

It depends what they mean by ragged. We say that we are going to rag stuff but what it really means is that it goes to a central warehouse.

It's then sorted again - stuff which they think is worth selling and we've missed is pulled out and sold. Vintage stuff goes online. Stuff we don't sell in store like sleeping bags is put aside for the pop up shops the charity operates at festivals. So it's all still making money for the charity.

At the moment we are "ragging" most of the winter jumpers, boots, coats etc as we have literally nowhere to store them - issues with the storage unit we've used in the past, change of policy on hiring couriers, manager doesn't drive. If the item is very special we will keep it aside - I found a 100% wool Aquascutum coat last week and it will be sold. But your bog standard M&S or Tesco jumpers? The hassle of bagging them, driving them to storage, storing them, hiring another van to bring them all bag in September - just not worth it.

Charity shops lucky enough to have a cavernous back shop area are probably making different decisions.

the problem is that super discount chains have destroyed people's perception of how much an item is worth by using exploited labour and so being able to sell things dirt cheap, a couple of quid for a t-shirt (even second hand) is perfectly reasonable and the charities can't practically give stuff away at 50p a pop because that wouldn't cover their overheads nevermind actually raise money.

The shop could achieve the same turnover by selling more items at a lower price.

But selling twice as many items at half the price would take twice the amount of volunteer time in preparing, pricing up and displaying items. Getting reliable volunteers is often a charity shop’s biggest headache (especially so at the moment due to the impact of covid) so a low price/high turnover strategy can be harder than you think to pull off.