why are charity shops so expensive now?

[mklanch]

AIBU to think charity shops are now so expensive and overpriced?

i havnt been to one in about 3 years, but there is one near me that always has a lovely window display. i went with my husband as i saw a lovely jug and bowl in the window and was hoping to purchase it.
once inside i went over to the jug and it was slightly chipped here and there but so pretty. i turned the tag over and was shocked at the price. i was expecting a maximum price of £15-£20......but it was £50!!!
i thought well perhaps its a well known one, so continued to browse the shop. came across a little butterfly trinket box, it was very pretty but has a very large repaired crack right through the lid. i expected it to be under £5, but no, it was for £25!
even used clothing from regular brands (tu, George etc) was priced at over £6 for just a t-shirt!
when did they get so expensive?
i went in there because i don't have alot of spare money at the minute and really wanted to get something nice but not spend a fortune. how the hell have i been priced out of a charity shop?

Our charity shops are still overflowing with Lockdown donations; prices seem reasonably & low, trying to get it back out the door asap

@felineflutter

I think a lot of the people involved in the charity shops, managers etc are on high salaries.

Hahahahahaha good one.

Shop managers earn barely more than minimum wage. Salaries are easily google-able.

Retail is not well paid. Charity retail is definitely not well paid.

I'm a volunteer, only paid staff price clothes, shoes and bags. Our manager has a background in retail clothing and knows all the brands and prices accordingly. Good quality items fly out of the shop, so do fairly ordinary clothes, rarely Primark or PEP though as they are cheap as chips new.

A few volunteers have interests, and knowledge of books, toys, jewellery, bricabrac and can price those, but always defer to paid staff if unsure. We've been selling sets of 6 glasses for £2.99, mugs for 99p, unless they are a very expensive brand. Jigsaws £3 or £4. The cheapest new 1000 piece is about £8.

The staff work really hard, for minimum wage, the manager on not a great deal more. The money raised by our charity funds lots of research. If people don't like how they operate, their choice, there are plenty of customers keeping us really busy.

@felineflutter

I think a lot of the people involved in the charity shops, managers etc are on high salaries.

You think wrong then.

A charity shop near me sells TU and F&F tops for £6. On the flip side, they also sell designer/higher labels the exactly the same cost. A size 14 top = £6, regardless of label.

At least it seems that way.

The one near me has the regular shops in uproar, it sells a lot of new items very much like the items the other shops sell, them not paying rates puts them in an unfair advantage.

My husband's (now sadly deceased) Aunt used to work in a charity shop and had a cracking 'random pricing policy' based upon how much she liked you and how much she thought you needed the item. For example she would fully kit out a young lad going to his first job interview for pence, but a snooty rude customer would have the snooty, rude customer surcharge added

@Thisbastardcomputer

The one near me has the regular shops in uproar, it sells a lot of new items very much like the items the other shops sell, them not paying rates puts them in an unfair advantage.

The rates aspect, as far as I'm aware most charity shops still pay rates but some get a discount depending on the agreement, and as for vs other retailers , I'd say the charity aspect and good causes would give them an advantage over a company run for profit, although I could be mistaken a out that, it's just a guess

@Jellyfishnchips

Some franchise chains seem to overprice, there is one that appears to buy in large volumes of new clothing stock too, which I’ve always found strange and at odds with the second-hand donation/ re-sell principle of charity shops. You can tell they are new clothing lines as multiple sizes available and same style in different colours etc. Often found independent charity shops more fairly priced, my local has a £1 rail which is great! Also depends on store location, had a short b&b break in a posh town years ago and nose in charity shops there, loads of amazing designer stuff (but all with designer prices!)

Charity shops dint just sell second hand though. We sell anything we can make money on. The large charity I volunteer with gets large corporate donations from high street brands. The other week I priced three boxes of nightwear from a high street brand. All new, all unsold.

Yes when displayed together it's not what you'd expect to find but neither does it mean that the charity is buying in clothing to resell.

I'm a charity shop manager . I'm paid minimum wage . I would actually earn more stacking shelves or cleaning. Every other member of my staff is volunteering. Most of them between 70 and 80 but I have a couple who are mid 80s. They like myself work because we want to raise funds for our local hospice. We price as fairly as we possibly can without offending our donators who really don't want to see their things selling for 50p . You'd be hard put to find much over a fiver in my shop . Unless something is designer and quite recent we don't ask more . The time and effort that goes into my shop is enormous. Since lockdown I can't tell you how many bags of socks bras and old knickers I've had to sort through. Believe me most people in charity shops are not there to fleece people. Our books are 50p as are our CD/DVD etc . Clothes generally between £3and £5 . I put hours of extra time in researching labels and logos and studying China marks . We are stolen from weekly and bartered with daily . Tickets are swapped and so many people are buying to sell on these days . We have to watch with an eagle eye all the time . Having said that I love my job and believe I price fairly for both the charity and my mostly lovely customers.

@felineflutter

I think a lot of the people involved in the charity shops, managers etc are on high salaries.

I’m interested in why you wrote this.

Obviously comments like this are potentially damaging to charities. They may affect how likely it is that someone will donate. So you must have thought long and hard about making the comment and you must have a lot of inside knowledge - ie you’re a manager of a charity shop, or perhaps audit charities.

You surely, surely didn’t just pull a rather stupid assumption out of your arse and share it? Why would someone do that?

Charity shops are there to make money, not supply low cost goods.

there is one that appears to buy in large volumes of new clothing stock too
I volunteer in a mainstream charity shop and occasionally a large retailer will donate end of line stock. Sometimes there's a lot of it. Could be that?

They absolutely aren't. Usually only the manager gets a salary. Latest one near me I can find is £18000

This is true. The shop I volunteer in has one paid manager on a tad above minimum wage. It's a large shop and really does require a paid manager for staffing, organisation, admin etc. Can't see it running smoothly with 50 volunteers working half a day a week each.

Charity shops are not required to sell only second hand stuff. They are purely there to raise money for charity. Likewise they are not there to help people on low incomes get cheaper clothing etc. Thats just the result of selling used goods for less money.
My point is, the shops are just another business and not in themselves a public service.

The thing is consumer goods have never been cheaper. We have pound shops, primark and loads of cheapo stores seling new items for low prices. Charity shops have changed from being places poor people shopped to places where relatively well off, environmentally aware, middle class types shop.

@felineflutter

I think a lot of the people involved in the charity shops, managers etc are on high salaries.

1. No they're not

1. They deserve to be paid for the work they do. They work for a charity but are not charities themselves.

@Vicliz24 so true! at least old socks and knickers can be sold by weight to the ragman, unlike some of the disgusting and filthy items that are donated. Charity shops have become a convenient 'extra rubbish bin' to some people. You're right too about theft and label changing.

Sorting stock is a physical, demanding job. Only the shop is ground floor in our case, the sort room and storage is upstairs. Staff would have less strenuous jobs working in ordinary retail, which most did previously. But they, like the volunteers, want the charity to do well. If everything was too expensive, no one would buy.

This is a great thread.
I donated some furniture to a charity shop and received a letter telling me how much they had raised from the sale, I was very pleased and quite shocked at the amount.
I'm actually liking the idea of volunteers randomly pricing items, I like the quirkiness.

These threads always go the same way.

Someone makes a general comment that charity shops are too expensive. Then in no particular order you get the following comments, mostly for people who don't set foot inside a charity shop:

• staff are paid ridiculously high salaries
• volunteers steal all the best stuff
• everything should be £1 or £2
• primark bobbled t-shirts more than they cost new
• charity shops should be providing cheap clothes for the poor
• stock sitting on shelves unsold for months
• funny smell
• people being forced to work there to get their benefits
• only 1% of sales going into the charity coffers.

Those of us who do work in charity shops either on a paid or voluntary basis try to counter the myths and explain that a shop which does all of the above or which isn't making money will not last long.

But everyone else still think they know better, and could run the business far more efficiently than big charities which have had shops running successfully for decades.

I like a good rummage in the local charity shops (or did, pre-pandemic) and I donate regularly to them. But come on, they do love to sell a tatty Primark t-shirt for the same or more than it’s original brand-new price! That’s not a myth.

I’ve always thought they would be better off having a £2 rail for all that stuff. It might clear it out faster and make more profit.

I buy a lot from charity shops and find it good value. My last few purchas have included a pair of Paige jeans for £10, a silk blouse by whistles for £8, a brand new pair of office sandals for £10 & lots and lots of children’s books for between £1 and £3.

I've been rummaging in charity shops for books. A second hand book is roughly £2. I've given up now and instead go to The Works where you can buy three brand new books for £5.

Rather than donate items to a charity shop (and I'd only ever donate decent, clean items) I'd rather just hand them over to someone who genuinely needs them and is struggling. I prefer to help individuals rather than large charities

@ItDidntStop

I like a good rummage in the local charity shops (or did, pre-pandemic) and I donate regularly to them. But come on, they do love to sell a tatty Primark t-shirt for the same or more than it’s original brand-new price! That’s not a myth.

I’ve always thought they would be better off having a £2 rail for all that stuff. It might clear it out faster and make more profit.

Doesn't happen in our shop. We are so overwhelmed with donations that anything tatty doesn't reach the shop floor, whether it's Primark/H&M, Reiss/Hobbs or Prada/Armani.

Obviously mistakes are going to be made, and primark quite often use branding like Atmosphere, Cedarwood State, Denim Co rather than their own name.

But the idea that it is an active policy to price a tatty Primark t-shirt for more than it cost new, and the idea that staff/volunteers are gleeful at the idea that they're fleecing customers by doing so, is just wrong.