Aibu to think this is a crazy way to sell clothes in a charity shop?

[A580Hojas]

Went with DD to a posh charity shop near me recently.

All the clothes are very decent and the prices are high-ish. Absolutely fair enough.

The shop is huge, has lovely wooden floor, mirrors and has a nice atmosphere and the clothes are hung on rails roughly according to type (eg jeans on one rail, coats on another, fancy tops on another).

BUT everything is on a matching wooden coat hanger with no size on the hanger and no size ticket easily visible when you push the hangers apart. They are also all crammed in really tightly together and are arranged in colours (presumably to look pretty en masse). It's really, really hard work to find anything in your size, everything is in together and you have to physically prize the hangers apart to remove a garment, fish around inside it for the size label, then squeeze it back onto the rail when 7 out of 8 times it's the wrong size for you.

Neither DD or I bought anything that day although we must have looked at at least 50 garments between us.

AIBU to think TK Maxx have got the right idea with clothing displays? At least you can look in just a handful of sections and be sure you aren't missing something.

That does sound ridiculous. And yes I love TK Maxx for that - it's so easy to see if there is anything there in your size that you like the look of.

Yes our village’s nicer charity shops do that - all black tops together, that sort of thing.

The thing is it does help with some things.. so for instance when I lost recently wanted some new jeans (and I do try and buy second hand where I can) I knew full well that the jeans section had so many jeans in that I would surely be able to find some in my size and sure enough I did. Maybe if everything was grouped just in size I wouldn’t have gone specifically for jeans because I wouldn’t have the same confidence in the amount of jeans they have? I don’t know.

My local charity shops has things grouped but has size toggles on the hangers so it’s easy to look.

Yours would drive me mad.

Sounds odd, I run a charity shop and one of the most basic merchandising 'rules' is that clothes should be easily accessible - the rail should allow for browsing sizes & prices; colour blocking is recommended but I have tried it on a few occasions in my shop and sales have dropped so I ignore the 'guidance'.

Is this shop in a town in Wales beginning with A ?

i agree with you our shop has clothes by tops, trousers, skirts jeans on seperate different rails with plastic size cubes on the hangers so if i wanted a size ten top i would go to the tops look at the size ten cubes then pick my top from that section easy your one you went in sounds like hard work

It's ridiculous op but if it's anything like.my last employer (national charity) the shop management was dictated by Head Office rather than the experienced shop staff who knew what worked and what didn't. The area managers told us to arrange by colour and don't put out much merchandise at all as they were going for a boutique approach well funnily enough Ty Hafan tried that and were shut down 12 months later. Eejits.

I hate hate shops that don’t sort by size. Who’s got time to look through a million tops, see a gorgeous one that’s too small and find nothing in your size.
Just show me the 14s.

Posh charity shops have been been sorting by colour for a few years now, and mostly without size bobbles, and it seems to work for them: what they lose from shoppers with your preferences they gain from others who are attracted by the eye appeal.

Cramming them in together would piss me off though.

I hate when it's all sorted by colour! Annoying because I have to go to different places just to find a top I might want!

Much prefer by type

I LOATHE charity shops that organise clothes by colour rather than style or size, and I thought this would be about that. How many times do you say "I want a yellow outfit" rather than "I need something in my size."? Madness.

I would love it if they just had things by size. One section for each size. it would be so quick to spot something that you liked.

Who wants to browse by colour unless its for school dressup?!

some of our local ones now sort by colour, but they still put the sizes on and arrange them in size order.

Our charity shop (where I volunteer) arrange by colour. It looks better and sizing isn't consistent anyway between brands.

But we do have little plastic cubes with the size on which are put on the hanger. We also try not to overcram the rails as people do like to move the clothes for a good look. In fact, this morning I was pricing clothes which are still hanging on a rail in the backshop, ready to go out when some more sell.

However, January is prime "clear out" time and we've been absolutely deluged. So perhaps it's a case of needing it in the front shop to sell because there's nowhere to keep it in the back.

Our posh one arranges by colour which I'm ok with if there's enough space and clear sizing. But some are too high for me to be able to see the sizes so I don't bother.

My idea of hell. Mind you charity shops that charge nearly the same as the item would have cost new (or more!) don't get my custom either. We have a brilliant charity shop for a local charity that doesn't see people as cash cows to run their 'charity' business or pay their CEO over a hundred grand and we end up in there nearly every other week.

I only buy certain colours anyhow and most sizing these days is entirely arbitrary so I find this approach works well for me! I just go to the blue, green and teal bits and rifle through. Saves me also thumbing through the bazillion red and pink tops I would never wear

In the charity shop I volunteer in everything's displayed by colour but also in ascending size order and we use the hangers with the coloured plastic size toggles.

That way it's easy to find your size and also looks nice!

I much prefer things sorted by type - ie day dresses, posh dresses etc, and then organised by size. In places where the racks are sorted by colour, I tend to look at fewer items as I naturally go for the dark colours. But if I see a load of stuff together I often surprise myself and go for different colours and prints.

But I couldn’t care if they sorted stuff by alphabetical order as long as the size is on display! That does sound so annoying. I know sizes vary by brands but surely most women who charity shop look one size up and down as well as their average size.

Thing is though, a size 8 from M&S would be very different from a size 8 from DKNY so grouping all sizes together when they're different brands doesn't necessarily make sense. I would just browse, look at it, and have a good idea of whether it would fit or not. Mind you, I can't wear artificial fibres so I'm used to looking at things, trying to find the label, realising it's polyester and realising it's no good for me.

My local charity shop organises all their books by spine colour.

@toppkatz

My local charity shop organises all their books by spine colour.

How frustrating! I hate it if the books are not in alphabetical order.

@toppkatz

My local charity shop organises all their books by spine colour.

One near us too. Drives me nuts. Clearly done by someone who has never owned or cared about books.

Sounds like the shop is aimed at people with too much time on their hands to be wading through everything like that!

How many times do you say "I want a yellow outfit" rather than "I need something in my size."? Madness.
This.
Besides, I can work out the colour of a garment myself from twenty paces. Cos I'm clever like that.

I love a mooch round a charity shop. I’m in the process of loosing a lot of weight (over 8 stone atm) and going through sizes pretty quick so I refuse to spend a lot of money being clothes that will only fit me for a couple of weeks.
We have a great one in town everything divided into size and colour. Nearly all clothes £3 each so I go in every couple of weeks spend £30 and have a new wardrobe full