Am I being unreasonable to be mad as hell about a scam going on at this charity shop?

[Bunpea]

Am I being unreasonable to think there is a scam going on at a local charity shop?

I took three bags of things to my local charity shop for a well-known mental health charity. My OH took the bags in to the shop at the front. The bags contained ‘good’ stuff (mainly nice clothes, with some new bedding still in the cellophane wrappers). All good enough to have sold on eBay, but I want to support this charity.

The shop has a car park round the back you can pull in to. I drove round there to turn around and wait for OH.
In the car park was a man sorting through boxes and bags of goods, putting some things into three large zip-up shopping bags, and everything else he put in a skip.
Into the skip went lots of kids toys which looked in great condition - plastic ride-ons, a small dolls house, soft toys, toy cars, as well as books and other stuff. He kept testing the weight of the bags - presumably he was taking them somewhere.
He seemed uncomfortable that I was there, lit a cigarette, picked up a few random pieces of small litter (but did nothing about the bigger mess) and generally hung around.

Just as OH appeared at the side of the car, the shop manageress opened the back door of the shop and handed the man one of my bags.
I got out and asked her if the stuff I had donated was no use to them, that I was never sure what was useful to donate, and if it was no good would take it back and deal with it another way.
She hastily grabbed the bag back from the man, saying it was ‘being taken upstairs to be sorted’ (no it wasn’t), and that ‘we sell it all’.
Hmmmm.

I can understand that charity shops probably use dealers for disposing of some goods they can’t sell, and that some stuff goes for rags. Or that they move stock from shop to shop. But this didn’t look like that. And all the good stuff that had gone in that skip…
Am I being unreasonable to be mad as hell about a scam going on at this charity shop?

Plenty of clothes, toys etc are fine to wear, play with, whatever but not in resellable condition, or from cheap brands that it doesn’t make it worth it to sell. Who is going to buy bobbled 2 year old primark kids T-shirts for example.

They also redistribute donations between stores, especially the ones in naice areas

Please eport any suspicions to Head Office. I volunteer in a charity shop for a massive charity . We have a member of stff that is a paid member that works his guts out, sorting donations between clothes, shoes, bric a brac and another the books. In all the time that I have been there, rarely has stuff been sold on Ebay. I remember one bag of proper designer clothes, including a Chanel suit ( seeing one close up, I kinda understand why certain designer clothes seem to be very over priced; that quality of design and colour is just not going to be seen in nowadays, non classic designer house clothes) and only half of that bag was put on Ebay, the rest like Marni and Marc Jacobs put on the mannequins in the front window.

I work like a dog when on my volunteer shifts and am not there to glean stuff for myself, but to do something for the greater good. This might sound corny, but nobody working in a charity shop should have any other disposition...simply because the stuff that we have to put up with from customers that wouldn't brandish like that in Lidl or Aldi, much less any shop with "higher status" than them means that one has to think of more than themselves when working in a charity shop. Thieves and people who cannot harness any "zen" are not needed.

I don't think I agree with this... I think it is the business of the person donating. I choose my charity shop causes carefully and donate in good faith that they'll use my donations wisely in order to generate profit (if in doubt, I'll check that they can sell something and will only leave things they can make use of).

Throwing away perfectly good items that could have otherwise been given away or sold by the person who donated (or another charity shop) seems wrong.

Common items that some shops don't take (so therefore worth asking before leaving):

Toys
Electrical goods
Bedding
Childcare equipment (e.g. bouncers, high chairs)

I do think that people need to be careful what they donate and should check suitability if in doubt... Charity shops spend a fortune on waste disposal just because people don't check whether their items are still good enough quality (or suitable) to be sold on.

In the OP's case, the items should have been handed back as she was still on site (assuming they were going to throw them away).

It does sound like it might have been something dodgy going on, ie sorting through the donations and taking out anything that would be able to make money elsewhere. I would have wondered the same from what you describe!
I was in a charity shop a while back and a man came in who they addressed by name and had a not very quiet conversation with about what designer/decent stuff they'd had in this week and how they'd put it aside for him! So basically this bloke gets all the best stuff sold to him and it doesn't even hit the shop floor! And sells it on for profit. Thought that was well unfair/definitely not allowed surely?!

My mums friend used to volunteer in a charity shop. The volunteers took all the best stuff for themselves.

In this case I would suspect the man is related to the woman in the shop and they're taking the best stuff to sell on.

I would report to head office.

I agree, shop manager and man is known to each other and selling it for their own profit. I would report it to head office.

It is your business if its going into someone's pocket instead of the charity

He kept testing the weight of the bags - presumably he was taking them somewhere.

Yes & No, Prime Minister ...
He was weighing them because the charity (or he himself, if this is dodgy) will be paid by weight when they/he offload to a third party.
All the right noises about recycle-reuse can thus be made by the charity (or hushed up if OP is correct & the man & manager are thieves).

Unfortunately, the 3rd parties who buy by weight pay just enough to make a profit out of the small amount of clothes they will resell. The rest are bound for a UK harbour somewhere, where they will be bundled onto a container ship & end up as landfill in a third world country.

Sounds like they are keeping the good stuff for themselves and selling it on. I would report it to the charity.

I am sorry to say I have worked for a hospice charity with many shops and stealing was rife. All designer kit got put aside . Valuable items sent to HO and they then were 'auctioned' between the leadership team. I ended up hiding the good stuff from our senior retail director. I complained , reported 4 shop managers , had a meeting with the CEO and nothing happened. It made me angry and upset on a daily basis. I left after two years. I am back in corporate life so much for 30+ years retail experience and giving back.

However I agree about 50% is unsaleable. The posher the person the more disgusting the stuff. I was once given a 'top make' bedspread by a lady. It had been peed on by her dog.
Personally I now give to refuge.

Seems he is looking for the best stuff to resale on eBay/Facebook/car boot etc, putting them in the bags he was carrying. Probably in cahoots with the manager.

Why they throw good quality toys in a skip though I don’t know.

Some of the comments on here about regulations around toys and ragging lots of clothes - I don’t quite buy it. Most charity shops the state of the clothes on sale is crap. Surely they get better quality items that they could put out for sale and the stuff they do have our should be ragged. Same with the toys and books, generally pretty scruffy. Can only assume the best quality stuff ends up going to staff or backhand deals rather than actually put out for sale.

The other day I was walking from my DS school to the charity shop which is quicker around then back and they where bring stuff out and had scrap men smashing things up to pull the metal out (metal lamps, photo frames, a candelabra, a glass and metal table etc...).

Logical assumption is that the stuff wasn't sellable or had been on sale long term with no interest so wasnt worth the storage space for a few quid.

Our old charity shop manager was lovely and use to give me things she knew I would like for free because legally they couldnt sell them due to not having EU or safety marks (toys and clothes mainly where the tags/lables had faded to unreadible or been cut out).

Makes me wonder if the reason the toys were going in the skip was because the actual shop had more than enough stock already, but used baby toys won't make much profit on ebay or similar so they were simply binning them. Obviously might not that be that at all, though!

I just wouldn't donate to that particular charity shop again.

BTW the ragman pays on average 50p per Kilo with the bags the accept needing to be 10 Kilo (so £5) some accepts books/toys/DVD too at a lesser rate and many have banned items lists and rules so they have to check things then weigh them before taking them to rag.

Seems he is looking for the best stuff to resale on eBay/Facebook/car boot etc, putting them in the bags he was carrying. Probably in cahoots with the manager

doesn’t seem that way at all. Seems he was sorting what’s sellable and what isn’t. They habe limited space and if they need a skip they’ve a fuck ton of stuff.

many also offer a service where they will sort it for people and dispose of anything the dont accept for you... so it sounds like they just had a ragman in which is common for charities.

Things the dont accept usually include towels, dressing gowns, bedding, curtains, uniforms or work logoed items, anything damaged/stained, mismatched shoes, toys with missing parts or damage etc...

I know someone who manages a large recycling centre and their biggest visitors to the site are charity shops dumping stuff in general waste.

Some some is in black bags so could be damaged but plenty is stuff that’s like new.

I did some work for a large charity a few years ago and was genuinely shocked at the level of theft they were trying to manage. Entire bags of good stuff never making it into the system but also some volunteers pulling out the best items for themselves as "perks". Plus of course some shops just get way too many donations and much ends up in landfill.

I offer the local women's refuge first dibs on any clothes, books or toys. I've also donated to a couple of other groups who do direct distribution to families in need (churches and other religious bodies often have groups doing this in the local area). That way its more likely to reach someone who can actually use it than default to landfill.

My friend managed a Charity Shop.Some of the donations were sold on EBay for a reasonable price.Money went straight back into the Charity.Some were sold instore and others weighed and sold on to Clothes Warehouses on weight.I would phone HO and explain your concerns to them .May be legit may be not

I volunteered for a while in a sorting warehouse for a group of charity shops. We were frequently overwhelmed with donations and simply didn’t have the space to keep it all. A LOT of stuff gets thrown away. Scrap metal gets put to one side and lots of clothes get put in the rag pile to be bagged up and sold by weight to the rag man. Excess towels and bedding get donated to animal shelters. And then loads of stuff just gets put in a skip for landfill (as a pp said, this might be because there is a small crack or the item is faded etc). It’s a shame but most charity shops simply cannot sell everything that’s donated. Partly because some of it is crap and partly because there is enough space to store it all.

My least favourite bags to sort through were the ones where someone had obviously done a house clearance (for example when a person had died). Understandably, grieving relatives aren’t always able to take the time and mental effort to sort through everything so would just shove stuff into bags and give them to us. Dirty pants, half a bottle of sherry, that kind of thing. Even found a weed grinder once (with some weed still in it 😂)

On the other hand, most of these places also employ people who have an eye for items that might have more value, in which case they may be listed on eBay or similar rather than put in the charity shop to maximise the profit for the charity.

I have a few things free on Gumtree. Not worth selling anywhere and charity shops are ime getting too expensive!

Arsing phone playing up. Wrong thread clearly.

A colleague I worked with said her relative who worked in a charity shop used to take first pickings and effectively paid pence for BNWT items / the good stuff and took it to resell.

Stealing from charity is pretty low.