Charity shops seem to be unrealistic with their prices and I can't afford them anymore!

[AutumnFairy01]

Firstly, this isn't to do with not giving to charity. I give to charity separately and donate items to local homeless charities, food banks, etc but I've always loved supporting charity shops too. They're great (or were great) for grabbing a bargain and reusing an unwanted item. I love secondhand wherever possible.

However, I've now come to the conclusion that charity shops are largely unaffordable for me now. I browse round charity shops weekly I would say (in more than one town) and the prices are just crazy! I always buy secondhand clothing for myself, dh and children but quite often the charity shop prices seem more expensive than buying new or at best, very little difference. For instance, in Chelmsford the other day, I went into the BHF shop and I saw a very simple baby's top, not designer or anything and it was £4! And then for adult clothing, I couldn't see anything below £6/7.

Boots sales and Facebook marketplace are my go to places more and more now. Sometimes freebay too.

I can understand charity shops putting their prices up a little with rising costs of everything but there has to be a balance surely?

AIBU to think charity shop prices are unrealistic for secondhand items?

Are they becoming unaffordable for anyone else?

The thing is, we all know when we go to a charity shop that what we are purchasing is second hand. None of us are saying that things shouldn't be £5 or £10 or more if it's something in good nick that was worth £40 plus when it was new. But if it's something that could or indeed can be bought for £4 brand new and the charity shop is now asking £6 for it then that feels like they are trying to rip you off. It's the pricing like new when much of the stuff is already worn (new with tags is quite rare round here), that feels like they expect you to cough up because it's for charity, with no regard for the fact that most of us are looking to save a bit whilst still trying to support worthy causes.......after all they work on donations, what they are given costs them nothing, yes there are processing costs before it can be resold. But when we get asked for donations and then expected to pay twice what you would on eBay then it no longer feels like a cyclical thing that benefits everybody and I know that it shouldn't be viewed like that but I've realised as I type this out that that's how I feel about it.
I donate to charity so that somebody else can make use of something that is no longer of use to me (plus it doesn't go to landfill) and the charity shop makes some money in the process. The high prices we're all bemoaning feel like they put a stop on that process and then presumably stuff gets binned or sold for scrap weight when it could still be useful.

Yes one of the charity shops here frustrates me too. It's one of the bigger national charity shops. It's all nicely laid out and organised but they often can't accept donations because they are too full. I think it's down to their pricing as they aren't shifting things fast enough. I donated a bag of kids clothes and noticed some items I donated were still there weeks later. Looked at the pricing and they wanted £3.50 each for age 2-3 tops that were from a multi pack from Sainsbury's so prob didn't cost much more than that brand new. People know the cost of things. I would expect things like that to be £1-1.50 max. I think if they priced stuff like that lower they would get the stock moving a lot more rather than just sat on the rails.

It’s funny how everyone is such an expert in how charities ought to operate in order to suit them.

Charities are bound by their constitution and charitable status to work to their best endeavour towards their stated aims. The shops ARE about the cause, not about running a secondary string of beneficiaries.

They are not dumping grounds for every cast off unsaleable item, and have to pay for disposable of bags of crap.

The CEO of a big charity needs to be experienced in how to address a crisis across complex international politics, challenging physical conditions, huge economies of scale etc. Yet there is constant carping about any overheads.

My eyebrows to rise when I see cheap clothing priced high in charity shops. Clearly some volunteers are not sure fait with ‘labels’. But then maybe lots of customers are happy to give a Primark T shirt another lease if life rather than pay £5 bus fare into town to buy a new one.

Have you politely pointed out to them the price of these items new? Maybe they don’t know?

I thought this exact same thing only yesterday. Shop near me (North, working class area, not near Alderley Edge!) has run of the mill Next t-shirts and tops for £5 or £6. Nothing special and it's not like the were unworn with the original labels still on.

I totally get they have to make up rent and increased energy costs but I've got a friend who used for IT at Poundland and he told me the average profit on each item was only 2p. But you seem enough things for 2p profit and it adds up. Like a PP said, some charity shops are raking it in by charging £1 for everything.

I noticed this recently when I went on a trawl of the many charity shops in our local town. I wanted old costume jewellery that I could take apart and re-use for a craft project. There wasn't much anywhere for less than £5 per item. I ended up in a 2nd-hand shop, it's a nice little shop as you can often find something unusual in there. And he has lots of junk jewellery - I ended up with about 15 things and it cost me £5 as it was all old broken stuff.
I would guess that charity shops would just throw out anything broken. I can see why their prices have gone up, they will all be paying more for heating & lighting their shops.

@SuperCamp exactly! Everyone insisting that these 'empty, over-priced' charity shops MUST be losing money, and would DEFINITELY make more money by selling lots of stuff for next to nothing 🙄

I do wonder why so many people think that any charity, which relies on the profits from their shops in order to do their charitable work, would deliberately choose to reduce their profits?

I think it is noticeable that it is the larger charities with experienced retail managers price higher and have a lower turnover - they are far more likely to have the systems in place to be continually monitoring performance and have the information to make pricing decisions that make maximum profit.

The smaller local charity with one or two shops doesn't have that information so relies on selling as much as possible. They are also more likely to have helping the local community in some way as their stated charitable aim, which provides a rationale for making cheap clothing etc available.

But if you want to support your local community rather than overseas aid or cancer research then donate your items to charities with the aim of supporting the local community, not to a charity whose reason for existing is overseas aid or cancer research.

Even better, set up your own clothes bank for local people who are on a low income, like these people theclothingbank.org.uk/Menu/Ourstory

Or volunteer with local organisations like this that collect, fix and distribute furniture and laptops donslocalaction.org/

I would guess that charity shops would just throw out anything broken

We sell broken jewellery in ziplock bags, marked for craft. But in general yes, broken stuff can only ever be thrown away, and it costs us money to get rid off. Please think about that before handing us headless dolls and your chipped mugs.

What I don't understand is how you- and many others in this thread- can continue to wilfully misunderstand the purpose of charity shops despite it being very clearly explained to you. Their sole purpose is to raise as much money as they can for their respective cause.
The prices in their shops reflect the highest price they can charge for those items. They would be doing wrong by these causes if they were to charge less. And no doubt however poor you are, that starving child in Sudan deserves charity more than you.
Yes the cost of living crisis is affecting many people. Blame the Tories, blame covid, blame the banks, blame Sunak, but don't blame charity shops.
Could I suggest if you are worried about the cost of things in shops, you direct that anger to the largest retailers eg Tescos and Sainsburys, with multibillion pound turnovers and shareholders, not charity shops making a difference to the most deserving of causes.

Well tbh it did cross my mind to mention they were selling close to brand new prices for some of the kids clothes particularly the boys clothes I noticed but don't want to offend. I suppose if things don't move they reduce the price after a while? It's just a bit frustrating that they often have to decline donations of good quality items. Surely selling 3 items quickly marked at £1.50 each is better than one item marked at £3.50 sitting there for a month?

YANBU same with kids toys. I bought a huge box of megablocks from our local about a year ago for £6, same place now selling the little bags, that have bits missing and are dirty for £8, insane.

Went to my local shops yesterday. The really good one was low on stock but I managed to find a linen Boden shirtdress for £1, Boden jeans in excellent condition £3 and a pair off Carhartt trousers for £8.

Their sole might by to raise money for their causes but there wouldn’t be such a business if there were not so many struggling people depending on them. They thrive on the financial misfortune of their clients.

We have the same problem then not reading the room, you seem to find it very difficult to notice that this thread is about people struggling to afford second hand clothes that they could afford before, not about the charities causes.

Get a cow for Christmas, but get it for yourself, nobody who is financially struggling would ever appreciate such thoughtless gift.

of not off.

They thrive on the financial misfortune of their clients.

I'm sorry but this has to be the thickest comment I've ever read about charity shop and charities. And this is speaking as someone who has given their own time to volunteer in one for a few years.

The thread seems to be about people mistakenly thinking that charity shops should accept less money than something is actually worth, and thereby raising less money then they could for their cause, just because some on this thread feel entitled to reductions.

I don't seem to understand why you're aiming all of your anger about the cost of living crisis at charities, and not those who caused it: the Conservative party, covid and Putin.

i bet the primark one is totally polyester

I think given that oxfam spends its money on paying pimps so its staff can rape children in poverty stricken countries, and then covering it up at the highest level, a single penny that goes towards its 'causes' is a penny very badly spent.

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/15/timeline-oxfam-sexual-exploitation-scandal-in-haiti

They thrive on the financial misfortune of their clients.

The clients of BHF are people with heart conditions, and they help their clients through research .

The clients of Oxfam are people in poverty - whole families and communities starving to death-type poverty.

The clients of the Cats Protection League are cats.

Shops of second hand goods exist because they are a way of raising money to support their clients. They are not responsible for fixing the problems caused by, as the PP has pointed out, the Tories, COVID and Putin (I would include Brexit in that list, that's another argument!).

You are perfectly free not to donate to Oxfam, and not to shop in their shops.

They are still not obliged to provide people on a low income in the UK with cheap clothes. In fact, they are obliged to make as much money as they can from what is donated.

Not defending the actions of some people working for Oxfam in Haiti as what they did was indefensible. There was aa culture AT THE TIME in the charity sector of allowing people to leave quietly rather than sacking them, therefore enabling them to take other jobs and potentially do the same thing. A lot has changed in the intervening 11 years.

Those of us volunteering in the sector do take issue though with statements which infer that the charity was organising child abuse for its staff, or using donations to do so, as this was very much not the case. But it's a great get out clause for anyone who never intended donating or volunteering with charity anyway - they're all corrupt rapists innit? Similar logic would also be that anyone who paid a licence fee to the BBC in the 70s was responsible what Saville and the rest of them were up to.

Shops of second hand goods exist because they are a way of raising money to support their clients. They are not responsible for fixing the problems caused by, as the PP has pointed out, the Tories, COVID and Putin (I would include Brexit in that list, that's another argument!).

Yep. This is what it boils down to.

Now it may well be the case that some charity shops are generally getting their pricing wrong relative to what the market can bear. And there are bound to be mistakes, examples of incompetence etc. You'd expect that.

But people need to get it out of their heads that they're entitled to clothes at a particular price as a matter of principle, or that shops have any ethical obligation to facilitate that. The willingness of many posters to assume that shops are getting it wrong whilst clearly not actually having enough information to make that call probably stems more from a desire for a bargain than anything else.

Well the smugsplaining posters on here have no doubt further reduced their profits by "wilfully" repelling many of their customers on this thread. Well done loves! 👏👏👏

The shops in our chain which do the best are the shops in the leafy areas or the studenty areas. It's been discussed on here dozens of times that the affluent middle classes are far happier to use second hand or share hand me down clothes for kids because they are secure in their own skins and have no fear of being judged - it's the less well off people who shun second hand and go to Primark for new instead. In general. So our stores do very well in the University area with students trying to develop their own style and stand out from the crowd, or who are trying to save the planet. And in the leafy suburbs, we have no shortage of people happy to spend £8 on a second hand Phase Eight or Cos jumper.

The only shop we have in the city centre - paying high rents - is a specialist bookshop. They usually get the rare and antique books which we probably wouldn't shift in our shop, and the specialist ones on art etc. They do really well - they sold a first edition the other day for almost £1k.

I stopped donating used items to charities when I realised a lot of things are not resold but end up going in the rag bag for recycling. I now sell on vinted instead, on the basis things are more likely to be reused if people pay for the item. I rarely buy new anymore and what I receive from selling I use on vinted to refresh my wardrobe.

I also understand that charity shops are in business to raise money for their cause, but they also sit in the High Street and are part of the community who help them to exist by volunteering. They need to remain mindful that if the prices are too high the customers will find other platforms from which they can buy. And the volunteers may feel the charities do operate for dual purposes and not appreciate them failing to recognise that.