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?

@Moira1951 You were wasted on them! I hope you’ve found somewhere where your efforts are appreciated.

My husband used to collect these hardback car manuals. I saw one in Oxfam for, what I thought said, £2.99. When I got to the til the lady said it was actually £21.99!! I obviously didn't buy it. I could have bought it brand new for cheaper than that!

The BHF shops are always mega overpriced, I don't bother going in them. The local hospice ones around where I live are much better value.

I agree, we have four charity shops in our tiny high street and all have much-inflated prices. One even had a designer coat for over £100, which was in the window for several weeks. I used to enjoy picking up a bargain whilst supporting the charities but now just reduced to browsing. I find better deals on ebay.

I totally agree. In a ome areas of the UK, charity shop prices have sky rocketed!! In fact I was in one with my mum the other day, and after looking at a couple of items I went up to what I thought was my mum (from behind) and said quietly in her ear “let’s go, this place is extortionate!!” To my horror a stranger squealed and ran away from me, and I realised my mum was on the other side on the shop 😂 😂

It's amazing that everyone things the big chains lie BHF, Oxfam and Cancer Reasearch are over priced.

www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/uks-largest-charity-retailers-revealed-in-league-table.html

Shows that BHF's 724 shops generate £176.4 million a year - that's on average over £4500 per week, per shop. The average Oxfam is taking over £2750 a week, the average Cancer Research similar.

So there are clearly plenty of people more than happy to buy their "vastly inflated" prices, therefore they aren't "vastly inflated", are they? And it's also amazing that these chains are doing so well, given that all of us who volunteer in any of them are stealing all the "good stuff" every time we set foot in the door. 🙄

I agree. The tv show Mary Portas did where she went into the traditional old charity shops and tried to do a big glossy retail makeover on them did them all a huge disservice. They stopped being a home for volunteers and it all got a bit competitive....not to mention the fact that they seem to have forgotten that its a two way service - not just to raise much needed income for the charities, but also to be of service to the communities around them.

These are from 2017. That's 5 years ago. People are complaining about relatively recent change

People complaining about prices in charity shops is not recent. A quick search on MN brings up identical threads from 2015, 2008, 2014, etc etc.

I feel like when I was a child in the 1980s, charity shops were more about helping people who couldn't afford brand new things, rather than just trying to make as much money for the particular charity. The 'charity' aspect was more about helping those in need who were using it.

Agree Family ... charity shop clearly make money, the model works - we have a lot of charity shops in our town... they all complement each other ... each one is slightly different and specialises in different things ... in fact a new charity shop is also opening soon.
If the charity shops were over charging & everything is being 'creamed off' by the volunteers the charity shops would close down surely?
Comedy as has been said endlessly on these threads a charity shop's purpose is to make money for the charity. Your 'recollection may vary' (to use the late Queen's words) but the reason why Oxfam opened one of the first charity shops in the UK approximately 70 years ago was to raise funds to help Greek refugees.

And here are more recent articles showing that charity shops are doing well, despite not running the way that Mumsnetters think they should.

www.statista.com/statistics/319953/charity-shops-sales-revenue-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

www.thirdsector.co.uk/incredible-almost-7-per-cent-rise-charity-shop-income/fundraising/article/1734472

Swampy charity shops aren't pricing themselves out ... if they were then there wouldn't be any left would there?

Of course some charity shops are badly managed ... and they will be closed down if they aren't profitable... but most do make money ... I can track the sales & profit figures for my charity shop for the last 10 years and have increased profits every single year .... so clearly I must be doing something right?

Comedy as has been said endlessly on these threads a charity shop's purpose is to make money for the charity

Yes I'm aware of that but decades ago, I remember my mum talking in hushed tones about her friend who was going through money troubles and having to buy clothes in charity shops. Shopping in charity shops had an element of shame to it...they were for poor people. Now it's trendy and the middle classes have embraced them meaning they can raise their prices.

I think there is a difference, when I look in charity shops I am not looking for a for example monsoon clothes cheap, but also I don't expect a primark or tesco clothes to be like £8 which I've seen them for. I think If it's higher quality it should be priced higher and if its lower it should be priced lower. I've just noticed when I look now and been looking in charity shops for years that now everything is like at £6/£8 which to me is just too expensive especially if I can buy same brand brand new tesco/primark for like £10.

Figures for 2020/21 are going to be hugely skewed anyway because of the pandemic. Our shop was closed March - end July 2020 (Scotland), again for 3 weeks in November 2020, then from Christmas Eve 2020 to about first week of April 2021.

And between July 2020 and April 2021, when we were open we had lots of rules about limited numbers in the shop and having to limit donations to quarantine them. Two years of trading like no other.

a poster complained they threw there stuff away as rag
can i point out charity shops actually get money for rags - so no waste there

These are the people who deal with our waste, and pay us per kilo.

live.ctrgroup.co.uk/

The take all textiles we can't sell (not just clothes, but bedding, tablecloths, soft toys etc), bric a brac, electricals, books. They even take old coat hangers and plastic bags for recycling.

Charity shop used to be where you could pick up bargains for example a DVD new costings £20 or more second hand would be in the charity shops for a couple of pounds or less. Now they are matching the second hand prices from other retailers.
I remember in the 90's getting a load of 7" singles for 10p each and albums for 50p each but now they want as much as the second hand retailers do.

I work in one not a million miles from you for a children's hospice. We don't set the prices, head office do. We have a list of which brands are which category and what to charge for that category. Most charity shops do the same so it's nothing to do with the age of the volunteers 🤣
Some of our prices for designer brands we know are unrealistic, those items generally get sent to the shop that is considered the most affluent area for sale as we know they won't sell for that in our market town (which is generally considered a fairly affluent area!) and other things that don't sell go to a different shop in a town considered a deprived area where they have a warehouse selling it all at £1/£2/£3

Thanks. I worked hard to make the shop a memorable destination, as we were poorly located. I bought plants to tap into the biopilia trend. The lighting was dreadful so I put up fairy lights. I colour coded everything. I bought a pretty white bench for display to put in the window, I made flower garlands. I bought a picture of our Victorian patron to hang behind the counter. I used pretty playing cards as price tags for premium items. I decorated the shop with paper Pom Poms. I was told it didn’t look like a charity shop and to take it all down!!! I just gave up after that. I’m 71, so that’s it for me, with charities st least.

Moira I am sorry that you had that experience, the charity I work for positively encourages initiative and individual 'looks' for different shops. I am not particularly imaginative so I struggle on that score but have some very good volunteers who do wonderful displays.

*@FamilyTreeBuilder I believe we work for the same charity and have 'met' on these discussions before .

All to do with rising rents and utilities for the shop. Prices can vary according to who prices the item, a 16 year old volunteer or elderly volunteer may not know the brands that are expensive as much as an adult who has worked in retail.Time consuming to look up. Every item on EBay for sold prices.

The charity has work to do providing for the nature of their particular emphasis - Children the elderly, political issues etc
Getting products free and working mainly with volunteers means I’m at a stage where I truly object to the high prices. Of course there is rent, bills and staff to be paid, although the wages are not high. So where does the money go! Well the CEO will not be having minimum rate. Of course if we pay low money we get rubbish at the senior management level.
We have a charity shop very near and often it says ‘No more donations today’
‘Do not leave donations when shop is closed as the bags may be stolen’

If there is a surplus then reduce the prices give the needy shoppers a thought by getting a bargain. Our local shop does actually have a bargain rail, by implication the other stock is not a bargain.
Oh it’s complicated but overall I do feel the prices are far to high for 2nd hand products.

Mary Portas has written a book about the kindness economy, stating exactly that, that it’s a circular economy. I’m an ex shop manager with many years experience, and people often come in every day, some never buy, they come in for a chat and just human contact. Volunteers are often widowed and want a sense of purpose and company for a few hours. My shop was certainly not over priced. Someone commented on a designer coat priced at £100. Well it may well have cost 4/5 times that new, and a synthetic M&S coat that won’t keep you warm, and will pull & bobble and look tatty after one season, would cost £75! I had £1 rail which was very popular too.