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?

I should say as well that other than running gear I buy very few clothes new, most come from ebay. However, given the economic crisis, I have bought a few items from more ethical retailers in the last few weeks.

A few years ago we had a similar thread, I commented that charity shops are supposed to be for the charity and for the people who can't afford new but the later seems to have disappeared. I got a good old roasting.

Agree with this entirely.

Your comment is spot on @Darlingx

Times are not good just now and for the majority. To say Charity shops are too expensive is not a great place to be in. I know some don’t shop in Charity shops but lots have no option and it’s sad the prices are prohibiting those in need.
I refuse to shop in the greedy Charity shops.

But again - why is it a race to the bottom? Why should charity shops be the cheapest shops on the high street? If Primark can knock out t-shirts for a quid, why should charity shops selling decent quality non-Primark second hand have to compete with that?

That just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what charity shops are for.

Yeh, the customer is not the charity in this transaction. The charity shop is the charity. It's so obvious but a lot of people miss this "nuance"

People don't want it to be cheaper than primark though.
Unless it's used primark clothes or absolute basic used clothes.

AutumnFairy01

Thank you for creating this thread . I am going through the very same experience

It's where they r selling primark stuff for more or the same that's the problem why would anyone want to buy or buy 2nd hand primark clothes when they can buy actual primark new clothes for same or cheaper.

Of course they want it to be cheaper.

Why bother going in there when you can afford new for less or the same for less on line

Its not like charity shops pay anything for the goods they sell. They have cheaper rates and probably a cheaper rent etc
They aren’t competing against Primark as that would be having them buying what they sell and paying rates, tax etc like other high street stores.

Why shouldn’t they be cheaper

It makes no sense even for the charity to be stuck with rails and rails of clothing and goods at unrealistic prices

Yes a Monsoon dress might eventually sell for £20 but if it takes 30 days to sell it then that is 29 days that 29 other dresses could have been hanging on that rail making £1 or £2 each day.

As a business they have to look at what the customer wants. No good having a shop with price tags that no one can afford. That doesn’t put cash in the till

People who go in there are looking for a bargain. Not to leave empty handed because they can buy on line for cheaper.

Charity shops like businesses need customers. If people stop going in because it gets too expensive then the business/charity suffers.

If they aren’t there to service the customer then where is the money going to come from if there are no customers

In Morecambe there's the wolfwood and st John's hospice clothing charity shop, everything is £1, there also another £1 st John's hospice shop in Lancaster. I've just been to St Annes and Lytham St Anne's and had a nosy in all the charity shops...£8 for a Primark coat, £40 for a barbor jacket, £12 for a non designer blouse... basically insane prices. If I can recall there's a 99p Barnardo's in Blackpool.

I remember going to Bridport in dorset in 2014, and charity shops selling little porcelain knick nacks for £6, the same in Morecambe would be £1.50 at the time. I think charity shops in more affluent/wealthy areas are simply more expensive because the shop assumes that the locals can afford to spend more. I think they've also cottoned on to how much money can be made, where in the past second hand meant poor, now it's seen as pre.loved, or vintage..it's definitely harder to get a bargain, and sometimes I've seen what appears to be comparatively wealthy people buying 5+ items from £1 charity shops, and wondered if they are just after a bargain too? Some people buy from the shop and sell for a profit on fb marketplace...

Why bother going in there when you can afford new for less or the same for less on line

Off the top of my head....

because you hate fast fashion
because you don't want to support Shein
because you want something nobody else has got
because sustainability is important to you
because you'd rather have cotton second hand than polyester new

and so on.

I went past one in my local high street today... unfashionable part of outer London. There was a Whistles handbag for £25. A Ralph Lauren wallet for £55...!

Resellers are not the problem. They buy the stuff. The charities pocket the money.

Resellers are showing charity shops what they should be doing if they were smart, but they are not smart so they keep on plugging away doing what they're familiar with, with diminishing returns.

The physical shop model of doing business is out of pace with the times.

Charities should sell online. There is clearly a market for decent quality second hand stuff out there, while the brick and mortar model has serious limitations. Selling online is the only way to maximise profits.

I always mention Goodwill, the American thrift chain, on threads like this, but they sell online as well as in brick and mortar stores.

Many charities do sell online.

But this takes time, needs stock, a space to store, equipment, sufficient staff/volunteers to be able to respond to prospective buyers' questions and then post, site near to post office etc. ie not dissimilar to a charity shop.

Many charities do sell online. But this takes time, needs stock, a space to store, equipment, sufficient staff/volunteers to be able to respond to prospective buyers' questions and then post, site near to post office etc. ie not dissimilar to a charity shop.

Exactly that. If I price something for £10 and someone buys it, takes it home, photographs it from every conceivable angle, lists it online, deals with time wasters and queries, chases payment, packages it up, schlepps to the post office and the deals with all the returns for an extra few quid then good luck to them.

In the time it would take me to do all that, I could have priced bags and bags of donations. Some of the very expensive or niche items do go online. It's unlikely that someone's going to come into our shop and want to spend £200 on a rare book, but if we put it online, we're advertising to a wider audience. It's just not practical or desirable to list everything.

Hospice shop I visited today was reasonable

I think if it local you get a more sensible pricing structure

You entirely miss the point. A lot of charities sell online which is another reason most average shops are only full of tat as the good stuff goes online.

And just to educate you Goodwill is not a charity! However their business model is to be affordable for the buyer and also plagued by resellers.

Resellers are why eBay is so over priced now and why you can’t actually find anything nice in charity shops these days as they cream it off daily and leave nothing for those that can’t afford new/full price as those people are not able to spend all day every day trawling every charity shop in a 200 mile radius.

@Gazelda

You're talking about small scale operations and the same sort of staff that you get in charity shops now.

I'm talking about one big central warehouse and staff who are paid to do the online selling, with all the shipping handled by couriers.

The money saved by eliminating all the middle management currently employed by national chains and the overheads of running hundreds of unprofitable shops would pay for the warehouse and staff, and sellable merchandise would generate more money.

The huge advantage of online selling is that you get a far bigger market.

Also Goodwill and the likes in the US has regular sales on certain days or for certain people like a seniors discount on a certain day or discounts on certain ticket colours as they often are colour coded.

And Goodwill had huge huge stores some bigger than large UK supermarkets so really not comparable and they also have huge free parking lots.

Charities do sell online.
BHF, Save the Children, Air Ambulance etc do really well on Ebay.

Again, all these on-line experts. Obviously charity shops are deliberately turning their backs on higher profits by pricing things too high.

Alternatively, they have worked out and constantly monitor the maximum profit from the inputs (including staff/volunteer time).

Charity Retail is over managed by HO!! They make an already hard job, harder. You have to account for every donation, list how many bags were processed in a day, count them in, count them out. Computers installed in all shops, why? They used to run just fine without them. Check emails every day, and any requests from HO. Print out price tickets rather than write them. So you have to write out in pencil, then go to the till or computer to print out a bar coded price tag! Why? Also, too many fat cats in head office on large salaries, who have no clue how the shops run, or how hard it can be, and we are paid a pittance. Usually £1 over the living wage….if you’re lucky. I managed a shop, freezing in winter, boiling in summer. Back room covered in black mould too! Won’t pay for an extraction system, yet we are steaming clothes all day! In summer it’s a killer. Won’t pay for air con or proper heating, yet the staff in HO have every convenience and subsidised cafeteria. I usually worked straight through without a break, or grabbed a sandwich when I went out to do the banking. Often on my own all day, as no volunteers. Did they care? NO! Managers have no say in how the shops are run, we’re not asked. I left and would not work in a charity shop ever again. Totally exploited and I put my all, into my shop, even totally painting it, at my cost, inside and out as they’d done nothing in 15 years!!!!