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?

Computers installed in all shops, why? They used to run just fine without them

You are seriously thinking that in 2022, a business can run without a computer? Let's all go back to 1950 with pen and paper do do the banking, we'll get a book out to look up the maker's marks on ceramics, we'll just not bother with social media at all and put up a few posters in the window, and perhaps use carrier pigeon to communicate with other shops and volunteers? And maybe handwrite receipts for customers?

There are lots of utterly ridiculous comments on this thread, this really takes the biscuit.

They are getting ridiculous. You can get cheaper new sometimes. I go to carboots and use vinted now as charity shops are so expensive. Even paying postage and buyer protection is less than buying from some of the charity shops. I can guess the electric, rents etc have a part to play in the crazy pricing though but it will drive people away.

Ok the "why computers" is actually ridiculous 😂

Not to mention the essential task of processing Gift Aid, which adds 25p to every £1 on eligible donations. Shops that don't collect Gift Aid or do so incorrectly or without secure data storage would be rightly pilloried.

Honestly, charities are seen as such monsters, aren't they? I really don't understand the joy so many people get in criticising charities in every which way.

I understand there are questionable practices. There are shocking examples of mis-management and even abuse.

But I firmly believe that the vast majority of uk charities operate fairly, legitimately, with good values and in the interest of the cause they support.

Wedding dresses are generally hard to sell, though, as they go out of style so quickly, are altered to fit specific people, and cost a lot to get cleaned. Also take up a LOT of space on a rail.

I agree with the OP I've been thinking exactly the same... Although I appreciate that the money is for great causes it also helps people (myself included, particularly at present...) who really can't afford to buy new stuff.
It also irks me a bit when they keep complaining that they get too many donations to deal with and also have to turn loads away. Surely if they charged more realistic prices they'd sell more and have a quicker turnover. Some of the ones near me seem to think they're antique dealers (not sure of the credentials) or something. I had to chuckle when I saw a vase I'd bought in Ikea for 50p priced at £5!! I'm just really grateful for a clearance shop near me where the clothes are £1.75 and similar low prices for household stuff etc. Unsurprisingly it's always packed with people and has a really quick turnover. A lesson for some of the others I think!

@Gardenglove but it doesn't always work like that, my DH runs a charity shop and 5 years ago it was changed to a £2, £3 shop yes it got more people in, but the quality of the donations went down, one donator in particular used to donate wonderful barely worn clothes and gift aided them as well, once she found her clothes would only be sold for £3 tops, she stopped donating which meant he lost out on gift aid revenue as well, reports sent from HO showed his position in the area league and his takings were lower than shops who charged usual prices when his shop changed back the quality of his donations went back up and that donator as well as others came back, his prices now are not silly prices or unrealistic higher prices and he is now the highest performing shop in an area of 30 odd shops and second in a region of 60 odd shops.

That is so weird.

It's almost as if people are too attached to their clothes to donate them, and too eager to be fleeced when it comes to buying.

I regularly find super brands in my local Goodwill, and bought all my cashmere there, as well as a lovely cashmere-wool blend coat and many luxury brand handbags. Maybe Americans value the convenience of having their donations taken straight from the boot of their vehicle by an assistant in the drive thru donation bay? Maybe there's more of an 'easy come, easy go' attitude?

Maybe it's the fact that British charity shops each support individual charities that may be close to donors' hearts that makes people so picky about donating and buying? If this is the problem then it's ultimately standing in fundamental opposition to the aim of the charity shops.

@Gardenglove , if their storage area and shop are full, where are they meant to put the donations? If they have no space, they have to turn them away. Some items are difficult to shift, no matter how cheap they are.

Charity Shop Managers only turn donations away when there is nowhere to store them, or no one to process them. Managers have to be very aware of tripping hazards and health and safety of their staff and volunteers before all else. It a huge responsibility and must be taken seriously. I’ve been in situations where you can’t turn round for stuff everywhere and I’ve had to turn donations away very reluctantly. What do you think I should have done??? Wait for an elderly volunteer to trip and break a hip! I just love the criticism by people who have no clue what managers have to cope with!

I would agree that nice things in the shop attract nicer donations. Where I volunteer the shop is neatly laid out, always seasonal, has good wooden hangers etc and a manager with a background in retail so knows how to display and what her customer wants. We attract excellent donations, high end high street up to designer pieces. Down the road is a pile ‘em high sell it cheap jumble sale of a charity shop and I would say they have a different customer base. Their stock is not as nice, not well displayed and tends to be lower end brands. Horses for courses!

Computers aren’t generally needed. Think of the cost to the charity with 20/50 shops, plus installation and WiFi plus printers that are never used. Actually the tills are electronic and produce receipts. Having to print out price tags takes twice as long as writing one, and if you need to contact other shops you can pick up the phone, but you don’t often need to. Most emails are ‘send to all’ by people who don’t take the time, then I have to waste my time going through tons of stuff that often doesn’t even apply to shops. I don’t have time to sit around checking emails. It’s a very physical non stop job. Often no lunch break or or even a loo break! I can check prices on my phone, so what exactly to I need a computer for?

To be frank, I donate clothes to help local people in need. I am not fussed at all by what their cause is.

Having said that… I choose the charity shops to donate to on the basis of parking availability.

I tend to take mine to the nearest one, it's a national one, but a good cause.
I was in there once and saw the manager give a local woman who was in need something to put on immediately. He's a nice chap.

The shops near me are cheap, and not all the people shopping there are poor. I buy a lot and donate a lot.

If i have something to donate that I'd prefer to raise more money or i don't want to see someone wearing it, I might take it to a more expensive shop.
If I find things like a coat, cardigan, scarf or hat in the street, i wash them and donate them.

GardenGlove Have you actually read the thread? Many of us who work in charity shops have explained over and over again that, in most cases, price is not the issue. If people like the items we put out, at a fair price, they will sell. I frequently have to turn donations away due to lack of space but I know, from years and years of retail experience that even if I reduce items to £1 each they will just not sell. I have a good turnover of stock in my shop, lots of regular customers and a happy team of volunteers ... and have more than doubled the profit of my charity shop in the years I have been there ... the main problem I am sure many of us face is dealing with the shocking quality of some of the donations we receive. I would love to know what the thinking is behind the person who donates dirty clothes, old socks, chipped crockery, broken toys, stained books etc etc?

Computers absolutely viral for gift aid administration, printing bar codes etc. Thus raises 25% extra for the charity on every item sold. And electronic till with card reader. Do you propose going back to the paper slips with carbon copies for card sales?

Gift aid barcodes are generated through the electronic till and printed out on the label printer attached to the till. Everything is recorded on EPOS. We did all this before computers were installed. BTW I’m perfectly aware of what gift aid is and what it generates. I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel!

My point is that the electronic till IS a computer!!

And my point is, that the larger charity organisations at least, even my small hospice one, are putting COMPUTERS and PRINTERS that are not needed into the shops, and they are never used!. Read carefully!

Maybe they're putting computers and printers into the shops to enable the managers to do essential managerial admin such as gift aid processing, payroll returns, dbs checks, budgets, responding to emails, printing out notices, researching pricing trends, accessing online training etc etc etc?

We use the computer, printer every single shift. Multiple times. This idea that we could save money by going back to the 1970s is very odd indeed.

Do you mean the computerised EPOS till and attached label printer? Of course that is used all the time. I’m talking about a separate laptop and printer!!! Totally unnecessary!

Newsflash - not all EPOS tills are the same!

Ours is not attached to the till. It's attached to a separate computer. Our ancient, rickety till which regularly crashes with the blue screen of death, runs on some old version of Windows and hasn't been changed since I started there about 8 years ago. It is used for ringing up purchases, doing refunds, scanning gift aid labels and that is it. There is no printer attached to it - just the receipt printer.

Gift aid labels are generated on a whole other system. I'd also love to know how volunteers who don't have a smartphone access online training and look up potentially valuable items online using the till? Or how the manager does the daily figures and banking? Using a personal smartphone? Because that's all levels of compliant, isn't it?

I mean. There are lots of ways in which arguably shops could cut costs. Ditching the computer is not one of them. And btw, our shop computer isn't some fancy Apple laptop. It's a rickety old desktop which takes weeks to boot up and until very recently ran on windows 7.

My top way of cutting costs would be to slash the amount of stuff which is only fit for the bin which people see fit to donate and which we then have to pay to be taken away.

Yes that would be one way to save costs. I was talking to two Australian Salvo Shop Managers, that’s what they’re called there, and they told me when someone comes in, they go through what the donor has brought and say, yes I’ll take that, and hand the rest back! That is what we should be doing to teach the public they can’t put soil nappies, soiled underwear, clothes matted with dog and cat hair in a bag and expect us to take it because they are to lazy to go to the dump! The point about computers is, that many charities. are paying to put laptops and printers in shops where they already have EPOS TILLS. it’s crazy, and not needed. If they wanted to do anything it would be cheaper to give a basic smartphone to managers, to text area managers when required, to phone other shops and ditch the landlines. Publish the mobile number on the website so customers can contact the shop. Also for looking up prices. The most money would be saved getting rid of useless people in HO who have never even visited a shop, however they feel they can make field decisions when they probably couldn’t even find the bloody field!

*@Moira1951' some charity shops are not allowed to do that my DH runs a charity shop and he is not allowed to refuse anything as donators just write to HO and complain, funny you should mention Salvo its Salvos and is actually the Australian name for the Salvation Army Charity shops we have in the UK, my DH also worked for them at one point and they had the same policy of not being able to refuse anything. One of the other points about tills Vs computers is if the manager is writing a report, looking something up or doing anything that takes time its best done in the back, doing it on the till would just inconvenience customers who are waiting to be served