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 don’t think it shows that the pricing structure is ‘daft’ rather that mistakes get made. Often when I volunteer I am the only person on the shop floor, operating the till, helping customers, checking a delivery of new goods or doing markdowns - am not complaining as I like to be busy, but if I am in the middle of doing something and then go back to the task after helping a customer it’s possible I may make a mistake.
where I volunteer if a customer spots something that is not right eg small hole in a clothing item we will always put it right and appreciate being told.

@FamilyTreeBuilder

'neither are the volunteers.''

More daftness.

Volunteer choose to be there and to perform tasks to help the run these shops and there is usually a paid manager and assistant manager to supervise everything.

Are you really suggesting customers should do the pricing/displays as well?

Seems common sense is in short supplies these days...

I was talking to a member of staff about the job. Most charity shop staff have retail experience, but running a charity shop js very different.

The physical effort needed is surprising. Our premises are on two floors, so all donations have to be carried upstairs for sorting, steaming, or washing and pricing, then back downstairs for display. There is no guarantee of stock. One week we might have lots of clean, saleable items. The following week’s donations might mainly go to the ragman, or in the bin. Paying drivers to pick up collections is expensive, often for little return.

We had a manager who’d sold clothing, they knew all the brands and prices. Other staff learnt a lot! Another knew about ceramics, and we have a volunteer who can spot a hallmark from several paces. But not everyone who prices will be an expert in every field, so if we overprice, things won’t sell.

I enjoy volunteering, I love the feedback from regular customers and donors. I’d say to anyone with time to spare, try volunteering!

Yes we choose to be there but we are not "staff". The shop I am currently in has no staff at all, it's entirely volunteer run, with oversight from a regional manager based 200 miles away.

I oversee a small clothing charity shop. It's not my only job in my role, but part of it. We have great donations. We have universal pricing. A top is £3. If it's Primark or Whistles - it's the luck of the find (or picking according to taste). I'm quite ruthless with what we stock. We have a great local 'rag man' who gives us money for clothing we can't sell. We own the building, so our only outlay is electricity, which I understand gives us more leeway with our pricing.

Still good value around here although there are a few items that I consider to be overpriced.
Last week I bought a pair of cords, two pairs of good quality leggings and a tunic top for £14. All were like new.

There is an article in the local free newspaper this week about the nearest branch of the Cat’s Protection League using the top floor of their premises to house a dedicated ebay team of volunteers. This was originally used for retail space so now they have half the amount of stock available and they are quite open that they are cherry picking the best donations for ebay.

Whilst this may make commercial sense for them I doubt I’ll bother going in much in the future.

@Elphame They've - quite rightly imo - been doing this for years. It helps maximise the benefits of good donations to charities. I'd much rather they did this and encouraged quality donations, with those giving knowing that the value of their donations is appreciated. You can still pick them up on ebay at a more realistic price, or if it's overlooked bargains you're hoping to find, stick to jumble sales.

They can make their choice and I can make mine!

Pricing isn’t everything. I paid £75 for a pair of boots from a charity shop the other day. If I go into one I want to see at least some decent stock.

Charity shops tread a fine line. If there are never nice things to buy at any price then I don’t go in.

Local charities here dump their crap for nothing at the tip too

Well it's not their crap, it's the crap the general public have dumped on them.

Precisely!

Yes! Primark stuff for £4-£5 when is maybe £7 new! Kids books £3 when I can get books in Poundland... ridiculous, I have had a look a few times in my local ones and always walk empty handed...

@KirstenBlest no, that doesn't match the description of my shop/ town.
As you say though, it must be great for charity shops on retail parks to benefit from free customer parking whilst regular shops in towns are penalised by parking charges.

I don’t think charity shop workers are thieves or thick, but they should at least listen to customers who are giving their opinion on here, rather than belligerently stating that “that is the way we do things.” Everyone should be able to accept a bit of feedback.

I agree that using eBay as a price match is beyond silly. Ebay has a global audience and, if you are selling, say, an LP, it has to be in perfect condition (or at least very honestly described). Use eBay to identify unfamiliar brands/bits of ceramic by all means, but setting prices based on aspirational listings of dissimilar items can’t be good practice.

Perhaps it depends on the charity? Some have more 'hands one management, and HO pushing for sales etc.

I volunteer and have in the past pulled items off the shelf to reprice when other staff have marked too high or too low. If in doubt we are supposed to go to the original retail price and work down. So, for example, a designer label t shirt that would retail at £45, we would price at around £20 depending on condition. If it hadn't sold within three weeks we'd review and price down. Primark tops generally are sold by us at around £1.50.

I think charity shop volunteers and staff do try to explain how things work in this sector. to address some of common statements made on here:
we have costs that have increased too and therefore prices have gone up
we sometimes make mistakes and a damaged item will end up on the shop floor
donations might not be accepted as we have no space to sort as waiting for rubbish/rag to be collected
the good stuff gets put on eBay- in my shop some goes onto eBay immediately and some items we will try on the shop floor and then put on eBay. It’s a balance between having vg quality donations in the shop and maximising the price.
sell everything for £1 - I don’t think this is fair on the donors and we would not have enough volunteers to sort though the amount of stock we would need to do this
money all goes to CEOs - there is complete financial transparency available and you can see exactly how much is raised, the expenses and what the money is used for.
we do have to pay for rubbish to be collected so please don’t donate unwanted crap
we don’t take all the good stuff- your good stuff is probably not my good stuff
I don’t think anyone on here has been belligerent despite some of the incredibly unpleasant comments and accusations.

I donate a lot of good stuff to a charity shop but that would end immediately if I ever thought they were charging the same price for a Primark top as a Ralph Lauren top (for example). Any manager that does that should be fired - charities only get tax breaks because of their charitable purpose, and in 99.99% of cases their charitable purpose is not to enable people to buy dirt cheap designer clothes. Therefore it is on the manager to maximise profit for hospices or cancer research or Romanian orphans or whatever their charitable purpose is, and if they don’t think locals can afford to pay a fair price for a designer item then they should put it on Ebay.

There aren't always the resources to put it on eBay. You need someone to handle the sale, the postage and so on.

What I get from this thread is that people used to be quite fond of charity shops, which once felt like they were serving a need in the community they were part of, but nowadays feel increasingly corporate. And as a result that affection is waning.

I totally agree. They have become corporate. The chance find, the hidden gem, the old dear behind the counter who took your coat off your back and let you have the £20 one off the rack with a £5 discount- I remember those days fondly and they are mostly gone. Old habits die hard though and I keep looking, usually more in hope than in expectation. Once in a blue moon I make a good find. A lot of charity shops seem to pitch their prices by looking at eBay and charging the Buy it Now price. It’s still marginally worth looking as you save the postage fee and the hassle of discovering it doesn’t fit you.

Yes I agree with the pp. There's no real bargains or hidden gems to be found anymore. Obviously why would they sell something cheaper than it's worth. It makes sense I suppose...but finding a bargain was often part of the allure of a charity shop

Yes, I went into a charity shop recently and saw a very ordinary M&S jumper for £25 and a pair of really worn, scuffed shoes for £10. Ridiculous!

There was someone upthread who said they are guided by the original rrp and then condition when pricing items. It was not far off 50% of rrp. New clothes are expensive but second hand don't retain value for me. I'd only really consider 10-20% of original price. Luckily there are lots of people on vinted that sell nice things within my budget.

With BNWT stuff of course you're guided by what it says on the original tag, which anywhere i have worked is a third of the original. So the STARTING POINT for a £99 coat would be £33. But that is just a starting point not a hard and fast rule, so if it's July and the demand for winter coats is low, knock a bit off, bit more off if it's wildly unfashionable etc etc.

Nobody has time to be looking up the prices for every item of second hand clothing which is sorted.

@NonPlayerCharacter It’s not difficult to sell on eBay once you get the hang of it. Vinted is even easier - you don’t even have to stick a label on it or pay postage.
However if literally nobody in the shop is able or willing to bother with eBay then the manager should pass expensive items to a dress agency that specialises in them, and take the commission. Or a branch of the same shop chain which has more affluent customers.

I am pretty speechless, honestly, reading some of these comments. Have people never heard of rent, utilities, IT, inflation, insurance etc? None of that is going to get paid for by pricing designer tops for £1, like they did in the 1980s.