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 used to regularly shop for clothes in charity shops but have found that they have got really expensive plus I know which brands I like so it is far easier to search on ebay rather than spend time which I don't have trawling around town.I do use charity shops for bric a brac or if I am looking for something specific for the kitchen such as a spaghetti spoon and I got a lovely big copper bottomed stainless steel pan from the YMCA for £3.

Trust me, I was very creative! I’ve owned a 20 bedroom Country House Hotel (4* highly commended,) and a restaurant in the past, so I know a little bit about running a business. The trouble was, senior management didn’t, in fact I wouldn’t leave them to run a bath! Did not know how to move the business forward, did not know how to market, same old tired offerings and crappy posters in the windows that nobody looked at, did not know how to create a customer experience, were not in the customers headspace, instead kept on with their deluded dream that customers were actually supporting the charity first and foremost. There is a small percentage that do, especially national charities like cancer snd heart, however smaller charities have a more local appeal and when you open lots of shops miles away from the charity base, the message is diluted, as locals support whatever is more relevant in their own locale. Charity shoppers are mainly out for themselves, to get a bargain, therefore making the shop inviting, exciting, well ordered and well merchandised snd well priced is the way to go. Customer retention and attracting new customers is the name of the game! There is soooo much that can be done and I did everything I could think of, even buying props with my own money! I left in utter frustration and they ripped out everything I’d done, and everything the customers loved because it didn’t fit their dreary image. I’d even put up pictures, old black and white photos, mirrors and shelving and cushions on a bench in the fitting room. Everyone loved it! The charity were clueless!

BTW I only retired 18 months ago and I don’t think the landscape has changed that much in that time. Also low cost outlets are losing their appeal as there is a growing realisation they are unsustainabe, and often depending on sweat shop labour. At the same time there is a huge awareness now of pre loved and it’s benefits and sustainability.

My own opinion is that many charity shops are breaking the unspoken social convention that as well as raising money for the charity ( their primary purpose obviously) they also provided a source of cheap and affordable clothing to the less well off. It wasn't that long ago that it was embarrassing to be caught buying from a charity shop. It meant you were poor and couldn't afford to do otherwise.

That is now going out of the window. Charity shops are appearing as the big businesses they are especially with all the brand new stock they buy in. Donors are annoyed if they don't get full value *(whatever that is) for the items, middle class customers want bargains and the traditional clientele are completely priced out. No one is happy.

I make a point of buying nothing of their bought in stock and some I don't go in as they price too high. Oxfam bookshops often charge more than you can get a copy for new on Amazon!

My own opinion is that many charity shops are breaking the unspoken social convention that as well as raising money for the charity ( their primary purpose obviously) they also provided a source of cheap and affordable clothing to the less well off

Yes I agree with this entirely.

Like the shoes I saw for £50 in the charity shop...it's next to Poundland....they sell shoes in there for £5. The charity shop is for the middle class

Your shop sounds amazing!

Sounds like they were hung up on homogeneous branding and scared to deviate from the standard corporate model

Totally! every shop,on every high street, in every town, to look the same. The biggest joke was that they had no brand! No investment in the shops, and some had the original 25 year old blue branding, badly faded with old logo, some had a mix of faded blue and the shocking pink of the new logo, and very few had the shops painted white with the pink. The blue paint was down to the bare wood on mine so, I had two great volunteers willing to help me paint the exterior and interior faded green (lovely) so I got some white paint donated by a local shop and I paid for the rest. Not a word of thanks and they didn’t even put the new logo up after I’d got the shop in line with the new colours!!! I tried to get them to embrace experiential marketing but they didn’t understand how to gain brand loyalty! I started posting on Insta and fb with seasonal on trend windows, and nothing was acknowledged! I started a comments book on the counter, 95% positively glowing. I could have done so much more as I realised we had to overcome a very poor location too. Their loss! I had the ideas, experience and energy!😉

The problem is resellers. Charity shops figured out that people were buying cheap and selling for more because of all the videos so they decided to cut out the middle man

Moira1951
Your shop sounded lovely.

There's one that I shop at regularly who have taken a similar approach, their stock is good, prices are slightly higher but I like shopping there because I'm likely to find something and it's a nice experience.There's another that a not as nice an experience and stock is more hit and miss, but their prices are lower and I don't mind that either. Both get my custom.

The ones I don't like as much, so don't shop in, are the ones who've seemed to Mary Portas themselves without much thought. (Eg. Huge hike in prices without the shop being that nice, inconsistent prices with lower end high street and supermarkets particularly overpriced, merchandise organised in a way that's not intuitive, weird displays of stuff). Give me a bog standard racks by size to go through any day over a half designed in an illogical way store

If you're ever in the Bournemout area, Julia's House Hospice shops are fantastic, particularly the showroom at Creekmore, in Poole.

The merchandising is creative, seasonal and brilliant. It's great for a bargain but also a lovely shopping experience. If we have friends staying, we always take them there - everyone loves it!!

This is how to do it.

https://www.juliashouse.org/shops

Also many years have passed since charity shops started growing in number. And, consequently, the stuff in them now will be “newer”.

i.e. when an Oxfam opened in my home town in the 80s I was buying high-quality “trendy” clothes which had clearly belonged to recently-passed ladies. I bought a fox fur, a 1920s cloche hat, a wool 1960s suit… (I wish I’d kept all my clothes!!)

But now people’s cast-offs are generally not even M&S - not many people want old Primark, Florence&Fred or even Fat Face… twenty or even thirty years ago now is when cheap supermarket etc stuff became the majority’s attire.

What do rich people do with their clothes? I have no idea!

Oh how simplistic that is! Of course a manager could sit on the computer and post one Item for £35, but what about the other dozens of bags that she has to continually sort, to make sure the floor in The sorting room does not become one long tripping hazard for elderly volunteers. Of course donations should be put straight into a holding pen if possible, not so if they need to be marked up for gift aid, and often people come in with sack loads and just dump it on the shop floor and walk out! So while the £11.20 ph manager is splitting her time on the computer which is usually in the most inconvenient location, as managers are never asked where is the most suitable place, the shop has become bedlam! Also donations can be big, bulky, dirty, broken or things that can not even be accepted for sale, such as some baby equipment, riding helmets, duvets, pillows, bulky items where there is no room on the shop floor or storeroom. It’s not easy, I know!! Think you need to go back to the drawing board!