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 live in the SW and find there is a big difference in price between the shops. I still go in to look for stuff, but agree that a lot of the time the prices seem way too high. Im not financially dependent on them, but I often think of people who do rely on them for winter coats, shoes, interview and work outfits etc.

I also wonder about how much marketplace and vinted type places has affected donations? I'm just musing, but perhaps if someone can personally make even a small return by selling the better quality items on themselves, they may be more inclined to do that than donate them for free. We see it all the time on here when people ask for quick money making tips. Surely that leaves more of the cheaper items, which you won't make a profit on, being donated to the shops and then being marked up unreasonably? Im not declaring this as fact by any means- i just wondered if that could be changing the second hand market?

My local BHF clothes shop is becoming outrageously overpriced. T-shirt dresses (in this weather) at £12, coats at £18-£25 and racks of 'pretty little thing' plastic clothes that honestly look like tat that couldn't be given away from the retailer.

The furniture BHF is largely overpriced, but I have managed to get good bargains over the years.

and Barnado's? Having a laugh I'm afraid. Not even Primark used Tshirts for under 4 and a half squid a pop. 🤨

When they are sold they don't take up any space in the shop. Charity CEO salaries are a disgrace.

Well obviously they don't, the issue is the space they take up before they're sold. And CEO salaries are a separate point to whether charity shops are pricing their stock most efficiently.

Oh here we go again. 🙄

To repeat the points which are always made by people who work/volunteer in the charity sector on threads moaning about how expensive charity shops are:

1. The manager in all the big chain shops like BHF, Cancer Research, Barnardos, Oxfam will have ENDLESS information about their sales compared with last year, by department, average transaction value, compared with everyone else in the chain - if they see (for example) ladies' clothes are not selling, then they can reduce price.
2. Charity shops want to sell stuff. There seems to be this weird idea that we love nothing better than pricing "bobbly primark" for a tenner and looking at it in the shop for the next 6 months.
3. Charity shops which are not making enough money will be closed down.
4. We are doing a disservice to our donors by pricing a cashmere jumper at the same price as a cheapie acrylic one. It's our job to charge as much as we can and still sell it, not as little as we can.
5. There is not an endless supply of decent volunteers to keep processing and selling stock.
6. Quality of donations varies.
7. Mistakes sometimes get made when you have a shop open 60 hours a week and one paid member of staff contracted for 35.

I agree. The ones near me are insanely priced. Kids books are all £2. Great if it's a hardback, but they are charging the same per individual mr men book.

I volunteer with bhf and we have minimum pricing levels and they have all increased. We are not immune to price increases in rent and electricity hence the increases. We receive good quality donations and price accordingly: I am not going to sell a brand new white stuff dress (original price over £70) with tags for £10 when we can can get at least £20. As previous posters mentioned the objective is to raise money for the charity.

It seems to vary a lot likely depending on the manager and volunteers but our nearby BHF furniture shop is selling 3 piece suites from about £230. They are all steam cleaned with steam and clothes and sometimes done twice. A van delivery is £25 and is an independent man. Charges per mile after you leave the city which seems fair enough.
Fridges and freezers are immaculate and start about £60. My friend bought a washing machine for someone in need but it was making a terrible noise on spin so they exchanged it. Other items like stereos are about £25 and some crockery is very cheap.

Shelter seems to price things about right. Other shops like Cat’s Protection are quite expensive. I was on the hunt for two and three tiered cake plates for a village Jubilee Tea and their items were very expensive compared to others. They do have a prime place, large shop so it might be why.

I was in a nearby town charity shop and noticed the prices had definitely risen which is a shame when people need it more now but I supposed their regular money donations will have dropped so they have to make it up.

I would drop in to a charity shop as part of my job last year, and got friendly with the manager & her deputy, a charity with 4 capital letters in their name starting with a Y and ending A. This was in the area with the most poverty in a generally OK area, with the majority of families on the edge. They would be in despair at some of the edicts that came down from head office, which would expect the same campaigns to be run in the identical way in every shop ignoring local demographics. Think ignoring the differences between say Kensington and Dagenham "but they're both in London".

The area manager would come round every couple of weeks & check that their pricing was up to standard and often increase prices on things that had already not sold after weeks in the shop. They were expected to make the same profits as stores with the same square footage countrywide. They also paid their deputy manager minimum wage and the shop manager a whole pound an hour more.

The majority of "big" charity shops in the area tended to be comparatively expensive.

On the other hand, at a number of local charities (e.g. 8-10 branches in only one or two counties), often in very desirable towns & villages, the prices would be reasonable and I know at least one paid their manager a half decent wage. These were so popular that often I would miss dropping in because they were packed out with customers so would be too busy to chat - these charities actually trusted the managers to know their own area and clientele.

I was in one the other day and noticed there seemed to be a standard pricing for types of items. So jumpers were almost all £4 - a slightly bobbly primark jumper, £4, which seemed ridiculous, a long White Stuff jumper dress, also £4.

Someone had also donated a wedding dress and several bridesmaid dresses. £12-15! Such bizarre pricing.

If the issue is the space they take up before being sold then surely a lower price makes more sense? If you have 8 books and sell one for £2 that's great, but you still have 7 other unsold books.

Yes I've noticed it too.

I've always been a charity shop/second hand shopper but it's ridiculous now.

I've seen poor condition stuff from Primark that is being priced higher than it would've been new in Primark.

I know a younger mum who volunteers in one and she said she despairs of the manager of her shop, her justification is resellers are coming in buying cheap for depop. But she said depop sellers are looking for good condition and certain labels like vintage stuff, designer and things like Topshop, not crap stuff like Primark. She said a superdry coat was donated and had a small hole in the sleeve. She said a while back they would have put it for the rag collection but her boss told her to mark it at £15! It's still there weeks later.

I use vinted now. Far better and cheaper.

I donated a few bits last year to a charity shop, 1 item being a primark child's t-shirt that was actually third hand, but still in good condition, usually sold for around the £1-£2 mark in Primark.

Whilst there I spotted something that took my fancy, but didn't have my purse.

I popped back 2 days later to find the t-shirt on sale for £4 and with a label noting it was now half price (£4 being the new price)!

I felt a bit uneasy knowing that the price of the t-shirt was a touch high, but even more so knowing that the shop had lied about the half price to make it sound like a good deal as unless it was £8 for 1 day there was no way it was half price.

It has put me off that shop now, I still donate as and when I can and will still have a look around, but do tend to go elsewhere.

Likewise! I must use the same shops as you. Charity shop winter coats on the high street started at £12. Many were £20. Tbh I can get cheaper and more choice on vinted.

It does also reflect the increase in pricing of new items. A young childs jumper or dress in sainsburys can be £15 now, and don't kid yourself the retailer is making a huge margin on it either. It's more expensive because:

• the poor sods making it in Bangladesh have to be paid more now. No more child labour etc.
• the transport costs are far higher, again rising wages across the whole supply chain plus higher fuel costs
• the raw materials are more expensive, again higher wages for the people growing and processing cotton & dye ingredients, higher energy and agricultural fertiliser costs

There's also more demand for second hand.

I think ours do a good job

having said that - sainsburys sale is on and you can get decent new trousers and jumpers for well under £10 so perhaps charity shops need to compete with local competition

I think there is a balance to be had. If I donate a brand new with tags Toast silk dress I don’t expect them to sell it for 10.00. When I am donating I always flag new or expensive items so they price them properly to get the most money for the charity.

Since lockdown I have noticed a trend where I live of people just leaving items outside their house with a note free / help yourself. Apples, flowers, a beautiful hand painted bookshelf for a nursery, push chair, chairs etc.

I’m in SW London - saw a jumper, £65, spoke to the shop assistant to see if I could get a better deal (as I came in with a budget), immovable - didn’t buy it, sure someone will have done but £65!!

If the issue is the space they take up before being sold then surely a lower price makes more sense? If you have 8 books and sell one for £2 that's great, but you still have 7 other unsold books. Confused

Basically, what some people are saying is that it's better for charity shops to take a lot of stuff and sell it cheap rather than one item that's more expensive. But that doesn't taken into account that more items requires more space and more staff, both of which are obviously limited and valuable resources. Hence they don't sell every donation that's given to them, because they can't. They refuse some things and dispose of others. You've probably seen threads on here before with people complaining that a charity turned down their donation.

For there to actually be 8 books on the shelf for 25p to begin with, that actually requires much more in the way of resources from the shop than the one book for £2 does, but for no more profit.

@pigcon1 which designer was it?

Also i think some people are bloody oblivious to inflation! Books were 25p in charity shops 25 years ago when i was a child. Why would they still be 25p now?

I agree but it really is the luck of the draw. I go to some of the nicer ones and have found Boden tops for £3/4. I pointed out that a Serephine top was worth more than the £2 label. If they don't know the brand's they can't price accordingly. That goes the other way too. Older ladies doing the pricing wouldn't necessarily know that Shien and Boohoo are cheap fast fashion.
I send my nice stuff to the nice shops and my standard supermarket stuff to the community reuse shop as their main aim is to reduce/reuse and everything is sold very cheaply. Kids toys are 50p-£1 and books are 4 for £1 as the volume of donation are so great they sell them cheap to move them on.

To be fair, from an environment point of view, it's better to buy secondhand never mind if it only comes with a small discount.

I did a stint in Oxfam and pricing for clothes at least was v strict. There was a book of prices per brand and type of clothing we had to consult, so no autonomy for ordinary volunteers.

Hi. It was a French brand (not Sandro, something at a lower price point, had been worn) but I am not designer sale shopping or looking for an item, I’m buying a jumper in a charity shop.

not a second hand clothes/vintage/online marketplace, a charity shop where the charity goes all ways..doing good feeling good.

Charity shops are facing increasing costs like every other business. Heating, lighting, electricity for the steaming machine and printer etc etc.

Some people on here seem to think charities should be keeping their prices the same - or decreasing them - and taking a hit on the money they raise because everyone is finding it tough. Charity retail is about maximising contribution to the cause. End of.

And you are right, @LadyLapsang, if you donated your silk dress in our store it would probably go out at £49.99 at least, or we'd put it online at £75. And we'd sell it too. Because we have a good understanding of our demographic and what they're prepared to pay.