To think Vinted has killed charity shops?

[Finlesswonder]

I'm sure in posh towns or areas they are still alive and well but I went into 3 or 4 in my city yesterday and they were completely barren, I guess because people are now thinking why give their unwanted stuff to a charity when they could make a few bob?
It's a bit sad I used to love a mooch around a charity shop but these were seriously slim pickings! Anyone volunteer in one and know if that's true or did I just get unlucky with the day?

Our charity shops are bursting at the seams! I tend to put some stuff on Vinted but most I send to charity shop and if things don’t sell on Vinted I send to charity shop anyway

I agree with those who say charity shops are killing themselves off. Locally there’s one in particular that is so expensive for even the cheapest brands. There’s a sign outside saying they can’t take donations. On the same road there’s another and everything is priced up to about £3 apart from dresses which are up to a tenner depending on the brand. They’re always asking on Facebook for more donations, it’s always full of customers when I go past. They have the right idea.

These threads always come up and I am :/ because the charity shops are all doing so well around here.

There is an underwear factory in my town , they give brand new stuff that is overstock and it is all sold for £2 an item in one charity shop. The shop I work in has brand new donations from a non clothing high street retailer. But I do think low quality stuff has assisted with the demise, the fast fashion. Plus people are selling on vinted.

People dump absolute crap at our shop and then it goes to the rag man or worse still we have to pay for its disposal. He will only take clean clothing. We have had items with all manner of body fluids on.

I live in a small town, and our charity shops are always busy. I tend to look for books and vintage china in the charity shops. I often bring kids' clothes and books to the charity shops, and just had an email the other day to say they have raised over £73 with my donations recently. Never used Vinted in any capacity, and don't plan to.
So, I don't think Vinted killed off the charity shops at all.

The point is always made that charity shops should take a "pile it high, sell it cheap" approach but there are a couple of issues with that - first you need a lot of volunteers to be sorting, pricing, steaming and stocking the shelves. Not all stores have that. Also, it's out duty to do our best for the people who generously donate their things. Putting designer tops or trousers out for pennies because the policy is "everything £1" or whatever is not doing that.

Charity shops greed have killed them. I went to a couple the other day, they're selling old Primark tops for £8-10. A pair of old jeans was £12-15.

This ^^

Charity shop pricing killer charity shops where we are- crazy prices mean I no longer bother. £8 for a bobbly shrunken Joules jumper as an example. I used to buy most of our clothes in charity shops but it’s not worth looking now.

No, we have a few local and they are often having to refuse donations because they cannot sort the stuff fast enough,

Putting designer tops or trousers out for pennies because the policy is "everything £1" or whatever is not doing that.

Thats not what people are saying though, they're saying putting out poor quality clothes that you could buy new for a similar price isn't exactly going to attract buyers. A lot of the designer stuff gets sold online anyway so never sees the shop floor!

I live in a town and there are 10 charity shops. That is just under half of all shops in the town. Some have signs out saying they need donations.

I think that if there weren’t so many, perhaps they’d have more things!

British Heart Foundation had a Beswick China shire horse donated to them and they put it on EBay at £10 start.

It made £5,000!

A very rare colour way that the collectors battled it out for.

I think it was a Steel Grey Shire mare.

A bay Shire Mare same era would be £10- 20 tops on a good day.

We have one charity shop near us which is fantastic and run by the community to benefit the community and local charities which change from month to month. It’s priced to help local people so it’s always busy. The chain charity shops are overpriced and rubbish in general, I do think they sell all of their good stuff online these days

Jealous! I've been actively hunting for a secondhand butter dish for about a year in charity shops and haven't found a single one!

@SophieD1987...this is a thread about Vinted and charity shops, you'll need to start a new thread.

I used to be able to find clothes in my local charity shops but over the last year can only think of a couple of things I've bought.
Most of the stuff I see is overpriced tat, supermarket Primark at crazy prices or else ancient worn clothes nobody would want.
I find Vinted a much better source for buying clothes and selling too.

Well Oxfam is in the news for being dicks about women. I dont think that will help.

I think it’s naivety or greeds that’s killing some of them off.

I buy almost all my clothes and household stuff from charity shops and it’s night and day between ones that understand their place on the high street and those that don’t.

I go to a couple that are well stocked, nicely presented and reasonably priced and offer a nice service so when I donate I give to those as I know they’ll be able to sell it and it feels like the donation will be useful.

A couple of others have had new managers in, who think they are Mary Queen of Shops’s reincarnation and they are killing the shops dead.

Prices on everything have doubled - they sometimes list raggy primark for the same price as new - they cram as much as they can out at any one time and they are really unpleasant, so there’s no turn over on stock so no footfall. They are constantly asking for donations despite nothing ever seeming to sell so I would rather sell on Vinted or eBay than donate to them because I have no idea where it’s going.

But if stuff is being priced too high, it won't sell. Nobody is going to buy something overpriced, whether it's Cancer Research or John Lewis or Vinted.

A decent shop manager will be on top of pricing and all it takes is 20 minutes flicking through the stuff on the rails to make sure there's not an issue with stuff being underpriced or overpriced. Some charity shop managers are excellent. Others are rubbish. Charity retail salaries are low - why would you be the sole paid member of staff in a charity shop, responsible for everything from health and safety to stock taking when you could earn more just heading up one section somewhere like Primark? You have to be REALLY dedicated to the shop or your cause.

We've been through about 3 managers in the last 5 years, the quality of candidates is very low, the decent ones quickly move on to better paid, less hassle work elsewhere.

I’m not talking about niche items that need to go online to find a buyer though. I’m talking about stuff with general appeal that would sell quickly, but they still choose to put it online to try to squeeze more money out of it. Anything decent that’s donated around here gets posted off to a rich person down south.

And I do think that it’s about “giving local people a chance at buying them”. Selling to benefit the charity is only half of the social contract. The other half is benefiting the buyers who spend their time visiting and rummaging around in the hope of a bargain, and helping poor people who can’t afford to buy stuff at a higher price. Posting all the good stuff off to rich people in posh areas is contributing to social inequality and poverty. Some charity shops seem to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be helping the poor as well as helping the charity!

This.

I have a lot of charity shops around me, the ones that are thriving are those who are not playing “Vinted”
with their shelves. I understand they need to get as much money as possible for their causes but if they are willing to be oblivious to the needs and struggles of local people,
it is their own fault they are doing so bad.

Personally, I no longer donate to any charity shop that is selling at high prices. I’ll rather donate elsewhere or sell my stuff myself as I resent them taking advantage of local people.

A lot of charity shops use eBay tip sell stuff. Not much chance of getting a true bargain anymore now every thing is googled. Can't say I blame them though

We are a Cathedral town and all the shops owned by the cathedral do get massively discounted rental charges OP

Some charity shops seem to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be helping the poor as well as helping the charity!

but they’re not - they are there to raise as much money as they can for cancer research or the hospice or animals or wherever the cause is. “Helping the poor” isn’t a stated aim for most charities.