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?

I don't think it's Vinted, I agree some are killing themselves with ridiculous pricing which has got noticeably worse since covid.
Also we had a big charity shop superstore open on the outskirts of town with a free car park outside. It's always busy and full of good stock. I think the effect on the town centre ones has been noticeable. People don't want to pay for parking and drag bag fulls of donations through town when there's a much more convenient alternative.

I'm about to put some stuff on vinted as good brands and some never worn (don't ask) I am then going to give 50% to a charity of my choice.

Like others say I appreciate why it seems unfair that good stuff gets syphoned off to areas where people will pay more but it's hardly fair- we have some very good ones here in Bath- I've been known to have a whole Saturday afternoon charity shop browsing!

I think it definitely depends on how the charity shop is managed. I understand it can be a thankless job if manager and volunteers are not being paid properly. My local charity shop has moments when it’s very busy and other moments when it’s empty and I can tell it’s because the pricing is affordable, the layout where items are being sold is easy to manage etc. And there also have been times when the racks have been full of cheap and overpriced clothing and it’s usually because having to sift through and ensure things are clean or need to be steamed etc is a lot of effort and there aren’t enough people to do this. So I can see that it can be tricky to manage when there is a lack of manpower.

I stopped donating to or buying from Oxfam a few years ago because fo the appaulling Haiti sex-for-aid issue. Oxfam have got no better since (see this thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4821347-fuck-oxfam) and I would not help them in any way. One of the papers reports a whistle blower saying that one of her male colleagues lectured her on being “whorephobic” after she made disapproving remarks about the Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal in Haiti. Unbelieveable.

Lots of people I know also have got fed up with salaries paid to the management of many of the bigger charities.

Now, I will only pass things onto the smaller, local charity shops now and I donate to JK Rowling's charity Lumos because she covers all the running costs so she can pay the bosses what she likes, it is not coming out of donations made by the public. The donations all go to front line work.

I think there also is an issue with the age of the volunteers. Lots of people in their 50s/60s/70s have not gone back to work after Covid never mind volunteering. I imagine they are short staffed.

I think the prices charity shops charge are the problem.

I saw a vest for £3 today. Looked at the label- it was brand new from primark with a £2 tag on!

Also brand new lynx sets for £10. I'm certain these are cheaper from Tesco !

Just last week I had a huge charity bag through the letterbox. It said it wanted nice handbags. I had a nice handbag that I never use, I stuffed it in the bag and then thought "wait, how much will I get off Vinted?"

I had a look. I took a photo and listed it. And I sold it for £10 that same day!!

I've spent the last decade sending everything I no longer need to charity which always included good quality clothes. I can't justify doing that anymore - I need the cash.

I could have written exactly this datapotater. I rarely give stuff to charity shops now as I’m so strapped for cash, I sell nearly everything on eBay, gumtree (larger items) and Vinted.

In my local charity shop they chuck all the clothing into a large bin , designer and primary together priced at a £1 per item , it's a bit like a lucky dip , to put your your hand in and pull out say an East top or say brand new Primark top with a label on . Great fun .

Especially when my dsis worked at one and would take stuff worth anything and sell it on eBay and keep the money for herself 🤬

No, charity shops have been declining for years! They have been hiking their prices up in store and have started selling online themselves, our local charity shops are fillies with books and children’s items and the majority of them are far too expensive for a second hand item.

This. Why would I pay £5 for a Primark t shirt. Charity shops have become deluded.

Maybe you should volunteer in a charity shop first before slagging them off- let's hope you never have to rely on a charity or their research eg British Heart Foundation. The sole purpose of charity shops is to raise as much money as possible for charity- not to give away stuff for less than it's worth. And if a volunteer overprices an item, one of two things will probably happen:

1. Someone buys it anyway- great more money for charity
2. it will not sell and then be reduced and eventually someone will buy it- great more money for charity And yes, I've have volunteered for a long time in a charity shop.

As a veteran charity shopper I have noticed that the main difference is price. It's not unusual now to see tops and dresses for £7 in charity shops.
Today, I saw a duvet set , nice, in the packet. They priced it at £12 . For £15 I could buy at asda and choose the exact one I want.
I think this is why they are full. Likewise a glass vase today for £8 , I can get it in ikea for £6 , and numerous primark tops for more than new

if charity shops are stocking tat and cheap clothes it's because people are donating tat and cheap clothes
in our local town. we have a few charity shops. one is ran by very rude staff so no one goes to that really. one other suports the local dog shelter and have a drop off outside of town aswell which makes it easier to leave off big bags. the volunteers do amazing work on their windows styling them. advertise on Facebook and there is qs some mornings waiting for it to open. there is one across the road similar and their window displays change twice and week. you can buy from the window after the display is changed. clearly states this in the window again qs waiting to open sometimes. walked past both toady at lunchtime and they were packed. I believe that this is down to tye hard work of teh volunteers doing the displays. working on social media and tidying teh shop.

I used to get great stuff in charity shops (been shopping that way since I was a teenager). Happy to pay more for a genuine designer / vintage gem.
But now I notice that charity shops are charging more for any “brand” name items. £30 for a nice dress, say. No. Unless it’s actually gorgeous or brand new with tags on.
Plus it skews the whole dynamic. I was always happy to donate my better stuff. The bargain being that I would be able to buy similar at a tenner a pop. Most of my wardrobe is made up of charity shop finds.
So, yes I do think people are thinking “the charity shop are going to try flog this coat that’s been in the back of my wardrobe for 10 years for 50 quid?” Vinted is the obvious choice.
I still want “older” stuff as most of today’s clothes are shite. But charity shops are taking the piss now. However, as PP who volunteers said, folk do use them as a dumping ground as well…

It's probably a combination of vinted, cheap fast fashion and greed on the part of charity shops that have killed charity shopping.

When I was young charity shops were used by people who were short of cash. Now fast fashion retailers like primark and shein have taken over. No one is going to rummage through charity shops to buy old primark or bobbled clothes when they could get a brand new item from primark itself for the same price or less. If you live in a poor or remote area you have next to no chance of finding nice stuff in charity shops because it gets sent to posh areas or as you say OP people will sell it on vinted.

I also think there is a huge contradiction between people's opinions on MN around charity and charity shops.

People on MN : charity shops don't know what they're doing! Primark priced as much as new! stuff sitting on shelves for months not selling!

Also people on MN: people working for charities should not be highly paid, they should do it for minimum wage.

Oxfam was set up to help the poor.
Shame.

I always thought it was twofold. People donate, poorer people buy and are clothed as a result, AND the charity makes money.
My local Sally army shop used to give away things like sleeping bags to homeless people who turned up at the shop. Also clothes if there were any that would fit. They used to sell things for 50p, never had a problem with stock (books and jigsaws were 10p ) because it went. Surely it's better to sell everything for a quid or two and get rid, make space for new stock than attempt to sell for a fiver but keep it for weeks.

I'm not on about designer stuff, yes they should make more money from them. I'm on about basic supermarket/primark stuff.
After all primark, pile it high, sell it cheap. It works for them.
But no one normal will buy a second hand Asda t shirt for the same as it cost new.

I agree. I saw a dress - nothing special, just a cotton dress from a high street brand - for £15 the other day. Bugger that, and all the bobbly Primark tops for £8 that would have been around the same new.

Interesting comment above about the “social contract” and I’d be tending to agree there too. We as a society agree to charity shops having discounts etc and I would argue that the flip side of that bargain is people being able to find a bargain and for it to be a way for people to find affordable secondhand stuff. Now anything vaguely decent is siphoned off for sale elsewhere and it’s just junk and overpriced tat that’s left.

As for Oxfam, if they are not doing so well then they have reaped what they’ve sown. Their failure to address the sexual abuse of Haitian women by Oxfam’s own workers, their publication of a text asserting that “privileged white women” do harm by wanting rapists punished, and now their spectacularly awful demonisation of women AND their policing of language? They deserve everything they get.

Several near me have signs that they don't take donations at the weekend, making it difficult for working people to donate.

Great another charity shop bashing thread. We haven’t had once since last week. So many posters are experts. If only they would volunteer their time
where I volunteer we have put our prices up as we are not immune to increases in utilities and rent. We also sell items on eBay, particularly niche items like the book someone mentioned up thread. The shop I volunteer in is well run: low staff turnover, not the cheapest prices but good quality items which are nicely presented. My neighbour donated about 20 t shirts, all in excellent condition and brands like diesel and Barbour. We are not going to sell them for £2 or £3 when we can get more for them. Why would we?

The good stuff does get pooled as well, and sent to the “best” shop. When I lived in the city, my local one was that shop. I got some great stuff in there. The ones in my mum’s village all have terrible stock.

Some chains do this. Ours doesn't. We do sometimes rotate stock which hasn't sold from our shop to another shop but as we do not have vans it's a case of me getting on the phone on a Monday to another shop and saying that if they have any older stock to bag it up and i'll be in on Thursday with 10 bags of our clothes which haven't sold and we'll swap.

Other chains might find another model works better for them. There is no one definite way - every shop and every chain does things slightly differently.

Don't be daft! This is Mumsnet. Charity shops should pay for people to come in- and god forbid a VOLUNTEER makes a mistake. Everything designer should cost about £3, no more, and anything from Primark should be 25p, not a penny more.
Remember, the majority of posters on this website seem to think charity shops exist just to give middle class people a bargain, not to actually.....raise money for charity.

I suppose I see them as primarily being to raise money for their charity, not to supply people with the absolute cheapest clothes…although they often do that too.

People forget they are staffed by volunteers and many don’t have enough volunteers. Often they have a few older people and some teen voulnteers who aren’t the best judges if what the new price for items would have been. I do t think it’s greed that leads to cheap when new items being priced too high, just a lack of awareness of labels and prices.

I do t think Vinted is the source of difficulty, but the state of the economy. People sell their unwanted goods when times are hard and give less to charity. They also want more of a bargain when they charity shop, rather than seeing their purchase as a gift to charity.

Its clear from many posts on here that lots of people aren’t interested in thyme being charities or their reason for being on the high street in the first place, just as a source of cheap items….and of course they are there too to provide that service, but it’s not their primary one.

The reality is that with throw-away fashion, you can choose to spend £6 on a new Primark item or a used often better quality one in a charity shop, which means an item gets reused rather than landfilled and the charity gets money too. Many people will always prefer new over used, or shop purely on price and that will be more the case with cost of living issues.

I do feel sorry for the charity shops. So much crap is sent to them, which really people should be sending to clothing recycling, because no-one will want someone’s stained or very bobbled jumpers. People are often lazy in just dumping their rubbish with the charity shop. It could well be that the model will have had its day in a short period, which will be a shame but retail moves on. I wonder if those who would have previously donated decent items will give money instead, whilst offloading their stuff into sites like Vinted or if charities will find a way to gather stuff remotely - I guess those bag collections do a version if that.

I still donate but not to Oxfam anymore.