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?

There are lots of issues with charity shops

Prices being charged
Amount of waste they dump
Wont take toys due to every toy needing testing
Volunteers taking anything decent before it goes in the shop
Bad rep of some charities (Red Cross, Oxfam etc..)
Cost of living, people making do or selling them self’s.

Ive been been hoarding most things I would normally donate to charity shops, gifting sites or school fairs as my DDs want to do a car boot sale to raise spending money for the summer holidays. I probably could make more on vinted but I’ve decided to just let them sell everything at a car boot.

Volunteers taking anything decent before it goes in the shop

Bingo! Wondered how long it would be before someone came out with that regular wee gem. 🙄

My husband and I buy all of our clothes from charity shops, and I buy all my daughter's there too apart from some new stuff my mom (v kindly) chooses to get for her.

I have never noticed any shortage or difficulty in finding loads of nice, good condition and affordable stuff we are very happy to wear.

It does involve a bit of shopping around, for sure. You can't just decide you want a black jumper for example, go into the first charity shop you find and be guaranteed to get a nice one, as you probably could with Primark or Debenhams or whatever.

But with a little bit of effort, I think there is still great stuff out there - to be honest, if anything I think there is more choice in terms of smart stuff, dresses for going out in etc, than there used to be! (Perhaps because people can't afford to go out as much? 🤷)

These threads come up all the time and most of the comments are from people who have never worked or volunteered in a charity shop yet think they are 'the experts'. I totally agree with Gules. (& I suspect we are involved in the same charity ). Just like with any retail business or organisation there will be some that are well run and some that are not.
We get some weird and wonderful donations ... much of which is not fit for purpose and has to recycled or disposed of.

But good charity shops attract other charity shops ... we have over 15 in our small town with two new ones just opened recently ... clearly if they weren't performing well they would be closed down. My sales are well up on last year so obviously customers like my shop and are happy to spend money.

And pricing is rarely an issue ... I am always happy to negotiate a price if I know something has been out for a while and hasn't sold ... separate to my charity shop role I was volunteering at a 'Freecycle' event this morning, loads and loads of stuff totally free and open to all ... it had been well advertised and yet hardly anyone came . I sometimes put things outside my shop against company policy saying 'help yourself' .. it's rarely taken. And no, I don't put out Primark or similar brands.

Is vinted just for clothes? I’m moving soon and need to sell a bunch of furniture!

There’s enough clothes in circulation to stick charity shops ebay Etsy, Vinted and all the upmarket exchange agencies.

You can find exactly what you want on eBay and Vinted but it’s lottery with charity shops. If you want people to buy stuff randomly then price is key.

Forget about Haiti… Bloody Oxfam, they treat volunteers like shite. I volunteered at my local one alongside a good number of young girls and middle aged women. There was a young man there who was a proper sexual pest, he was insinuating himself to us older women and propositioning to the younger ones. No matter how often we complained about him the manager’s answer was the same: They were getting money from the job centre to have him there so we all were to shut up, put up with him or leave. End of.

They can stuff one of their goats where the sun doesn’t shine and go to hell for all that I care.

The cost of living crisis and a decade plus of wage stagnation are what is killing charity shops. People don't have the luxury of giving away good clothes when they can get some money back for them.

I volunteered whilst I was a student so for several years, perhaps there's merit if lots of people say the same in what is being said though. Not sure if some are just willfully misreading or misinterpreting what people are saying, they're not saying everything should be cheap, but that it's ridiculous some things are nearly as expensive as they would be new. Plenty of people used to shop in them partly to raise money for charity but also because you could get something decent for a reasonable price; that's fair enough i think.

I'd rather buy and sell online now and donate money directly to charity to be honest rather than seeing the same tired items lingering away in there for weeks! I wouldn't donate either as most stuff doesn't end up on the rails.

Not me I still give my stuff to charity shops and baby banks.

I put new/almost new stuff on vinted and the rest (usually) goes to charity shops. However, I gave up yesterday and put two bin bags to clothes into one of those clothes recycling bins.

First charity shop said they weren't taking donations (no sign on door). Second one was shut (at 10.30), third one didn't take children's clothes and the fourth one only took donations on a rainy Tuesday in May (joking, they only took donations on a Wednesday and Thursday morning).

Same thing happened last time, except the shut shop had really rude volunteers in it and I walked out.

they were getting money from the job centre to have him there

How long ago was this?? Shelter, Oxfam and loads of other charities have boycotted Workfare/Help to Work since 2014.

https://www.thepavement.org.uk/stories/1746

Nobody who volunteers in our shop is unemployed and actively seeking employment. We have students, school kids, stay at home mums, retired people, part time workers, a real mix of people.

Also agree about Oxfam, I haven't stepped foot in one since everything came out about Haiti, absolutely disgusting, plenty of other charities supporting work in that part of the world that don't despise women. Thankfully the one here struggles as the volunteers have gone to the others

I dunno but ours is a happy hunting ground. Local air ambulance charity shop I've had a crew clothing t shirt, a fiver. Super dry t shirts, £3.50 each and a fat face top for £8. Pretty good value to me 🤷‍♀️

So many posters are experts.

It doesn’t matter if we’re experts or not, we’re your customers. If your customers are unhappy you’re doing something wrong.

I don't use Vinted but I do use ebay.

I occasionally use a charity shop (usually when I am with my mum as she likes dragging me around them) but they don't often have much of interest. And the last time they did, they wanted £32 for a pair of jeans. The last time I bought a pair of jeans in a charity shop, maybe a year ago, I paid £2.99!

It's much easier to find what you want on a website, you put in your search terms, filter to what you want and you can see very quickly if they have it or not. I tend to buy Monsoon jeans on ebay - usually for about £20 so considerably less than the charity shop wanted!

I

Our nearest town is full of charity shops, only two shops are requesting stock, these two shops do a rip roaring trade because of reasonable pricing, the others have the same stock week after week (until the rag van comes) because it's so over priced.
The problem is fourfold a lot of volunteers don't know their Primark from their Versace so cost everything at Versace price.
The rents and utilities have increased on the shop floor
I've no doubt some volunteers see on social media people going on and on about how the purchased something for £1 and sold in on for £100, and so they hike prices up so purchases cant profiteer.
Some charity shops are run by volunteers or paid managers who have moved into the area from more expensive areas, don't realise the demographic and over charge.
My MIL volunteered in a charity shop for many years, she really knew her clothing and make up brands, but she also knew the local population. She eventually left when the shop when it went from one poor manager to the next. MIl's take was "everything will sell at the right price, price too high and stock sits collecting dust, stopping new stock being put out or turned away, price too low and stock runs out too fast." She believed in quick turn over produced the best profits, but when two successive manages upped prices nothing budged and fewer people came into the shop. She suggested lowering the prices, but her advice was ignored and she got fed up with the painfully slow trade and constant moaning of no customers!

About that time, it certainly put me off Oxfam and volunteering big time. The bastards!

No, for a lot of the demographics who shop in charity shops they enjoy it as a pastime seeking old bargains, having a rummage around, etc.

Prices being charged- they job of charity shops is to raise as much money as possible for
Amount of waste they dump- what about the amount people dump on their doorsteps overnight?
Wont take toys due to every toy needing testing- that's the law
Volunteers taking anything decent before it goes in the shop- that's not true
Bad rep of some charities (Red Cross, Oxfam etc..)- there are lots of other charities
Cost of living, people making do or selling them self’s - blame the Tories for the cost of living, not charities, which need to raise even more money to help those affected by it, and the reductions in government funding.

Sounds great. The one-off shops are usually much more reasonable, such as local hospice shops, probably because their charities don't have huge head offices with loads of admin staff doing the same stuff as loads of other charities.

It's a different point, but there are too many charities doing very similar things. They need to merge and get more efficient.

I'm also a member of the "charity shop not so shit finds" on FB which has about 10 posts a day by people delighted with their charity shop bargains.

Why are people on here so fixated by clothing? If you volunteered in a charity shop and were privy to takings figures, you'd know that clothing doesn't always make the most money. We make just as much money on things like books and bric a brac.

EBay killed charity shops years ago.

Even Charity shops even have their own stores on there now.

How do you know? I have a beautiful house and dress well but 95% all my stuff is second hand, I raised my son on my own with a pretty low salary, if we didn’t look destitute it was because we were massively careful with money and spend a good amount of time and effort looking for the best prices.

This!
they over charge and take the blatant p.
tried to sell me a small doll for £15! It was for a child I work with and I couldn’t believe it. I’ll never go in a charity shop again.