Charity shops aren't doing themselves any favours

[Downatthefarm]

I can afford to buy new but prefer to buy second hand. I enjoy the experience of sifting through the varied clothes in the charity shops and finding things I wouldn't otherwise see on the high street at that time, and of course I like other thrifters love a good bargain.

Over the last 5 years charity shops have really gone downhill where I am. They price second / third hand clothes similarly to the original RRP, sometimes even more expensive.

They are stocking more and more brand new items, like Frenchic furniture paint, priced higher than it costs at places like Wilko's and B&Q.

I already know somebody will say "the shops purpose is to raise as much money for their charity as they can, not to cater to people who don't have much money" but hasn't being accessible to people with low incomes and being good value for money always been one of the most appealing aspects of them?

I still donate but do the vast majority of my own second hand buying on vinted now and I know lots of others are doing the same.

AIBU?

Seasalt and White Stuff prices on Vinted are HIGH.

That's before you add in the buyer's protection and courier fees.

Given this, I don't see how the OP can think Vinted is a viable alternative to chazzas.

Vinted has an additional hassle of potentially not being as good in the flesh, whereas you are able to see the item before you buy in the shop.

A single small top is easily £6+ on Vinted, and that is after the seller deigns to take it to the courier and it gets delivered.

So they give it to a charity shop, for the volunteers to put it in the rag bin.

Don't the shops get paid by weight for rags? If I have rags I donate to my local shop and put them in a bag marked "rags" so they know.

I love cinema and it's a shame that more and more charity shops are now getting rid of their DVD sections.

I've always got a tremendous kick of watching a movie that may have cost millions to make (Gladiator or Avatar, for example) for 50p! Mind blowing!

@Downatthefarm
so it’s okay for items to be priced inaccurately as long as it’s in the customer’s favour..

This is one thing I have really noticed a difference in during the time I have been volunteering. When I started first about 8 or 9 years ago, DVDs sold well. Then along came Netflix and Amazon Prime and Disney Plus and smart TVs. DVD sales have decreased rapidly and even at 3 for £1 we can't shift the stock. Some get sent to Music Magpie or Ziffit but you have to weight the selling price of just a couple of pennies for popular DVDs against the time it takes for someone to scan the barcodes and box them all up. CDs are rapidly going the same way, people stream their music on Spotify or similar, new cars don't have CD players any more.

Yes we can rag stuff but it's again very little per kilo and it only takes a dozen black bags of rags and stuff which isn't fit for selling before your back sorting area is full and the recycling isn't collected for another week...

So you'd rather items were sold untested and possibly not working? They probably won't have had a working amp in store and the staff member may have had one at home.

The PAT tester comes in and tests items for safety and not for function. Would you rather we take a guitar home overnight, check it's fully functioning and sell it to you, or sell it to you and then you have to return it?

I had that job when I volunteered at the charity shop. I loved it because I love to read.

But she didn't take it to keep, she took it for testing. Not the same thing, surely ?

I've got tops for as little as £1.50 on my shop, perfect condition. IME people don't want to pay alot on vinted partly to do with the buyer protection fee and shipping often costing as much if not more as the item itself.

I've also bought great condition designer polo tshirts for my son for as little as £3.

I have stuff in my favourites list that has been on there for months because the seller has priced high. Vinted is a buyers market.

You seem to be waiting for opportunities to trip me up, you've done this continuously throughout the thread. Don't take everything so personally. Nobody is attacking you or your charity shop. This is a discussion about charity shops in general. If your shop is reasonable then great. I don't see why you're so offended.

I am not tripping you up, but surely you see the hypocrisy in complaining that prices are too expensive then gleeful asking where you get a Prada coat for a discounted price.

Lol thats the opposite of hypocrisy. If I'm complaining about high prices then of course I'm going to be happy about potentially getting a bargain.

Hypocrisy would be complaining about the prices in charity shops and then sticking one of those famous bobbled primark jumpers on my vinted store for £20.

They do and, if they have room in the rag bin, that is fine. It’s a heart sink moment for the volunteers when someone hands in a bag of “good” stuff and they realise that most of it (but not all) is rags.

It’s happening in other countries as well, I was looking for some old plates to pop underneath pot plants to conserve water. The charity shop had second hand plates for sale that were more expensive than brand new ones from our equivalent of Home Bargain type shop.
Similarly, I make jams, pickles and chutneys and the charity shop price for badly washed out, second hand jars with labels ( that you spend a while removing) was extortionate compared with new. Our charity shops often say they are full as well, doesn’t make any sense to me.

@MsRead
several posters have explained on this thread why they are full and cannot take donations.

That's interesting about Goodwill. I didn't know this. Makes sense and is surely a great service for everyone, particularly the low-waged.

I have previously volunteered - and have 10+ years retail experience. It wasn’t the done thing years ago when I volunteered and I’ve never been allowed to buy stock in normal retail outlets before customers either.

At a minimum they should be paying the same but I also think they are struggling to get people in the door. Siphoning off the best stuff for eBay or for themselves to purchase isn’t the best strategy for this. I remember when my local shops had a reputation for having really good stuff and which ones in particular- you don’t get that anymore sadly. And is an affluent area so I doubt that the type of thing being donated has changed that drastically (I know my customers at my retail job have, thank goodness, continued to spend the same on what we sell so many are weathering the col crisis quite well here, although some may be going to Vinted too I suppose!).

I am hopeful DVDs will see a revival when people realise that by relying on streaming services their choice of viewing is at the mercy of trends, random rights issues and people not being 'cancelled'.

Not really sure what your point is. Your £1.50 tops become £2.28 with the buyer's protection fee added on, plus £2.29 or £2.80 minimum postage, that's £4.50 or £5.00. Charity shops near me have items of clothing for less than this.

And many more items on Vinted are well above £1.50.

Your suggestion that Vinted is an alternative to charity shop prices isn't really sound.

There are often costs, and significant time involved shopping in person. Possible travel costs, parking, then the time to look through rails of clothing in multiple shops for what you need. Vinted is much quicker as you can search and filter, so savings there.

I agree. My daughter loves a good charity shop but one recent purchase, a 70s style plain skirt, was £15! Nothing special about it.

My DD and i regularly have a good charity shop trawl in the town near where she lives and the shops are amazing! Virtually every time we go we find bargains - good quality, often designer, and very reasonable prices. I guess it's down to the areas where you live.

Although if that 70s style skirt would cost £30 in the shop band new and it is in excellent condition then that’s still a bargain.

I agree, I keep seeing daft prices on clothes, with notices saying 'not accepting new donations' - it's bonkers. Why not price lower, get more donations in, make more money that way? Must say though I don't often look through clothing, too difficult when they have the ridiculous colour separation thing going on! So all clothes in blue on this rail, all clothes in pink on that rail, etc. How many of us go in there thinking, well I need a blue top, or a pink shirt? So you have to trawl through the multiple rails looking for your size each time. What idiot came up with this? I give those a miss now.

I recently got 4 garments, in excellent condition, for £5 at one of our local charity shops.

Evidently it depends where you are!