Charity shop prices

[Worryworms]

Went to a local charity shop today and the prices were ridiculous. £16 for a jacket that wasn’t in good condition, £8 for a worn bobbly primark jumper, £6 for a kids jumper that was very worn. Kids white school polos that were discoloured, £3 each. I recently bought a pack of 2 brand new ones for £3 at a supermarket. has any one else noticed this in their local charity shops?

The one I volunteer at has a few locally based, items from shops like primark get sent to a discount store where everything is £1,2 or 3. Occasionally things get priced over eg have issues with supermarket brands as they often are heavily discounted but we don't know that, but proper brands are bargains, I'm wearing a monsoon dress today I bought for £10 new with tags the (original) label said £68

@Goneforaride

The issue is that many of those branded items will be bought by dealers, I see it every time I'm volunteering - they check online prices before buying and will buy a selection of random sizes

Why is that an issue? If the charity shop gets the price on the tag, we don't care if it's a dealer or a private individual.

The place I volunteer now has a "nothing less than £3" policy on clothes which means that a lot of the Shein and Primark is straight in the recycling as we cannot get that much for it. The shop is small, and rails full of the "better" stuff. Last time I was in I picked up a sleeveless black Hobbs shift dress, perfect for a funeral i'm going to tomorrow for £7. Would have been over £100 new.

Yep, that's not an issue at all. Charity shops exist to raise funds for the cause of the particular charity. Items being brought by companies not individuals would only be a problem if it contradicted the aims of the charity.

well they're exempt from business rates and run largely by volunteers so overheads are (relatively) low

People in the UK we have been spoilt for years by charity shops. Literally spoilt. People in the UK are far kinder and charitable than in Western Europe, they donate good stuff. Eastern Europe knows no concept of charity shops - they have always been far too poor to donate anything. So a few years back I decided to have a look at Germany's charity shops - I was shocked - tat, tat, tat, worse than second-hand Primark rags. People outside of UK do not donate nice items to charity shops at all - and to think that in the early 2000s you could find a Spode dinner service, a sable stole (!), superb antique furniture and gilt-edged early 19th century books in our charity shops!!!! Not to mention YSL dresses, Barkers and Ferragamo shoes!!!!! I wish I had half a brain then and bought all those things - I was just ogling them then as I did not have spare dosh.

Stroopwaffels - how do you know the clothes in recycling aren't ending up in landfill?

My local shops (nice, small South East costal town) often have items at ridiculous prices. Tops at £20, coat at £60/£80. small objects at £10...

This is not the type of prices I expect from charity shops and their stuff just stays on the shelves.

I saw clothing with holes being sold at silly prices.

I give myself a limit of £5 or £6 when looking at charity shops items.

Charity shop clothes are poor quality these days because most of the clothes in shops are poor quality. They aren't made to last or have a second life.

Good quality clothes are expensive and more likely to end up on eBay or Vinted.

I think that people also miss the point that selling second hand clothes requires a lot of work. Items need to sorted, steamed etc before they are put out on shelves. Is it really worth anyone's time or effort doing this for 50p or £1 per item.

you need to take into consideration that they have overheads too.

YANBU I have noticed the same especially with clothes. Funnily enough my mum and I went the other day and mum came out shocked that one had a 4 pack of tubs of play doh for £6! (Bearing in mind can get a good few pounds cheaper brand new in supermarket or online!)

I’m in the NE and mostly the prices aren’t bananas. I have seen things being sold for more than they were originally quite often though.
My issue is the quality of the stuff now is just crap - shein and primark. Rare to get branded things near me.

I do go to a large out of town charity shop a fair bit. They are local and cheap. They have a delivery door you can drive up to and they get people bringing car fulls daily. It’s very popular. I don’t really buy clothes though as they are all mostly shit. I look for things to recycle/craft with.

I worked for a local hospice charity for a couple of years. I remember a little worn crombie coat we put in the window. It was so beautiful we asked £100 (new £750). We got so many complaints it was too dear (although our average house price is £850k) we withdrew it and put it on eBay. Result, £209.

They don't pay people to do that

Our Salvation Army shop sells first to the dealers and resellers - three at least - saving the best stuff for the professionals before the public see it.

They’re very keen on maximising profit, refusing discounts to the local poor. The staff are all paid.

Charity shops have become extortionate. I understand that they are there to make money for the cause, but they won’t make that money if they continue to disrespect their customers by charging ridiculously high prices for old worn clothes. It’s not good enough to keep hiding behind the excuse that it’s more important to make money for a cause. They get all their stock for free by kind hearted patrons. Unbelievably some charity shops are pricing second hand items higher than it is to buy them new.

I was long ago price away from most charity shops here, they're just too expensive. The Cancer Research is still ok, but even their clothes prices are creeping up.

Our local Heart Foundation charges £30 for delivery alone, even if you only live round the corner. Ridiculous. I saw a tatty old bookcase in there the other day and they wanted £80. It didn't even stand up straight! And it was chipped and stained. I could get a new one for less than that and get free delivery!

When I was a student I volunteered for a couple of shifts a week in Oxfam. Oxfam is run like a military operation in terms of realising as much as possible in funds for their charitable work. They had a very strict pricing policy so from items donated directly to the shop -

Designer items were sent to an Oxfam in a posher area. If they didn’t sell there in 4? 6? weeks after one mark down they came back to us. We also received items from them which weren’t considered suitable for their shop.

Cheaper/more worn items were sent to a branch in a poorer area along with children’s clothes.

Items which stayed in our branch were priced according to a chart that Oxfam had eg an M and S blouse would cost £X. After 4 weeks (I think, can’t remember exactly the timespan) it would be marked down by a couple of quid. If it still didn’t sell it went to the poorer area.

The ones in my town are pretty much 80% tops.
Blouses and T-shirts in summer, jumpers in winter.

One sells a lot of worn Primark stuff, at roughly the same price as new.. and Primark itself is directly opposite 😂

I'll consider worn M&S stuff because it lasts, but not F&F (Tesco) or Primark.

I agree with you OP and think that a lot of charity shop stuff is too expensive at the moment. Supermarket branded stuff only a few quid cheaper than it would be new. Yes the money supports good causes, but tbh I go into charity shops to pick up bargains - I can make actual donations elsewhere.

The short answer is that people must be buying at those prices or else the shops wouldn't be making any money and would have to close.

A longer answer is that the quality of new clothes these days, up to mid-market level, is so poor that more people are seeking charity shop clothes just to get something that isn't made of horrible synthetics.

The ones in my town are pretty much 80% tops.
Blouses and T-shirts in summer, jumpers in winter.

That'll be because if their sales broken down by category are anything like ours, the figures show that trousers/skirts just don't sell. We had a chat about this when I was volunteering on Monday and the conclusion was that many people don't want to buy anything which has been near someone else's bum, but are less weird about buying a dress, jacket or top.

In our shop, we sell 8 times as many tops as we do trousers. Skirts just don't sell at all, we were shifting on average 1 a week. So we have stopped selling them, unless BNWT.

Some are just ludicrous, you can tell which ones not to go in, by the young enthusiastic manager that sells dirty wellies (not a premium brand) for £60 and a mini router for £90, leading to believe pricing free donations extortionately because it's for a good cause is OK.

It's ironic when they aren't actually volunteering their free time.

It certainly has changed over the years, my aunt used to work in one when she retired (everyone was a volunteer) and they used to price everything like a carboot- stack it high sell it cheap then paid managers came in and the rules came out. Items sent to warehouses to be listed on Ebay, not being allowed to price up, any item bought by staff is logged etc.

When my son 15 (who currently volunteers) and aunt (90) talk about their experiences of working in one, it's certainly different.

YANBU.

And to all the people saying "Oh yawn. It must be a week since we had this thread. Bobbly Primark jumper bingo etc"...the reason it comes up regularly is because so many, many people agree. Charity shops are pricing many items unrealistically, then saying they are closed to donation and having to pay to get rid of unsaleable stock.

Other stores price really well, shift stock quickly, and are always worth a visit (in my area it is the Sue Ryder shop and to some extent Barnardo's).