Annoyed at people ranting about charity shops

[Dowhadiddydiddydum]

This is one those threads that’s a release of frustration. So apologies for it being so boring.

AIBU for getting pissed off at seeing people moaning constantly about charity shops and their pricing? It’s driving me insane.

Most people’s objections seem to be based on….

• Charity shops should be cheap…because they’re a charity ain’t they
• I could buy that stuff cheaper elsewhere.
• people give them things for free then they make loads of money from it.

Now am I loosing my god damn mind or do people not understand the point of charity shops is to FUCKING RAISE MONEY. So of course they want to raise as much money as possible. Of course people donate stuff for free….because they donate it so the charity can make money from it!! If you think you can get it cheaper elsewhere then bloody do it….if the shop is that over priced it’ll close down won’t it.

Been tipped over the edge by a shitty TikTok video someone made slating a local
hospice charity shop for selling their items for “too much”. The video has so many shitty comments under it….all apparently oblivious to the fact the shop exists to raise as much money as possible to support those with life limiting illnesses not so Barbara and Jeff can get a cheap table.

Also in response to the "just advertise you have got it" - can't remember about M&S, but lots of brands make corporate donations which come with strings. Oxfam got stuff from Ted Baker pre-pandemic. The contract stated we were not allowed to advertise that fact on social media or posters in store, we were not allowed to put items in the window, we were not allowed to have more than 3/4 items on the shop floor at any one time. Zara donation was similar - can't account for more than X% of what you have out, can't put it in the window, can't mention it in advertising.

The brands are worried that if word gets round that the local Oxfam/red Cross/BHF is stuffed with BNWT M&S or Zara, it will affect sales in their main shops. There are also all sorts of rules about cutting through tags or writing on them with sharpie so that the CFers can't buy stuff in a charity shop and take it back to M&S/Zara/Ted Baker for a refund.

I volunteer too and I think we all could do with more volunteers. None of the staff are overpaid, and they put in extra time for nothing. I was in this morning, it was very busy as per usual. If items are overpriced, they don’t sell.

As you say, damaged and broken goods are binned. It begs the question why they are donated in the first place? We pay for our bins to be emptied, sadly they are regularly full!

I started volunteering at a charity shop earlier in the year and was amazed at how much goes on behind the scenes. I did realised donations had to be sorted but not at the sheer quantity that is put in the rag bins due to being stained, in holes or threadbare.

I also find the vast majority of people who complain about pricing are resellers. Some people will advise us that we have underpriced or overpriced collectibles which we pass on to the manager (in the space of two hours we were once told a camera was underpriced and overpriced by two separate men). There is one lady in particular who comes in regularly and makes loud comments that we don’t know what we are doing with regards to pricing but generally buys something and another who always tries to barter whatever the item.

The other thing that has surprised me is how often I am attracted to an item on the rails thinking it is Fatface or White Stuff to find out it’s actually Sainsburys Tu. Anything I buy is at the price on the rails.

How is it the responsibility of charity shops to clothe the poorest people in our country?

Thats our responsibility as a society, it’s got sweet FA to do with a local hospice charity, or the British Heart Foundation.

Everyone in our country should be able to afford to dress themselves and their families. That this isn’t the case had nothing to do charity shops, and everything to do with the fact that we have voted in right wing governments for many years.

The trustees of every charity have a responsibility to make sure income is maximised to meet their specific aims. It’s nonsense to suggest that they should ignore these obligations.

@SprogTakesAQuarry whilst I agree that we should all be able to afford to clothe ourselves, a change of government won’t help everyone. Work with people on limited incomes, and you’ll see wide variations in spending, with necessities quite far down some lists of priorities.

You’re right of course about the purpose of charities.

Maybe. Could just be things had to be priced lower because it was a matter of shame to buy clothes from there (I'm probably going back more than 30 years here), so the pool of purchasers was smaller. And the goods on sale weren't always of high quality - it was more "could someone get some use out of this?" rather than "could I imagine paying good money for this?"

I dislike the way a lot of them have become boutiquey style.was stock, thoughtfully arranged, clothes by colour etc. it may look better but it doesn't make for a better experience. Two of my favourites have gone that way. One used to look like a jumble sale but be absolutely heaving with loads of stuff cheap- meld range charging and a few pricier bits. They emptied it, had very little stock all pricier items a fair bit of over pricing imo. Looked at lot smarter but was always empty of customers too. A year of that and they've just closed down. Four of the other charity shops on that road are still buys and there's a shelter which I don't bother with much as it went the same long before. It's not just about the prices, it's the curation and lack of stock.

@booksandbrooks , the ones near me either look like jumble sales or are more like boutiques. The finds are in the jumbly ones. There are rails packed full of Primark, Shein, Missguided and Boohoo, but look carefully and you'll find 'what -would-monty-don-wear' brands often in great condition for less than £5.

The boutiquey ones have less crap, less stock but although the stock is on the whole better, the absolute finds aren't there. Some of them have things like Barbour or Seasalt coats in good condition for about £60, but they're not going to make me buy it on the off-chance it might be a good un. When I find something I genuinely like and want and it fits, I'll pay.

Buying something because it 'has something about it' for <£5 and finding that it has a RRP of £150 or something is brilliant.

I mean, I've never taken to social media to complain about the pricing in charity shops, but now that you've brought it up: we have one locally which prices ambitiously rather than sensibly. I get that they'd like to make money (obviously) and we're happy to support them but we're also not going to pay well over the odds for an item if we can get it cheaper elsewhere.

I'm thinking in particular about a large book (think coffee table style book) which my young DS was interested in. They had it at £25 - £30 or so. It was old but not 'collectable' old. We checked online and many of them were available for single digit prices. I think we ended up with a copy for £5 or so.

They had that book in the window for months. It's probably still in there, somewhere 😄

YABU in that it’s probably location dependent. Charity shop after charity shop has closed down near me.

I volunteer for a learning disability charity who had lots of shops and I noticed they were often over priced. Eventually, all the shops bar 1 or 2 closed down. It was really sad for the people who volunteered in them - most of them people with learning disabilities who otherwise were not included in society.

Selling second hand books for £3 when new they were double that. I didn't bother. I wanted some for our school library but was too expensive. This was Chiswick so maybe that is why. (I was visiting London and stayed nearby.)

Yep. All those boxes ticked for me.

I think then, as PPs have said, that the plummeting real cost of new clothes has changed the priorities of charity shop customers. There less need for someone to desperately "get some use out of" a poor quality item when they can go to Primark, Sainsbury's or Amazon Prime - all without the stigma of having to buy second-hand. 30 years ago, the sticker price of new clothes was virtually the same as it is today!

However, for someone like me (cost-conscious but not poor), it's basically a hobby to hunt out quality items with potential, even if it means taking them to be altered or having a go myself. I have enough clothes, but this lets me add to my wardrobe in a creative and environmentally friendly way, and I also consider it my main way of supporting charities.

I do personally love a jumble-shop type charity shop, rather than the boutiquey kind :-)

Do you think it puts people off volunteering now that charity shops have been gentrified? I’ve stopped shopping at charity shops and just buy from vinted / local very cheap thrift store.

Possibly I’d of considered volunteering but not now the prices are so high. I’d feel like I’d taken up chugging as a hobby.

@Pleaseme I'm well past retirement age, and it's good for me to mix with people and do something useful for a charity that I support.

Our shop is popular, its reasonably well presented but far from gentrified. The prices are reasonable and the turnover of stock is high. Can't suit all the people all the time!

I am increasingly alienated by the amount of bought in specially new goods they sell. It’s clearly profitable as the disease is spreading but it makes me much less likely to go in

One of ours has just opened a second shop across from the first and has taken to selling new Christmas decorations which will hurt the trade of some of our independents who rely on the Christmas sales. They are being undercut as they can’t compete with the charity shops lower overheads. I won’t be buying them but I guess enough will

Bric a brac and books - bargains

i own a cafe and I’m always hunting for baking tins etc, people dispose of some really lovely things, and all my Christmas shopping has been done in them…..

however, bobbly primark etc not a bargain.

There is a great market near me that sells 2nds from the high st. I’m not going to pay £6 for a pair of 2nd jeans when I can buy a new pair for £9

I think a lot depends on who manages them too, the last manager of our local banardos was sacked for ‘back dooring’ the good stuff and putting it on vinted

What’s chugging ?

Chugging is Charity Mugging
Where you get accosted in the street to be bullied and guilted into signing up to paying money each month to a charity you weren't interested in and possibly never ever heard of before.

Ooooh ! Always needed a name for it, now I have one 👍🏻

Charity shops have got too greedy. The price of paperbacks in Oxfam shops is ridiculous. Not much less than buying new from Amazon. And scruffy clothes from a lot of charity shops for £££s which you used to buy at a jumble sale for 20p.

If they are run like retail outlets fair enough. But I prefer John Lewis and M& S for retail outlets.

Price hiking charity shops are a fairly recent thing though. Using the ‘cost of living’ excuse to sell fast fashion items for more that their original price.
I’d still use our local hospice charity shop if they weren’t taking the piss. Independent charity shops are driving themselves into the ground with their own greed.

Shocking isn't it. Hiking the prices of tat to try to raise money for a good cause.

Trying to raise money for bosses on fat cat salaries more like. I usually only buy from hospice charity shops these days. Prices much more reasonable.

Maybe you think they should get volunteers to run the charities.