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.

Bingo! Pigs with snouts in the trough? Stealing all the good stuff? Volunteers who are a bit thick?

here’s a Christmas tip, @Viviennemary. YOU are not the charity.

I think you'll find people like me are the charity. Without buyers there won't be shops. I blame that awful Mary Portas for this. I dont want a Mulberry bag for 50p. I just want books for a pound or two. Hospice shops manage this.

You're right @Viviennemary

There's no excuse for upwelling 'tat' as pp even admitted.

Selling people things that are stained or don't work properly, selling things for brand new prices when it's used.

Sure, they can keep doing it. The people who shop there will stop going there, because nobody wants to feel like they're being ripped off.

There really is some sort of weird anti charity shop agenda on Mumsnet lately.

You can buy one of Ed Sheeran shirts in Framingham St Elizabeth Hospice Shops for £150!! And it’s from F and F 😂

or some jewellery his mum Imogen has made…..

Everyone on this thread is going to be a customer or former customer of charity shops. As oxfam has shown us, charity is not above criticism.

Not just lately. Those of us who volunteer in the sector have heard it ALL before - how the volunteers are either thick or thieves or probably both, how the managers are similarly clueless, how it's all "fat cat" bosses, how someone read somewhere that 0.000005% of takings goes to the cause anyway.

And what it all boils down to is that charity shopping has become much more mainstream over the last decade or so, more competition for donations, and the rise of cheap fast fashion means people are finding it harder to source amazing bargains as they could in the past. And they don't like that.

If you can buy it cheaper elsewhere, then just go there & buy it there.... why isn't that the logical outcome of prices you don't like in the charity shop same as any other shop with prices you don't like. Why is the outcome to express outrage on social media instead?

I never understand those charity-shop-bashing threads at all. It's not compulsory to shop at one, there is no reason for the pearl-clutching threads to exist.

You can shop elsewhere and also have an opinion, fyi.

Absolutely.