To think a charity shop is taking the piss asking these prices?

[FrasierReboot]

Went into a charity shop today. Yes, I get that the charity needs to make money etc etc but....

£40 for worn bobbly Primark and George at Asda coats. Would probably have been half that price brand new

£7 for worn jeans with holes in the bum and or/crotch or seams, again brands such as Primark or George.

AIBU to think this is mad?

see we have a charity shop here that is SUPER cheap, everything from 10p - £2 max, and they are constantly selling things but then we have another that will sell a primark top for £15 .... and i never see anyone actually purchasing anything ...

Nope YANBU. Charity shops are there principally to make money granted, but also exist so people with a lower income can buy items that they can afford (especially kids clothing when they are always growing out of it) I get that people of all incomes shop in charity shops, but I still think they should keep pricing proportionate with lower income families and it's not as though the shop has had to buy the clothes in the first place!

If they can sell them at that price, then good luck to them, but I doubt they can!

You'd think so wouldn't you?

To make it worse a lot round us are refusing donations now because they "have too much stock to shift"
Well yes, if nobody's buying at inflated prices that's what'll happen, so why not reduce it, sell more and make the same money in the end?

Happens up and down the country. They won’t sell, and the price will be reduced until it does. That’s capitalism for you. When I see obviously overpriced tat at a charity shop, I just chuckle and leave it at that

I do think it’s a lack of knowledge from the people doing the pricing. eBay is their go-to for pricing bric-a-brac and as a previous poster has said, they rely on what someone is asking for an item, not what it has actually sold for. I’m in charity shops all the time as a reseller and I don’t mind paying if I think it’s worth it and I can make a decent profit. Charging more than an antique shop is taking the mickey though. An antique dealer has had to pay for their stock, pay full rates and rent and yet will be happy to haggle. Regarding clothes, I agree, it’s lack of knowledge again. I heard an elderly lady ask a manager the other day if the top she was interested in was a “good make” as it was quite expensive. The manager breezily said, “It’s Shein. It’s a really good make”. 😬

That is the extremely successful American 'Goodwill' chain's pricing model.

Their shops are always heaving and because merchandise gets sold and new stuff sorted and on tbe racks quickly you always find something new to browse.

I also blame Mary Portus. She ruined the quirky aspect of charity shops. I often wonder what happens to the quirky items that are donated.

One of my favourite things to do is to go charity shopping in the poshest area in my city. I don't mind second hand when it's Seasalt for a tenner. George and primark at crazy prices just aren't going to sell.

Too much stock is often because we don’t have the back office space to sort donations as eg rag or rubbish has not been collected. If people didn’t donate complete crap this would not be such an issue. Who wants to buy rusty baking trays, broken dolls, stained clothes…?

often wonder what happens to the quirky items that are donated.

We sell them...

The one issue with a "pile it high sell it cheap" model is that you need a constant churn of volunteers to be going through the bags, pricing, steaming, manning the till, filling the shelves. Many charity shops can't hit the bare minimum of two able-bodied adults in the shop to open safely. Getting good volunteers and keeping them week in, week out is not easy. And volunteers who are prepared to do everything which needs doing, so many people just want to do the till or just want to steam or do the books or whatever and won't turn their hands to whatever needs doing. Often you'll come across Fiona who is a Wednesday morning person and couldn't possibly contemplate coming in on a Tuesday afternoon, because she is a Wednesday person! It's all we can do to keep the things churning as it is. And that's also assuming that managers haven't done the sums to maximise revenue and discounted that model.

And the other problem with selling everything cheap is that it's very disrespectful to the people who donate decent stuff to us. I went through a bin bag of stuff last time I was in and it was all White Stuff, Boden, Reiss, Hobbs. Someone has been generous enough to give us stuff they could have put on Ebay/Vinted, it's the least we can do to get a decent price for it. (And by decent I mean £6 or £7 for a White Stuff tunic top, £12 for a dress).

Yes, the standard comment of people running charity shops are all a bit dim. Just waiting for the comments on volunteers ‘stealing’ all the best stuff.
we receive huge amounts of information re sales per square metre, sales of new goods, we rotate stock and mark down after two weeks…yet apparently we are all clueless.
please do come and volunteer and show us how it should be done!

Oxfam priced themselves out of the market for me a few years ago as far as books are concerned and I've always bought a lot of used books. They always used to be my charity shop of choice because of the type and range of books that Oxfam type customers being in. I go in and look at the books but know I can always find them for less on eBay or Amazon. Interestingly not all Oxfam shops are expensive it's only certain ones that are unrealistically priced.

I go into charity shops a lot all over the place and have found some are very expensive- for example a Joules t-shirt £15. I understand Joules is quite an expensive shop but I won’t pay £15 for a secondhand item. I’ve seen shoes or other items for sale at £70 - British HF have become one of the worst.

I think it greatly depends on which charity. I avoid some because they're overpriced. Got a Phase Eight dress today for £4 and I'm wearing vintage Levi's that cost me that in an RSPCA shop. I've seen similar in vintage shops for £40-60. Oxfam wanted about £20 for jeans.

Some charity shops are selling things for a lot more than worth. It's always best to look around

I bought a nice skirt for £4 recently in a charity shop and the sales assistant asked, as I paid ‘would you like to make a donation to support the charity?’
I was flabbergasted and asked him what he thought I had just done making a £4 purchase?
The cheek of it!!

I went round all the charity shops in my city last weekend and found it to be similar. I used to always buy coats from charity shops but found them selling second hand Primark, Shein etc coats for similar/more than they would have been new. So it's not a one off OP.

In one shop there was a tatty, quite badly stained jacket selling for £15. Assumed it must be designer to be selling something so manky for that price, so I googled the brand. It was a piece of work uniform.

I think there’s only 1 or 2 good charity shops left locally here. I have to say Sue Ryder used to be good when it first opened this new store but slowly it’s become more and more just a shop when I can go in B&m round the corner and pay less for new items.

YMCA is my go to one for good but cheap clothes. Got dh some M&S work shirts £1.50 each, a M&S shirt in the Sue Ryder was £6 it was a no brainer.

YMCA got my money and in fact I purchased more stuff I wasn’t even looking for so in the end a charity got £20 out of me where as Sue Ryder got nothing and that shirt was still there a month later well that or an identical one 😂 I’ve not gone back in Sue Ryder since.

We are a well known charity shop selling furniture.
But it's really dear £500. Yes I get it's a nice sofa probably well made. But you probably cannot spread the payments. I could brand new one for less through Argos, yes maybe not quite as sturdy made, but I can spread the payments.
£500 is the cheap end, some are lot more. They are second hand.

I used to volunteer at a local charity shop. So much time was spent sorting, inspecting for damage, steaming and then...it was overpriced. Consequently, it would sit on the rails for 3 weeks + and then be removed, shoved in a bag and moved on to another shop in the chain. We were drowning in donations but so much stuff was overpriced, that it just didn't sell. I found it so frustrating .

In Goodwill they ask if you'd like to round up to the nearest dollar. The idea being that every little bit helps. A lot of people round up.

Bingo.

YANBU.

I live in quite a poor area. I get books from a local charity shop for 50p-£1. At that price I buy them, read them, and donate most of them back to the shop, along with whatever other items I have to give to charity.

The 'big name' charity shop down the road sells the same sort of books for £3.50+. I don't even bother going in there. I can get used paperbacks cheaper than that on ebay!

Charging more for used items than what they'd be worth new is even worse and always ridiculous.

Another thumbs up for YMCA, £1/£2 items of clothing, £4 coats, 4 books for £1, children's clothes 4 for £1 also, I've had Joules, Boden, Next the lot!