Charity shop questions?

[girlfriend44]

I donate a fair bit to charity shops. Various ones in the town centre.

Do the volunteers/staff get to take things for themselves, or is everything strictly put out in the shop To sell?

Is it better to donate to pet charity shops, or is it just a personal choice?

I tend to rotate abit.
Sometimes I think, I wonder if if it's better to donate to one particular shop over another?
Any thoughts?
Have you worked in one?

I've volunteered in a few. Volunteers/staff do get first dibs with new stock if we see something we like, but we still pay for it.

I think it's just a matter of personal choice which ones you donate to. I also tend to rotate my donations among local shops.

Volunteers usually get first pick-but they pay.

I tend to donate to one particular charity shop because a) I support the charity and b) you can drive up to the back door to drop off.

I donate to whichever one I can get a parking space closest to.

Why would it be better to donate to pet charity shops over other charities?

Now that they've brought in gift aid on donated items I'll only donate to charities like MIND that send an annual statement that can be used to claim the higher rate tax relief. I used to donate a lot to a couple of other very mainstream charities that were keen to get us to sign up to their Gift Aid scheme but when I asked about getting a statement at the end of the year they cba to do that bit of the admin.

I am a volunteer, I have volunteered in the past for Oxfam and now volunteer with one of the other large chains.

Yes we get first dibs but ALWAYS pay for anything we want to buy. Different chains have different policies. Oxfam there was no volunteer discount, we paid the price anyone else would have paid. Every staff/volunteer purchase was written in a book by whoever was on the till and you weren't allowed to ring your own purchases through. Auditors checked the staff purchase log to make sure volunteers weren't abusing it.

At my current place we do get to buy things at a cheaper rate than a customer would pay, but again it's not up to you to decide the price of something you want to buy, that is decided between the other people working with you. So yesterday I wanted to buy a pair of M&S jeans in my size, not BNWT but felt fairly new. We would have put them out in the shop for £6. I bought them for £4.50. Again, we're not allowed to ring our own purchases through the till.

As for whether it's worth donating to one particular shop - well that really depends on a whole host of factors including how well run it is, whether the volunteers are nice to you, how you feel about that particular charity, whether it's easy to park, whether they accept the sort of things you wish to donate, and lots of other factors too. It is entirely up to you and there is no right and no wrong.

apologies for weird gif in previous post - no idea how that happened and can't remove it!!!

I did a stint volunteering in a charity shop when I was younger and my MIL does now.

To answer your questions:

Do the volunteers/staff get to take things for themselves, or is everything strictly put out in the shop To sell?

If the volunteers want something, they have to pay for it like anyone else. You might get first refusal on stuff that's brought in, but you still have to pay the same price anyone else would pay. No freebies.

Where I volunteered, if you wanted something, you had to get it priced up by someone else (to prevent people from pricing up a designer item at 50p in order to buy it for themselves).

Not everything is necessarily put out in the shop - it depends on the charity. Some stuff gets sold by other means. Where MIL volunteers, they sort out certain vintage or designer items that they know are particularly desirable and sell them online or occasionally at vintage fairs.

Is it better to donate to pet charity shops, or is it just a personal choice?

I'm not really sure what you mean by this? Just donate to whichever ones you like. Provided you think all the charities are equally worthy, it really doesn't matter. I mostly donate stuff to one particular charity shop where I live - but that's honestly just because I'm often donating books which are really bloody heavy in a bag and it happens to be the shortest walk from the car park!

I donate to shops that are the easiest to access and nearest to parking. I have also stopped donating to one particular shop after I turned up there a couple of times and was told that they couldn't accept donations as they were overflowing...I mean I sympathise but when you have hiked to the shop with two HUGE bags of stuff and are turned away....well it didn't make me feel charitable. This year I have been doing a massive clear out and honestly I do not care what happens to the stuff once its out of my house provided its not going to landfill. if stuff is really heavy or bulky then I offer it on freecycle or my local giveaway page. People are genuinely grateful and you meet all sorts.

Staff pay just like customers, we get a 20% discount.

I think she meant pet as in favourite rather than animal charities.

My child volunteered for Barnardos. I know with them you had to put items out for a certain number of days before you were allowed to buy them yourself as customers had to have first dibs. Some managers were more lenient than others on this but it was company policy so her manager remained firm on it.

It's quite highly regulated, as it could be a tax fiddle. Yes staff get dibs but they pay the floor price and many places don't do staff discount, the perk is dibs.

I used to work in one but am now one of their 'sharks'. Another business that asks them to keep stuff back for me to have dibs on. I pay not quite floor price as I tithe back items I make from the stuff they keep back for me.

Their clock man no longer buys clocks, he finally ran out of space, but he still gets his 'fix' as he prices up any clicks they get in.

It's not all sticking stuff on hangers and waiting for it to sell

OK and to everyone else who said you still pay. That's good then. I thought maybe volunteers could take it for free.

I donate to the charity shop that doesn't do gift aid. It's easy to drop off and the staff are lovely.

Can only really speak for Myself and my experience of volunteering at a Charity Shop

Clothes, Shoes, Handbags etc are put on the shop floor for sale for two weeks.
They are then removed and should an employee or volunteer wish to buy any of the items they can do so, with a discount. I bought myself a lovely little fun fur jacket this way.

No idea how other charity shops work .

I've watched dumpster diving videos on YouTube where charity shops chuck perfectly good stuff out. It's put me off donating to be honest

I watch that sometimes.

In the CS I volunteered at, anything Primark was put into a bag that was then collected for another branch where every item is sold for £1.00

We also had a rag bag that was literally unsellable clothing items. That was collected weekly and not sure where the rags ended up

After lots of staff got in trouble for fraud in the local charity shop police involved and lots of volunteers let go of or walked out I'm not sure what goes on . I don't think the volunteers should have first dibs either but that's just my personal view

I've bagged up sub par clothes and marked them as rags for the charity to sell.
The stuff being binned on these videos is china (perfect condition, some vintage), brand new stuff in Amazon boxes, all sorts of things. It's sad that people donate in good faith and it's just binned. The couple that rescue the stuff 're donate it to independent charities (the binners are chains like BHF and CR)

I have worked out in my local town which charity shops are better for different types of things. But I try to gift aid with all of them. So all books straight to Oxfam Books - they will be able to pulp what isn't sellable and list on the Oxfam website anything of interest. The Oxfam Books in the next town not so accommodating. Our town had a great store manager - must make a difference. (Costume) jewellery to the main Oxfam store - they bother to display items properly so they can be seen. Ceramics, household goods (ie heavy items) to the local Hospice shop - I can park at the back. Clothing - probably to the Childrens Trust shop - they bother to state locally on local facebook groups that they need stock and what they are looking for. We must have 10-12 charity shops so better to spread out. But I was slightly aghast when I dropped off a large bag of old vintage small cars and was clear what they were. Dropped at the back, parked, came back through the front to have a browse to overhear a staff member talking to a "customer" about the large bag of cars that had just been dropped off. He made an offer, she accepted. There was no way she had even looked in the bag to see what was there. Now I know that the cars were battered, no boxes, good age, good makes, but she didn't. It really was selling cheap to someone who would be trading on. Not quite sure how I feel about that. Perhaps better to get the cash quick, than try to look individually.

Why not? It's one of the few perks of the role which mostly involves sorting through people's dirty and torn clothing.

Why not? It's the only perk for all those unpaid hours. They get nothing for free.