Charity shop prices

[Whatisgoingonheredear]

I buy a lot of clothes for the kids on vinted but yesterday went to nosey in some charity shops with DD. I used to get a lot of my own clothes from charity shops (now I use vinted) and we went to the same street that I'd go to before.
A spider man long sleeved baby boys shirt that was absolutely COVERED in cat hair for £4. At £1.50 I might not have been bothered about getting all the hair off, but at £4, it's a no and kind of gross.
Most of the baby items were the same price as a new item in a highstreet sale.
DD saw a toy that she liked. It was £5. It wasn't an expensive brand toy and there were pieces missing. I asked if they'd accept £2.50 given there were missing pieces and they said no.
She then asked for a teddy that she liked....that was £10!!! For a charity shop teddy. She had her own money but I did steer her away because I'd feel awful for her letting her spend her savings on such an expensive second hand, maybe third hand, toy.
I looked at a baby walker. It was £20. For a used and donated walker?

Needless to say we didn't come out with a lot. I got a couple of kids items that I thought were OK quality and not so horrendously priced, but then I got home and managed to pick up 6 items on vinted for the same price as 1 charity shop item.
I won't be bothering again. I do donate to charities and am well aware they need to make money but....why is it so expensive? Especially in the current climate and with things like vinted to compete with?
The stock was free to them and charities in my area get discounted rent and discounted business rates.

If they're going to put stained and unwashed clothes out - fine, you can't ensure everything is washed - but fgs lower the price.

Exactly! Like the cat hair top...it was actually a sweet top and for a quid I'd have gone home and cleaned it up. Not for the price they had it at, though!

It's their sole function

Was going to say deffo pick Mondays - all bank holidays off 😂

I’m in Scotland and have also noticed that Oxfam have the highest prices. Especially the bookstores.

But if its over priced no one will buy them anyway so they have shot themselves in the foot.

I very rarely use charity shops for clothes, but I love finding unusual or quirky bric a brac items or jewellery.

It depends where you shop. I'm in the North East, and there are some bargains if you look in the right places.

An Oxfam shop in a small town I recently visited had a set of 4 Denby dinner and side plates for £4.99, which matched ours, so I snapped them up immediately.

The Christian charity shop that I used to volunteer in used to have what my FIL would call "proper charity shop prices". Think 10p for a ball of wool, 5p for an item of cutlery, tops and jeans for £1.50 etc. They had a revamp and were taken over by another Christian charity who advised new minimum prices so everything went up, but still reasonable in comparison with some of the bigger names. They also sell new food items too donated by business, for heavily discounted prices which is useful for stocking up on dry goods.

Charity shops can charge what they ask for, but they should definitely be in good, clean condition.

We don't put out shit like that. If it's covered in hair it gets binned, bits missing, binned, stained? Also binned.

We don't set the prices but we make sure that it's at least decent condition.

I like charity shops to pick up games and books for my classroom but there are only a few that fit my budget. £3 per children’s book is ridiculous, I can pick up new ones from The Works for less. Small games and card games used to be 99p too but are all £5+ now, even the grubby, torn ones.

We have a charity shop near us where everything is £1.00. There are also others that often have £1 sale days.

I used to work in a charity shop. Top regional management constantly push for higher prices, totally pricing out bargain hunters and those genuinely in need. I used to price stuff down and get it sold. Everyone gets a bargain. Shop makes money and stock is constantly moving. If we stuck to the higher price guidelines, and things didn't sell, then we were told to refuse donations until they did.
Just makes no sense. I don't work in a charity shop anymore, because I grew sick of the clueless management bullshit, and I was constantly told off for actually making sales and taking in all donations!! I do sometimes shop in them, but only the ones I know still have a bit of automony over their own pricing.

A friend of mine took over managing a charity shop that wasn’t doing so well.
She changed it to every item a pound and kids clothes two for a pound.
It’s not pretty to shop in, there’s literally long racks that go the length of the entire shop but it’s constantly busy and full to the rafters. If you’ve got an hour to spare, you can find some absolute bargains.

Always thought main reason people volunteered was to get first dibs on the good stuff !

I'd love an everything for a pound day! You can guarantee the shops would be cleared out, ready for new donations, probably make hundreds. And less ends up in landfill. Win win.

Always thought main reason people volunteered was to get first dibs on the good stuff !

I know a few people that volunteer, most are older ladies who don't work any more but want to spend a few hours doing something. One person I know was in a paid role in a charity shop and she did snap up all of the best things immediately.
She also lowered all the prices that management told her to set and unsurprisingly, the shop did well, stock was always moving, and it got a reputation for being one of the "better" shops with nice stock and fair pricing.

I am in the south in a "naice" area and the chazzas are still well priced. I don't buy clothes in them but have had some great china and glass bargains. The clothing all looks clean and the racks are always busy, people leaving with armloads

I go in our local ones regularly and one in particular charges ridiculous prices. They’ve had the same stuff on the rails for weeks because of it. It’s silly and seems greedy.

Yup.

Profit versus turnover.
When you get free stock you may as well sell as much as possible. What you don't sell you have to pay to take it to the tip.

If you have to turn people away or are pricing people out then you're doing yourself no favours.

Ooh, can I play? I'm going to use the charity shop I used to volunteer in.

The volunteers are all thick little old ladies who have nothing better to do.
The demographic of our volunteers varied from 20 something mother to be, retired professionals both male and female, and I was a 30 something mother whose children were in early years primary school.

The volunteers are totally thick and cannot recognise expensive brand labels.
I did! There was a Hermes scarf going for £15 in our window! We didn't get many designer items, but on another recent trip to this charity shop, there were some brand new with stickers crockery being sold for £4 each, which was vastly reduced from their rrp, but a few pounds more than non branded ones they were selling.

The volunteers instantly recognise expensive brands and swoop on them immediately for themselves.
We're not allowed to. They have to be on the shop floor for at least half the day before we can buy them ourselves.

Volunteers get anything they want for free.
No. We have to buy them ourselves. When I first volunteered, we had a generous discount of 50%, but after the takeover, it was 25% off.

Designer goods are all overpriced even though the shop manager knows they will not be sold.
If anything, they were sold far too cheaply at the time.

Designer goods are underpriced and should be sold at the proper price to benefit the charity.
Ha! Can't have it both ways. Depending on who's pricing them, I find the pricing a bit all over the place.

The shop has had old tat donated.
Unfortunately, this is true, because some people think you should be grateful for just anything. We used to get so much stock however, that we had to sift through a lot of it, which wasn't always a pleasant job. Doesn't mean they end up on the shop floor though!

The shop is not grateful enough for your old tat even though they have to go through the bin bags and dispose of your unsaleable items that you couldn’t be bothered to take to the tip.
We were grateful alright, but see above.

Rates are cheap and magically the cost of electric water and paid staff are free.
I'm not privy to that information, but the shop manager was paid.

And of course (two shots for this one) in pride of place there is the tatty bobbled Primark jumper that someone saw priced at a gazillion pounds
Again, there is so much stuff, that we have to donate anything like that to the rag collectors. Labels vary, but we were good at discarding bobbly, stained, not fit for purpose stuff like that.

Shocking isn’t it? The prices have gone up astronmically in the last few years. I used to love a good mooch in charity shops. I don’t bother anymore, it’s cheaper to buy things new sometimes!

Completely this! Although we have one charity shop near us that's good - decent kids clothes at sensible prices. The other ones want more for a stained/faded Primark t-shirt than Primark want for a new one!

It's knowing the charity shop. .one locally sells all children books and I mean all so big expensive ones for 20p. I've got some bargains from there. Another owns their shop and just sells everything cheap.. however the rest I don't bother looking in now...no point

I've noticed a real difference. 10-20 years ago my children loved to go in and explore, often finding toys and games for 50p or so. I tried to donate a magic set recently that was in really good condition but had a few pieces missing, which I'd detailed on a post-it on the front. That meant that a couple of tricks weren't possible but it was fine for the majority. I said all this to them and they said they couldn't take it because no one would buy it. I knew they would if it had a low price. When I got home I put it on the kerb and someone had taken it within half an hour.

This is really not something to be proud of. Unless you're having wearing clothes made by children.

@xsquared

'The volunteers instantly recognise expensive brands and swoop on them immediately for themselves.
We're not allowed to. They have to be on the shop floor for at least half the day before we can buy them ourselves.'

I've been in smaller local charity shops where this (putting good stuff aside so they can buy it) definitely does appear to happen. It doesn't really bother me though.

All very well if people are prepared to buy at those prices. A charity won’t make any money if people vote with their feet.