To do something naughty in Charity Shops

[Monty27]

When I have donations to small things eg unopened and unwanted makeup items or a wrong size sink plug say, I slip them into the appropriate baskets or boxes in the shop so the volunteers don't have to sort it.

Well that’s just stupid and unhelpful. Stop it.

It would be better to donate them properly and gift aid them.

It also probably means when discovered they may need to get rid of everything if it hasn't been checked.

They wouldn't be priced if you do that.
Some people don't like to ask "how much is this?" - so don't buy it.
Some staff don't know the full procedure for what to do if a customer brings something to the till and it's not priced and it causes a nuisance.
Do what you're meant to do and properly donate it.
🙄

What an earth is the point of doing that? It will just cause confusion if not priced and it is a bit strange. The volunteers and staff are there to do it.

Yeah you're just creating more work for them when someone tries to buy the unpriced item, or they realise there's a load of stock out that hasn't had an eye over it. It's weird that you frame this as both naughty and somehow helpful when its really just going to be a pain in the ass.

Naughty? It just seems stupid and a way of creating work for the volunteers.

Isn’t it easier to just hand over a bag of stuff at the till?

Are you really donating nice things or is this a way of divesting yourself of rubbish you suspect the charity shop would reject?

They probably wouldn't accept a sink plug. Or makeup. I think you are just dumping stuff there that you know they will reject in the legit donation. Otherwise why is it helpful?
Silly and weird.

That’s such a weird thing to do, do you think you’re helping the staff or are you doing it spitefully make their jobs harder?

Eh? Why, what do you gain from that?
I regularly donate to charity shops.
I'd put stuff in a bag and take it to the counter for them to take off me.
Surely it's better if they see if they can use it and put a price tag on it?

It's often helpful if you pop a label on items that you give, where it might not be immediately obvious what it is, what it's for, any other info that might be helpful; and if you're giving them a bag of rags to sell on for a little bit of cash, absolutely label it 'rags' to save them the time of sorting through every item thinking that they might be saleable clothes... but any assistance that you offer has to end with you handing them a bag/item and then leaving it with them to price and prepare it for display.

What would happen if you well-meaningly slipped an item into their display basket that, unknown to you, was illegal to re-sell or was subject to some kind of necessary check/regulation? You could potentially get them into a lot of trouble if they were caught with, say, an electrical item without a PAT testing sticker, or one of Jimmy Savile's books, out on sale.

Whatever makes you think that they aren't capable of looking at donations, clearing them for display and putting a price on them? If it's a small miscellaneous sundry object, they aren't going to waste hours agonising over whether they put it out for 10p or 20p, if that's what you're worried about.

Don't do that.
There are regulations about what the shops are allowed to accept, and you don't know whether- or how - the items you sneak in meet them or not. You leave the charity, shop & the volunteers themselves open to criminal or civil action.

Also, I've volunteered in charity shops - many of the volunteers love the organising & work that goes into running them!

Also, if it's tiny items that you're leaving for them, they will probably want to make sure that they're well out of the reach of little ones, who might put them in their mouths and choke on them.

Charity shops DO NOT sell opened make up! It harbours bacteria and has a short shelf life.

So you are really making it bloody hard for them.

Jimmy Savile wrote books? (Misses point of thread entirely)

It's says unopened in the OP, so probably didn't need to shout that one at the OP.

This is a bizarre thing to do and a waste of people's time. When someone goes to buy one of your pieces of unwanted junk they aren't going to have a clue how much it is and will spend time trying to work out where the things have came from.

Completely weird person

Yep, at least three of them. One of them was even called 'God'll Fix It' and was basically JS presuming to give religious guidance to children.

Obviously, they aren't illegal to put out for sale, but which shop would actually want to - and to weather all of the complaints from customers who spotted them?

Sometimes I feel that I want to give something away for free but am aware charity shops pay rent, electric etc.

So I do wish there was a separate section where you could just ask them to give things away for free aside from the main shop.

But no don't go dropping things off randomly!!

Why?

It sounds to me like the OP's local charity shop has baskets or boxes they put small items out in, which presumably are marked "Assorted sink plugs, 50p each" or "All zips 30p each" or "Mixed cutlery, 20p per item" or whatever, rather than individually pricing every little thing. I've seen that in a lot of charity shops, especially independent ones. Still a weird thing to do, though, dropping in extra ones without saying anything.

A godless rapist giving advice about God to kids? euwwww!

This is not really much different in principle from the deeply irritating people who leave bags outside the door when the shop is closed - so they often can't even get into the shop without clearing a path, and then they have to sort through what will often be either stuff that was already rubbish or stuff that might have been saleable but is now most probably rubbish after being out all night in the rain, and for animals to wee or poo on and drunks to vomit on. They have to pay to get rid of it as trade waste, so you aren't just not helping the charity; you're actually actively hurting them.

We all enjoy the feeling of handing over bags of old stuff that we no longer want/need and getting rid of it; however anybody but the most selfish member of society knows that it has to be a two-way thing that you can know will also be beneficial to the charity - it isn't a new local sub-branch of the tip.

Beyond disgusting, isn't it?