To think people are quite petty to object to charity shop staff getting "first dibs" when they are BUYING the items?

[SorcererGaheris]

For context, I am a volunteer in a charity shop myself, and if I see something that I want, I will purchase it. The shop doesn't give staff discounts, either; staff pay full price - the last item I bought, a book, cost me £40.

Anyway, I COMPLETELY understand people objecting if volunteers were to just take donated items for themselves, but I've seen some online discussions in which people complain about the staff getting first pick of donations when they are paying for them. I really don't see the problem in this case, and think people who object are rather out of line. Other retail workers surely sometime purchase items from the shops they work in, so I don't see why volunteers should be begrudged that. A volunteer is a customer as much as any other.

Any need to be quite so unpleasant?

Someone should write a PhD on why people think it's OK to be quite so unpleasant about volunteers. Or paid staff in a charity shop.

Personally, I think running a charity shop must be so much harder than a "proper" shop. You have no control over what stock you get in. Volunteers may just decide they're having a day off and not coming on. Volunteers pick and choose what they will and will not do, refuse to go on the till or only ever want to work a Monday morning. Plus you're solely in charge of the health and safety, training, banking and everything else.

I tend to agree. I don't run the shop myself, but from what I see of some of the duties, I wouldn't exactly describe managing a charity shop as a laid-back role. It comes with its own challenges and can often be very low-paid.

At around this time last year, Oxfam employees actually went on strike over the low wages and the shop I volunteer in was closed for a couple of days because of this. (The volunteers obviously weren't on strike as we're not employees, but some of us chose not to go into the shop in solidarity with the strikers, and some of us were not confident enough to be working in the shop by ourselves without the managers there.)

And I truly think it's great that your main motivation for doing voluntary work is because the cause itself is very close to your heart.

However, that doesn't mean that all other volunteers are required to have the same reasons for volunteering as yourself, and you have been rather critical of the fact that my motivation for volunteering is simply that I find it fun to do.

Giving one's time for free because the cause or charity itself is important to you is a commendable thing to do. But that doesn't make volunteering for the purpose of pure pleasure a non-commendable thing.

IMO, you have been unjustly judgemental of people who do not volunteer for the same reasons that you do.

Exactly. It sounds quite thankless in many ways. It seems as if many customers hold charity shop workers in special contempt and think they know best about how to run the operation.

@BernardBlacksBreakfastWine - that is exactly what it feels like.

Contempt is the exact vibe you get off so many of the posts on here. Either that or pitying us as the poor unfortunates who are too stupid and backward to get a "proper job".

I find the term "proper job" to be quite confusing, personally. Surely ALL forms of work qualify as a proper job? Yet many people appear to refuse to accept that certain kinds of work are valid. That's why artists and writers say it's common for them to be told that they don't have "proper jobs".

If every person who volunteered for mainly selfish reasons, stopped volunteering, pretty much every charity would collapse.

What my organisation does is important to me. But I'd say that 75% of my reason for joining, was to get out of the house, meet people, and generally feel useful.

I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to manage a charity shop. Organising the rota would have me tearing my hair out

They can buy the odd thing. I can see a vinted or ebayer getting a job for the perks

Yep - if you're lucky enough to have a lot of volunteers who reliably come in often, then it's not so bad. But obviously, as volunteers, nobody is obliged to show up all the time. There are no limits to the number of days off/holidays people can take.

I normally try to give several days' advance notice that I'm not coming in, if that's possible. Sometimes something unexpected crops up that means I can't get in, so I don't always manage it.

Really? You can see someone who wants the fairly meagre extra that vinted might provide having hours to spend doing unpaid work? Seems fairly unlikely.

As Charity shop volunteers, our free labour means we are in fact donating a massive weekly amount to the charity as in the monetary value of our labour. So yes, we do get to buy stuff that we see before the customers. I consider that as fair reward for the fact that I can be bothered to get off my fat arse to spend hours volunteering.

A manager told me that every hour donated in a charirty shop of time is worth £15-20 to the charity. That was several years ago, it's probably more now.

When charities are trying to gain more volunteers, they often publicly talk about the benefits to the potential volunteers of doing the work. They'll say something like, "Gain new skills, gain work experience/something to put on your CV, make friends, do work you enjoy."

They realise that rather a lot of people will volunteer mainly (or perhaps only) because they like the idea of getting something positive out of the experience. Voluntary work isn't necessarily done with the motivation of helping others. The fact that that's often an outcome of voluntary work doesn't mean it's always the reason that people do the work.

As long as the jobs are getting done to the charity's satisfaction, they really don't mind if people are primarily volunteering with their own pleasure in mind.

@SorcererGaheris exactly. If my sole motivation were to benefit the charity I would send them a cheque.

It's the deal isn't it? you volunteer in a charity shop , giving your time, keeping it tidy and sorting through the donations and in return you get ' first dibs'.

This might mean seeing a book you've been after but haven't got from anywhere else, or finding a first edition that you can sell on for a few quid profit. I would imagine there are both volunteers who make sure the charity gets the money for a valuable item, or they pocket it themselves by selling on vinted/ebay etc.

Is this a problem? well you could always volunteer yourself if you are jealous , or don't go in chazzers if you think the model is all a con.

I'm firmly of the belief that now there are younger people volunteering - University students etc - who are doing it to spot vintage clothes and high value brands which they can then sell for a profit. we have ' vintage fairs' at my workplace and the stock is quite clearly all stuff that has been found in charity shops and marked up by a huge amount.

All this isn't particularly immoral or illegal, despite how distasteful some people find it.

I would imagine there are both volunteers who make sure the charity gets the money for a valuable item, or they pocket it themselves by selling on vinted/ebay etc.

I realise you are making a sympathetic point overall, but I want to specify again that the thread is more about volunteers getting the first chance to PAY for the items (and in the shop I volunteer at, there is no staff discount, so we pay the same price that anyone else would pay.)

When volunteers pay for the products, the charity still gets the money for the item.

Also, there have been some people making this subject strictly about volunteers. It's not only the volunteers who sometimes buy items, the salaried charity shop employees also sometimes buy things that interest them.

The two managers of my shop are both paid for their time and occasionally buy a book or a DVD.

That's one of the reasons I used the phrase "charity shop staff" in the thread title, as not all charity shop staff are volunteers.

This time last year, the managers of our shop were actually on strike for a couple of days. The shop was closed because of it.

It's not just about money going to the charity on a transaction by transaction basis.

Part of the job is to make the shop look attractive, and what makes it attractive is a selection of attractive items for sale. Along with that is a customer's perception that they ha e access to quality second hand merchandise.

This can't happen if the volunteers are all doing what you're doing.

Well, making the shop look attractive has never been one of my own duties.

But even so, the shop that I'm in does look attractive because there is a LOT of books in good-condition on sale. (As well as shelves of DVDs and CDs.)

Staff don't buy items simply because they're "nice", they only buy specific items that interest them personally. There are LOTS of nice books that I don't want, and I'm sure the same goes for the other staff. Most of the time, I don't see anything that I have any interest in buying.

And it's not simply about volunteers - the two managers of the shop are not volunteers, they are paid employees, and both went on strike along with other employees in the organisation last year. Both of them sometimes buy books/CDs that they would like to read/listen to.

It's pretty easy to compare one charity shop in a given stretch of high street against another. This can give you an idea of the sort of castoffs an area is generating. So you can tell which ones are selling the slim pickings, and decide for yourself why they're selling the dregs.

Some people do go weekly or even more frequently to their local charity shops.

You're hair splitting - ALL the good quality items...

The perception of a shop being a waste of time hurts the charity.

Excellent post.

@mathanxiety

But how am I splitting hairs? People's complaints have literally been that there is NOTHING decent in charity shops because the staff buy ALL the nice items.

I'd have to check back to be sure, but I think yourself have literally stated that staff buy "all" the good stuff and that that has a detrimental affect on the success of the shop.

What I am saying to you is that, as far as my shop is concerned, staff purchases have no detrimental effect on the ship, because there is a huge volume of good items on sale that staff do not buy. Why, just yesterday a customer bought a book that I had priced for £6.99.

So what on earth makes you think that the shop I work in is selling dregs?