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.

Precisely. The "best" stuff (whatever that means) may not even be the items that the staff choose to buy.

The biggest issue with me would be someone knowing a “label” but paying little for it. Mary Portas pointed out in her tv series, that often elderly volunteers usually have no idea what’s worth more money and who in demand designers might be. Other people might. So who prices it? It’s not a given the charity makes as much as it should.

ime volunteers also donate good quality items. We know how frustrating it is to sort through bags of broken, dirty or damaged items and tend to donate items in a good condition that can go straight onto the shop floor.

You should report that. It's disgusting.

Yeah but are you pricing it up before you buy it? If that's the case your could price good items really low because you know you're going on to buy it.

I have noticed the quality of stock in charity shops in the last couple of years has really decreased. Wonder if that's a sign of more people selling their stuff on Vinted rather than donating.

I think it depends who is pricing the items. For instance with that book, someone had to know that it was worth quite a bit of money. If someone wants to put a sticker saying £1 on that book and then buy it themselves to sell online, that would be a big problem.

Jeezy peeps. Innocent comment and backs are up. ‘Good stuff’ was perhaps the wrong comment but in my local area I regularly visit charity shops and don’t find much more than parts of tea sets, dvds and clothes from primark more expensive than buying brand new. If there are things volunteers are get dibs on that are better then all I was meaning is it’s perhaps doing a disservice to the charity.

As for those bleating ‘I’m giving my time for free!’ - so bloody what? That’s your choice and it’s a charity. You volunteer for a charity without the expectation of reimbursement for your time. If you feel entitled to donations because you volunteer then I suspect you’re in the game for all the wrong reasons.

Then don’t use your knowledge of particular products to buy things? Because someone else who also is in the know could see it, come in to buy and get other things?

By removing items before being publicly available, the only thing you are doing is potentially decreasing sales. It’s not going to increase them.

How am I decreasing sales when I am paying for the items in question?

I buy an item, it is sold. The charity has gained a sale - from me - rather than lost anything.

As stated in my post - by being in the shop to buy the item, something else might pique their interest.

I don't feel "entitled to donations because I volunteer". I feel entitled to buy some donations that I'd like to own, the same as any other customer would.

It's not an entitlement; I just expect the same treatment as any other person giving the shop their custom.

I still don't think it's reasonable to expect staff to refrain from buying something they'd like to own. Many customers come into the shop speculatively anyway, without having any idea of what's on the shelves. It's not as though all the stock we have is visible from outside; people have to literally come inside the shop to see what we have for sale.

I get a 20% discount but there's no first dibs on all items as implied by some, if you happen to be sorting or steaming and see something you like, yes you can buy it but as most people only do 4 hours per week it's chance if you actually want something - there's not some big storeroom where volunteers can go through everything first!

I mostly work on the shop floor so the first time I see the stock is putting it out.

If anybody else wants the minor perks we do get why not volunteer....

If even one person in the entirety of the UK didn’t go into a charity shop because there was something available that they’d want that they didn’t see, then a charity has lost out if there was something else they might buy.

This year alone, a good quality item has enticed me into a charity shop and I’ve ended up buying other things, that I wouldn’t have without the main item being in the window.

I’m sorry, but it really feels like a lot of people have lost sight of what their volunteering is for.

If you want to buy it then do so at the end of the shift I guess? Fair game for everyone and not getting favourable treatment when the purpose is charity.

Someone mentioned taking quality items from the food bank - check the details because I have been offered things dropping off donations (my work is a drop off point) they are mostly out of date cans and packets and/or the kinds of things you get in luxury hampers eg tapenade, pate, anchovies ... they cannot put out of date food out, nor dented cans and the luxury food items have been offered as extras to clients and were not taken for at least a few weeks. I will always make an appropriate donation if accept foods (usually anchovies, they know I like them)

I do, as does my son. And we don’t get ‘perks’. We get biscuits, a sense of doing something meaningful (me) and a way to build his CV (him).

It’s charity. Stop looking for remittance.

In the Oxfam bookshop I volunteer in, stock is priced by both the paid employees (a manager and deputy manager) and a number of the volunteers. For many categories, there are set prices or guidelines that we're expected to follow. I've been told by management that books should generally be priced at a third of what they were originally; I sometimes go a little lower than this and price stock (that's being put out for OTHER customers, I should add) for 1/4 - because I think that £5 is still a decent price for a book that cost £20 and I'm conscious that some people think Oxfam overprices anyway.

If it's something that looks like it might be pricier, such as a very old, rare, unique or academic title (and after a while, you tend to develop an eye for the type of stuff that might be pricier) then we look it up online and see what it's selling for second-hand, and generally go by the cheapest price online, which could be £10 or £20 or £100, or more, depending on the item.

Staff also have to record the purchases they make (and how much they paid for the item) in a book, so that managers (and those higher up on the food chain, if necessary) can check that staff are buying items at an acceptable price, rather than making them dirt cheap for themselves.

When I worked in a chazza shop donkeys years ago, the rule was that the items had to be put out for sale but if they were left at the end of the shift we could buy them. We each worked 4 hour shifts. It worked well as a system.

This is the same for our local food bank, we leave a donation for at least the value so it can be replaced with something suitable.

This seems sensible to me. Not people cherry picking what they know is a good buy before anyone else can see it.

I honestly don't feel that I'm getting favourable treatment when I'm buying the item for the same price that another customer would do so.

Also, like I said, people have no idea what's for sale in our shop without coming in first. People aren't avoiding our shop because they're not seeing items they want - they're coming in to have a look to see if there's any stock they'd like to buy. So I'd say we get the same amount of footfall, regardless.

For my own part, the reason I volunteer is simply for the fun of it. I enjoy the work, and that's my only motivation. I don't volunteer with any particular values in mind, just for pleasure.

@allthatfalafel

You would be very much mistaken on both counts. Many of our customers are well healed and buy secondhand on environmental grounds. It's an affluent area. The volunteers are varied, many retired, some work pt like me and others are younger and are trying to get into work, building their skills and confidence eg following mental and/or physical illness. It's not all ladies who lunch

In all honesty, I really believe that some of the purchases that I've made from the shop I work in would not be considered "good buys" by the majority of our customers.

I've volunteered for a few groups in the past. The majority of people were polite, but a minority were rude and demanding.

I think you should have the right to purchase things you want and stuff the moaners.

The shop I'm in has a system in place by which volunteer purchases - and the prices they pay for them - are publically recorded, so that people can make sure that staff aren't pricing the stock cheaply for themselves.