200 charity shops closing (cancer research)

[lebopbop]

AIBU to be sad about this as a charity-shop lover?

I don’t have a nearby cancer research shop but lots of other charity shops and I’m worried this is signalling a general trend :(

I do like Vinted etc for pre-loved clothes but it’s so much better to see things in person, be able to try on and not pay postage. It’s also just fun to go and rummage.

@CrostaDiPizza there's also several community bookshelves in many shopping centres 😂
It's not just a train station thing.

There used to be a great charity shop (not Cancer research) near us. Then the staff changed, all the prices went up and they started selling everything half decent on line - so now it's just crap.

Even Loros, Leicester’s hospice has changed one of their shops from one that sold suits, posh dresses for weddings etc to everything a £1. Obviously the shop doesn’t sell the suits anymore

My daughter has special needs and isn't able to work and people often ask why she doesn't volunteer in a charity shop. Actually her supervision needs are too much for most shops but anyway, it does raise the issue of why these large charities rely on unpaid labour. Their chief executives are on high salaries yet they expect people, often vulnerable people, to work there for free.

@Arran2024

It's because if they paid everyone who works in the shops, then the amount of money raised for the cause would dramatically fall.

Currently, Oxfam gives 80% of their takings directly to their cause. If they didn't have volunteers and hired employees only, I can only imagine what that percentage would be. Not nearly as much as 80%.

Yes, chief executives are paid very well (though, it's worth pointing out, they are typically NOT paid as high a salary as they would be if they were working in the private sector) but that's because the jobs the chief executives do require a lot of experience and skill and a LOT of responsibility. If they offered low salaries for those positions, qualified people simply wouldn't take them and you'd be left without competent people running things.

Just looked at the list - a few that I go to are closing😞The one in my town closed yonks ago. I hope it's not going to be a trend across other charities. I have to say, the charity shops I go to (and I spend loads of my free time wandering round charity shops, not just in my own town) always seem to be doing a brisk trade!

I just read that the charity sector lost about a third of its volunteers during the Covid period - and the numbers haven't picked up to where they once were.

So fewer staff is almost certainly a contributing reason to why some charity shops are closing.

Charity chief executives generally aren't on high salaries for their position though. I find this expectation that people should work below the market rate for their skills and expertise, just because it's for "charidee" baffling. If you have the skills, qualifications and expertise to be C-Suite level, then you should expect to be paid a salary commensurate with that. The C-Suite jobs can't be done by just anyone - modern charities are large, complex organisations with organisational needs around corporate finance, HR, cybersecurity, etc etc. The people who manage those areas of expertise deserve to be paid fairly for doing so, just as those people who work in other areas of the charity do so too.

@roundaboutthehillsareshining

Totally agree. If charities take on some paid employees, they should pay them all a fair, and decent wage.

Unfortunately, this isn't always done with staff on the lower end, and was a key reason why Oxfam workers went on strike in December 2023. Oxfam shops were closed on a few days in December because of it.

I;ve said it before on these threads but charity salaries across the board are uncompetitive.

The manager's position came up a couple of years ago at the Oxfam shop where I was a volunteer and the district manager encouraged me to apply. I didn't, for a lot of reasons. The salary was about 30p an hour more than minimum wage. I would have been the only paid member of staff in the store, the salary was 35 hours a week and the store was open 52 hours a week. For my just over minimum wage salary I would be responsible for everything - doing the banking, complying with health and safety legislation, getting out of bed at 3am if the alarm went off, training and recruiting volunteers, safeguarding, and that's before you even get to managing donations and hitting targets. It's a LOT. All the time working with a "staff" who don't have to turn up if they don;t want to, and can pick and choose the parts of the role they fancy doing and refuse to do the steaming/till/sorting if it's not their cup of tea.

At the same time there was an advert for a department manager in a large Primark - more money, none of the challenges of volunteer staff, other managers around for support/cover, general manager in the store above you. Obviously anyone wanting a career in retail is going to choose Primark over charity in that situaiton.

They have become a business instead of a charity shop that helps the buyer get something cheap as well. They get all their stuff for free and they charge ridiculous prices.

I think Vinted is taking them out of the game.

A charity shop I went to on Sunday was selling dusty, worn Nike shoes for £25. On Vinted for £25 they would have to be something special.

They get all their stuff for free and they charge ridiculous prices.

But - just like a retail shop - they have costs to cover that aren’t just the goods. Manager salary, heating, lighting, shop rent, security, cleaning, disposal of unsaleable items etc.

@Wakeuplittlebunnies , of a charity shop that helps the buyer get something cheap as well They don't exist to help the buyer get something cheap - they exist to raise funds for the charity.

They get all their stuff for free and they charge ridiculous prices.
They get stuff free but it needs sorting, pricing etc, and a lot of it will not be fit for anything other than binning. That costs money and time. A lot of the staff are not volunteers.
The shops I go to do not charge ridiculous prices.

The clothing banks near me are often full to over-flowing because they rarely seem to be emptied and/or are flytipping hotspots.

The other alternative is the clothing bins at the tip but the council made the tip appointment-only during covid which, as I don't live particularly near, makes dropping things off at short notice impossible. So sometimes I do just put things in the bin.

On the subject of books, I like to buy second-hand books and the independent charity shops near me are good for this. But when the likes of Oxfam (who I won't support any more anyway after their appalling treatment of JK Rowling) sell books for similar prices to a new one, I'm not paying those prices. I buy from charities selling on Amazon/eBay where the book AND postage still often costs less than Oxfam.

@RandomGeocache

That's disgustingly low for the manager's wage, especially considering the responsibilities involved.

I wasn't surprised when Oxfam staff went on strike a couple of years ago. The low pay is really quite abysmal.

I think that some people assume that the role of charity shop manager is an easy job, but the truth is very different. Perhaps it used to be a relatively easy role in decades past when charity shops were perhaps less professionally run. But nowadays the level of responsibility and pressure can be pretty taxing.

@GrannyWeatherwaxsHatpin

But when the likes of Oxfam (who I won't support any more anyway after their appalling treatment of JK Rowling) sell books for similar prices to a new one, I'm not paying those prices.

How similar are they? Do you mean higher than 50% of the original price?

Personally, I don't think charity shops should sell donated items for more than half of the original price (unless it's, say, a book that was published in 1975 for £2.99) - taking into account inflation, that would be a lot more in today's money.

In the particular Oxfam bookshop that I'm at, the deputy manager told me that they should be priced at a third of the original price - unless they are very new (i.e. released this year) in which the price should be 45-50%.

I realise that is still considered quite steep by many, but I wouldn't say it qualifies as being close to new prices. If there are Oxfam shops that are selling stock, at say, 70 or 75 percent of the original price, that would be far too high.

People have repeatedly said the same stuff on past threads what the problem is and always someone pops up to say they're wrong.

Then we get a thread about charity shops closing down, people are saying why and still they're wrong.

When people sort out their wardrobes and clutter. They absolutely do not give a shit. They just want rid.

@gamerchick

When people sort out their wardrobes and clutter. They absolutely do not give a shit. They just want rid.

I accept that that's true of many (perhaps most) donors, but surely you can see that it's not the case for everyone?

ShanghaiDiva has said that in her experience, there are some donors who do want the charity shop to get a good price for the donation - probably those who actively care about the charity's cause and want to see it do well. I don't see what's unbelievable about there being a proportion of donors (even if only a minority) who do give a shit.

@SumUp charity clothes bins should be scrapped as encourages fly tipping and doubt any of the stuff inside the bins are sellable. Either because people throw in clothes beyond wearing or people throw things in there for a laugh such a bleach

That's disgustingly low for the manager's wage, especially considering the responsibilities involved.

But there are loads of people on this thread who express ideas about how charity should be, and misconceptions about how much funds raised actually go to the cause. Many people think charity should run on fresh air and goodwill, paying the bare minimum. I'd agree that to attract the best talent (and therefore raise more money through the shops) you need to be paying managers an equivalent salary to a department manager in M&S or similar.

The bottom has fallen out of the rag market. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd0nr11myd1o says prices down 73% in 3 years - that's why you don't see those businesses any more doing cash for clothes who used to set up in car parks, because the price is down to 12p per kilo for waste clothes. Your average black bag filled with used clothing is going to weigh 5-6 kg maybe, 10 kg at the very very most. So about a quid a bag to the charity. The rag merchant has to pay someone to drive around the shops or to the supermarket donation bins, pay for van/fuel/insurance, empty the bins or collect the bags, sort the donations, sell the stuff on. It's just not a profitable business model.

The basic issue is that we as a nation are creating far too much waste. People embracing fast fashion and the likes of shitty Shein and Temu. Buying loads of "cute bits" for every trip abroad or night out and then trying to salve their conscience by donating their used tat assuming that someone will want to buy it. Well they won't.

@RandomGeocache

Many people think charity should run on fresh air and goodwill, paying the bare minimum.

Well, those are for the most part ignorant comments. Underpaying staff creates more problems and ultimately is detrimental to the charity overall.

But you think that people should work for free in the shops!!!

I have no strong feelings about whether people volunteering in the shops should be paid. There are lots of reasons why people want to volunteer in shops and the sector manages OK with a mainly volunteer workforce. I certainly wouldn't continue doing my 4 hours a week if my role pivoted from being on my terms as a volunteer to being on their terms as an employee. As a manager it makes running the shop a huge challenge though.

@Arran2024

If people are happy to work for free and choose to do so (which is what being a volunteer is) - then why not? Remember, that volunteers do get the benefit of choosing only to do the tasks that they wish to do and can take as much time off as they like. While I try to show up to my shifts as much as possible, if I fancy taking a Thursday or Sunday off, I just let the manager know in advance and tell them I won't be there.

If the charity paid EVERYONE who works in shops, they wouldn't make nearly as much money for the cause.

However, they DO need to pay SOME people (including shop managers) and those that are paid should get decent renumeration. It's why the low pay for charity shop managers is a bugbear for me. They deserve more, for the level of responsibility.