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.

Cancer research are too expensive so I avoid it.

Though I do wish charities would get rid of their donation bins which you see mainly in car parks.

They are just a magnet to encourage fly tipping. As piles of bags by the bins I doubt if anything in the bins is going to be on sale at a charity shop. I believe that people throw rubbish - literally rubbish and clothes beyond wearing. Plus kids might throw in a bottle of Coke with no lid into the bin.

As a member of the litter wombles, one fellow womble has seen a charity bin been removed as the owner of the land was sick and tired of the rubbish. No rubbish has been dumped on the area where bin was since its removal!

What's annoying though is someone thought those out of date books were fine to donate.
That's a big problem charity shops have.
People donating complete crap.

@Auburngal many of the large recycling bins based at supermarkets have been removed because of the fly tipping/putting the wrong stuff in the wrong bins etc.
Where my mum lives they have a rare council that doesn't collect glass for recycling as part of the regular bin lorry collections. People are meant to take their glass to the bottle banks - usually in supermarket carparks.
Except even those have been removed because some people seem to think "Bottle Bank" also means you can shove a broken microwave, stained mattress, half a car and a box of random toys in there.
I just don't understand why recycling/waste disposal is so bad in the UK?
Why can't people follow a simple instruction?

The best ones are the small independent charities. You can have a decent rummage with decent prices. We have an animal one locally, it's big enough for furniture and it's cheap. There's no going away to think about it because everything is snapped up.

The bigger ones, who (as we were told on here once) charge a fortune because 'charity shops aren't for the poor, they're for generating as much money as possible for the charity' (CEOs) all deserve to be closed down. I hope they do. Cheeky fuckers they've turned into.

Tbf with Vinted you often take your chances - what condition it's really in, whether it will fit. There is definitely a bonus to being able to see and try on in a shop before you buy (and no postage! )

Leicester City Council residents can have up to 6 FREE bulky waste collections per year. This is up to 5 large items (tall fridges and freezers count as 2 items) and 15 bags of general waste. If they want more, its £21 for the same thing. Excludes house clearances. Yet the areas in Leicester are full of fly tipped items which could have been picked up as part of the bulky waste collections. Obviously poor communication of this and many languages.

My council charges £42 for one item and £5 for each additional item. My parents replaced their washer and dishwasher last year with a gap of 4-5 months between. They paid £15 to the shop (Euronics) to take the old one away and recycle them.

@gamerchick

The thing is, though, that whoever said that is essentially correct - these days, many charity shops are not for people in the UK on low incomes (unless their specific cause is the poor in the UK) but are for the specific cause they're raising money for.

I realise that in the past, many charities probably did consider themselves to be at least partially there for helping out those on lower incomes, but that line of thought has changed.

I don't necessarily think that's a good thing, but it's how things now stand.

CS are not extensions for the tip.

That's fine.

I hope they're all shut down. The independents will benefit and so will the community.

I'd be devastate if charity shops closed. I go at least once a month and have a look round all the ones local to me. I haven't bought a new item of clothing in six years as I can get it all in the charity shops. Also have loads of other things I have bought there - all the curtains in our house are from charity shops and they are really nice, thick, warm ones for £10 each.

I don't get online shopping for clothes. I tried it but its really hard to know how something fits without trying it on, and returning is a pain in the arse. Also, its not a leisure activity like going to the shops and finishing with something nice to eat and drink in a cafe is.

Kids like going with me too as they always find something they want as well, so its our family day out once a month.

Love it.

So many people seem to confuse the two 🙁

I know some great ones where all children’s pieces are £1 or £2. Our local Barbados does a thing where you get given a carrier bag and can fill it up with children’s clothing for a fiver when they’ve got too much in.

I have noticed a lot refusing to take books in though, maybe that’s just a general shift of people not wanting books anymore?

As for poorer quality clothes, I agree but I still think fast fashion can re-sell at the right price. I bought a cute Shein co-ord set from a charity shop for a couple of quid (about ten pound less than online, and could see/try it in person). It had clearly been bought, worn once for a holiday then discarded. Yes, it won’t last for years but it has the potential to be worn more than once.

They're too expensive.
There's a 'charity' shop near me with a sole purpose of zero to landfill. Everything is £1 and it alway busy with fast through put of stock.

I like UK charity shops for cookery books and crockery. Usually £1-2 for a book and same for a plate/cup, but I only buy bone china or I may as well go to Adsa.

I’ll be sad if the CR shop shuts in my parents village. I’ve found some real gems in there.

We regularly get plastic sacks through the door asking for all sorts of things, I'm surprised this isn't more widespread.
I don't donate, they're usually charities I've never heard of & wouldn't support.

There's a van from a local charity that parks in the village & collects donations on a regular basis. We are told what not to donate.

We have a charity book shelf in our local Tesco. I give them all my read books.

I do wonder if it also contributes to a lack of volunteers. I do the odd bit of volunteering in the local ( very good value) thrift shop. I’d struggle to give my time to a place that I felt was overpriced and sending books etc to be recycled rather than just having a 50p shelf.

Be careful of these sacks. Some are bogus charities. One of these had a company number which I searched on Companies House. The number was for a group of mechanics in North Wales!

Also if legit, I have seen gypsies picking these up in a clapped out car.

I do use the bags turned inside out to donate to CS.

In my area I think they price clothes like this because they are your main local option for clothes. There are no clothes shops in my immediate area, your choices are charity shops, the 'old lady' stalls or Asda, unless you want to venture out to the city centre or nearest big shopping centre. It's backfiring in most of them - BHF is probably the exception as it's always busy.

Yes it’s the lack of volunteers. Some CS have closed early or not at all due to volunteers being unavailable for various reasons.

Been unemployed but didn’t fancy volunteering in a CS as certain people where I live and shopped at gave me panic attacks.

@Tiredofwhataboutery

It possibly could have that effect, but I can't see it being a major reason. Volunteers have diverse reasons for volunteering, and quite a few choose to volunteer for reasons beneficial to themselves (to gain work experience, to meet new people, to just give them something to do) - so I think people who volunteer for reasons such as those are probably not going to care too much even if they themselves thing the prices are on the high side.

For myself, I can say that the reason I volunteer at an Oxfam bookshop is purely for fun. I'm interested in books and I mostly find the work enjoyable, so volunteering there is all about pleasure for me, and nothing to do with the cause itself. A couple of other volunteers have told me that their motivation is essentially the same - they volunteer because they find books interesting, Oxfam's work doesn't factor into it.

In our specific case, we HAVE to send books to be recycled, because books are the vast majority of our stock, and so we can't realistically sell every one of them before new stock has to come on the shelves.

Even at 50p some books do not sell. I am responsible for the book section and I do rotate the stock, but sometimes I send books to be recycled. I don’t want customers to see the same boring stock week after week.

Sure. Because you can tell people's ethnicity from the type of car they drive......

@SorcererGaheris - I must say Oxfam bookshops are a cut above the usual though! I am a very regular customer. The staff are always helpful and knowledgeable because I guess the shops attract “book-y” people to work there.

But there are cs workers who come on threads and furiously defend their shops when time after time posters say what is wrong/what puts them off, and the fact that charities are closing multiple stores is proof of nothing else that they are largely not fit for purpose - ie making sales.