Charity shops have lost the plot

[DancingonmyOwn88]

Had a bit of time to kill before work earlier so had a browse in a charity shop. Surrey town but more commuter belt than anything salubrious. Shop was a run of the mill one not one of the boutique type offerings.

Nice green and white maxi dress, casual summer type thing, the other dresses were priced around £8 pounds which isn’t really a bargain but as I liked it a lot I picked it up- only to see it was priced at £30. Yes it was ‘Max Studio’ but those dresses aren’t going for anything like that on Vinted etc.

I asked why it was priced so high and the lady said ‘it’s designer’.😐

Probably been sitting there for months!! Where’s the sense in it?! Why have charity shops become so far removed from what they’re supposed to be- a way to shop sustainably and feel like you’re getting a bargain because it’s not new? Yeah I know they want to raise money as well but surely they’d do that a damn sight quicker if they actually shifted stock and not stuck eye watering labels on things.

I’m still annoyed from last week from a different shop as well when my little boy picked up a toy dinosaur figure and the label said £6. We put it back and I told them why but they didn’t care obviously and it’s still sitting there as of yesterday. How greedy to price children’s toys so high. When I was little you could always find a pocket money toy for a couple of pounds and come away feeling chuffed.

Ive heard lots are going out of business and my sympathy is somewhat limited. Serves them right. They seem to be terrified of people grabbing bargains to resell but then they’ve forgotten that some people on lower incomes are using them to buy clothes etc too.

I agree, the prices have sky rocketed and I don’t know why. I used to work for a charity and things are tough for many charities at the moment, but I’ve slowly stopped shopping in charity shops because it’s crazy. Saw someone share online a jumper which had the original label on and the charity shop price was higher than the brand new price! It’s a bit daft.

The purpose of charity shops is to raise as much money as they can for their charity. They are not a service to provide cheap goods for communities.

if they are getting their pricing wrong and the “market” won’t pay it then the manager needs to take action and reduce but they aren’t wrong to try and get as much as possible for the goods donated

But pricing people out of them won’t raise money at all. Nor will pricing things at a level that will just make people buy on Vinted or new.

YANBU OP

We have a local charity shop that always prices low. They still remove some items for EBay / the expensive cabinet, but the majortiy of clothes are £1-£3 and children's toys are pocket money prices. The result, it's always busy with customers and a large amounts of donations.

Other local chrarity shops have started to grumble about the fact their donations are down and several have closed, which is unfortunate. However, they still insist on pricing normal paperback books at £5 and have the same clothes sitting around for weeks. 🤷‍♀️

Max Studio is TK Maxx own brand. You see the same brand on Vinted at an inflated price.

I can’t understand when they say they can’t take any more donations as they are full up when their prices are so high. Surely common sense would tell them to drop the price, get money coming in and clear the backlog.

but hey, someone needs to fund the CEO’s holidays etc

I was sure it was TK Max!! Maybe she was thinking of Max Mara. I doubt it cost anywhere near £30 new off the rack.

If stuff id priced too high no one will buy it. I mainly use charity shops for books or household stuff now. Clothes are just too expensive

I think vinted and ebay and the like are at least partly to blame for this.

Years ago, when I left home and had my first kid, selling on your old stuff was a PITA because you had to put ads in shop windows and newspapers, be available to answer the phone, have people in your house to look at the stuff... Only really worth the bother for larger items, so people mostly gave stuff away if they weren't using it anymore. If nobody you knew wanted it, you'd give it to the charity shop.

Now it's so easy to sell on vinted charity shop donations must have gone down as a result.

This issue comes up quite a lot on MN. I know my mum had a "discussion" in a charity shop some years ago - they said they couldn't change the prices, it was a head office dictat. So even the shop manager can't do anything if they see a price is too high and the items aren't moving, but I guess it depends on the charity concerned. The ones that are for local charities tend to be cheaper (and paradoxically have nicer stuff too).

I don't like it when they sell new stuff as well and it's often plastic tat, too.

OP, you have answered your own question. The flippers and resellers have ruined it for everyone else. Especially if some of them haggle or demand refunds if they can't sell the stuff online

I suppose being able to use lockers and print off your own labels makes it much more viable these days. It's always been the thing that puts me off although I was pleasantly surprised when I disposed of some books via sell by books, which might have gone to charity shops or my local station book swap otherwise.

But when you had to go and queue up in the post office to send things off it wasn't fun.

Disagree. They won’t make any money at all if they price everyone in the local area out. Yes they need to make money for the cause but they also need to consider whether things will actually sell at that price otherwise people will do as OP did and buy it on Vinted.

I don't like it when they sell new stuff as well and it's often plastic tat, too.

This is also another good point. Our local Barnardos sells a lot of new goods, and it feels like half the store contains items you would usually expect to find on cheap websites like Temu.

Agree with this. I used to sell DC’s clothes and toys on eBay years ago when the post office was the only option and by god it took so long. Sometimes I’d have a few to post and a queue would form behind me which left me feeling a bit embarrassed. The lockers make things so much easier now all round.

Yanbu there is one by me used to be brilliant and then a new manager took over. She sacked a lot of disabled volunteers for being "to slow" and then priced the shop up massively. £100 for a broken 1950s wardrobe anyone?
Nobody uses the shop anymore.

I think a lot of them are trying to get on the Vinted train themselves- I know of one that has a dedicated branch person employed to go round and sweep things off the shop floor and upload them onto Vinted. Sometimes not even off the floor but directly from the donated bags so you’re never going to get a look in.

it’s just a real shame! I used to get some lovely bits, sometimes for me but nearly everything for my son- Next and M&S bits which I couldn’t afford otherwise. I’d always re donate when they no longer fit too. It just feels a bit exploitative now, when you’re genuinely just trying to find a few things to update your wardrobe!

totally agree - our local shops always have a sign up saying 'no more donations' and everything is super expensive. that is not how to run a business!

I didn’t know it was TK Maxx own brand. I have a couple. Paid £25-30 for each.

I’ve just come out of my local one. Knitwear, tagged new all £30! Nothing special. Fake retro aluminium bread bin, £30. Basic knitted beanies £10. I sadly felt I would be fleeced ( scuse the pun) if I continued to consider buying anything 😞

I stopped going into charity shops years ago, way over priced.

One wanted a £6 for a plain vest top nothing fancy tag said primark, i went to tescos and got 2 for a fiver.
Another time saw a bed set with bees on it priced at £25 got the same bedding, from asda £12.
My very last time was when i saw a 3 balls of wool priced at £6.50 not full or new balls either, i went to the knitting shop a few doors down, same wool £1 a ball.

Ebay is the same tbh, ive never used vinted have looked but its way over the top.

I now buy brand new or in sales, as it's cheaper.

Local, independently run charity shops are still great. I've found Brora, Toast, Max Mara, Me&Em, Hush and other brands I like for less than a fiver.

I’ve stopped going into charity shops they are very depressing places now. Especially the clothes ones done like a boutique overpriced primark or cheap fast fashion. If I want to donate to charity I do it direct not through their shops. Most don’t like donations and I’ve witnessed volunteers in shops are not appreciated. CEOs of these big charity shops are paid a stupidly large wage.

They do vary. I volunteer in one and basic tops are £4 rising to £6, dresses start at £6 and trousers are usually £5. New labelled stuff usually anything up to a tenner (decent designer/Hugo Boss type of stuff could be £15). We've got £1 rail (self-explanatory) where supermarket stuff goes. Primark is ragged and doesn't see the light of day. We do charge decent money for leather handbags and good quality shoes/boots. There's usually a bargain to be had.

Oh I totally agree, especially regarding toys! My son found a glow track set I thought it said £8 took it to the till and it was £18 my son was upset that I couldn’t afford it but it was literally next door in Smyths for £20 new, I thought they were pushing it at £8!

Our local chain of Hospice charity shops spent a ton of money last year making all but one of them into 'boutiques'. They actually bought in designer goods to sell at the re-launch evening because they just didn't have the quality available for the vibe they were trying to achieve.
One year on, they are closing two branches, and the remaining shops look much like how they used to; full of bric-a-brac Charlie Bingham bowls and jigsaws.