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.

It’s supply and demand. Charity shops are not there to provide low cost stuff for shoppers, they are there to make as much money as they can for the charity. Sometimes they get the pricing wrong, and they will probably reduce it if it sits there too long.

In the charity shops near me that sell clothes, 50% of the stock is Primark. Always priced around the same as you would pay new for it in Primark

An inflation calculator tells me £2 in 1990 equates to £5.90 today, so "a couple of pounds when you were little" might be about £6 now.

I think they've had to change a lot since Primark and Shein etc. They're now about interesting finds, rather than cheap second hand clothes.

Truly I cannot see anyone in this very normal town hand over £30 for a secondhand TK max brand summer dress. Especially since we are nearly at the end of summer.

Trouble is when they price, they often do have a quick look at Vinted, see that someone’s listed something similar for the same ludicrous amount and whack that on the price tag.

They’re not looking at the ‘sold’ prices though, nor the fact that things that are priced too high on Vinted sit there for months on end too.

Two charity shops close to each other. The Marie Curie shop is clean, curated, no more donations wanted, and expensive. Hardly anyone visits. The other shop is grubby looking (dirty floor type thing), loads of items everywhere, all donations accepted, mostly decent prices except a special display cabinet, a special £1 soft toy box for dogs to choose from, and it's heaving with customers and it's been this way since covid. I wonder which one is making the most for their charity 🤔

I presume you mean without these utilities but yes, which is why I said they’re cushioned from SOME of the major problems other high street businesses face, and not all.

OP, I agree. I used to get everything from charity shops but I rarely bother to look in them now due to ridiculous prices. If I’m after something specific it makes more sense to search on eBay or Vinted or buy it new.

All the "interesting finds" are creamed off for ebay and never make it to the shop floor....

I rarely buy now. Too expensive and a lot of new plastic tat. I'd rather buy my "plastic tat" from the family run shop next door which is paying full business rates and providing a few paying jobs for the local community.

Profit is not a dirty word.

A shop that takes unwanted items and sells them to a reseller (likely unknowingly) who cleans up stages and lists them to make more profit is fine by me. Both make money both keep it out of the landfill both have to input labor and costs. If they charge more and sell less eventually the shop pricing pendulum will swing the other way.

Some charity shops are much better than others (I volunteer in one and am also a reseller).

Ours have an excellent policy of having items on the shop floor for 2 weeks and if they don't sell they get half priced. If after a further week they don't sell at half price they get put in the £1 bin (and people get some incredible bargains!).

I'm not sure why all charity shops don't have a similar policy - makes sense to me.

Can’t be arsed with it anymore. The prices are ridiculous! I don’t mind if it’s a boutique type place with nicer, unworn / worn once stuff. Fair enough. Or I’ll pay a fair price for a nice coat, new shoes etc… But I’ve always used charity shops. Is it because of Vinted?

Also, I know a lot of designer re-sale places scout charity shops & sell it for more, or as vintage. I came across a place recently that was selling well-used Y2K gear for $$$. 30 quid for a vest? I have similar clothes in the back of my wardrobe, better condition too!

It’s not just clothes. My local place has a box of those character bobble-heads, in the children’s toy section. Fiver each? No. They might have been collectible when the person bought them (you can get them in TK Maxx now!) but no way mums are gonna buy them…

When I was little you could always find a pocket money toy for a couple of pounds and come away feeling chuffed.

In fairness, if something cost 'a couple of pounds' 20 (25?, 30?) years ago (going on the fact you are talking about when you were little and now you have a child that age), I would expect the price to have gone up quite a bit.

But I do agree with others re the charities are not going to raise money if they aren't taking money in. There are regular posts on the local Facebook groups asking if any of the charity shops are taking donations as they've tried 2 or 3 and no-one is. It would obviously make more money for the charity if they actually sold stock rather than pricing it higher but not selling it. There is no lack of stock people want to donate, it seems daft to just hoard it in the shops.

I'm loving the idea that all these big charities have no idea how to run a charity shop. I'm sure if these shops weren't making money they'd soon close.

Well - that's just it!

They are!

A lot of charity shops are closing..

I agree. I love charity shops but the pricing is crazy. I picked up a cotton dress from Mango in a BHF shop this morning - it was £8. I bought a Fatface dress off vinted instead - £5.50 including the postage!

Saw a mascara market up for £2.95. Right next to the original price of £2.50 🤦‍♀️

I take your point but thinking properly perhaps it was more like 50p… can’t imagine we’d have been handed £2 to spend at the charity shop willy nilly 😂

even so, a lot of the really good charity shops often priced children’s things lower. I think children’s outgrown clothes and toys must make up a good chunk of donated goods so it makes sense to keep it flowing.

Totally agree with you op, and I disagree with the posters saying that someone else will buy them.
I regularly visit a charity shop and looked at a BNWT summery dress at the beginning of the year which I didn't buy as it was going for approx £50 less on Vinted. It's still there now, and it's in a small village with barely any shops or tourists. If it was going to be purchased, it would have gone by now, now we're approaching autumn.

I was in one yesterday selling second hand wine gift bags for £1 and others for £1.50, couldn’t believe it!

I have a green and white Max Studio maxi dress! I got it new in TK Maxx 3 years ago for £13!

Bingo!! I’ll bet it was the same design I saw in the shop. £30 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

But surely the charity shop can make as much money by selling a lot of stuff cheaply, @HermioneWeasley? Plus selling lots means the shop’s stock turns over quickly, and people are more likely to revisit a charity shop that regularly has lots of new (to them) stuff, than one that has the same overpriced stuff on the shelves/rails.

I'm normally a defender of charity shops' right to price things however they want, but Max Studio as "designer"?

Yeah, right. A TK Maxx brand, not even high street.