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.

If the item doesn't sell, it will be reduced and they'll make a big deal about having a sale on.

Charity shop isn't there for you to get a bargain!

I agree, I noticed tatty children's books were £2.75 in my local charity shop. They cost £4 or £5 online brand new. I know the point is supporting a charity, but they used to exist to help those who were hard up too.

Not what Sir Alan Sugar would say. He would stack it up and sell it cheap. No one is going to pay £60 for a branded welly that looks like its been on a season of Clarksons farm.

In the 90s I dressed in 20p t shirts and grandad shirts from charity shop. The odd sheepskin coat and a pair of levis (models own) and I was so happy

Why is it ageist? It’s a fact that older people buy fewer clothes, and particularly from fast fashion brands. Obviously if you don’t shop in those places yourself then you’re less likely to know how much stuff costs 🙄

It's not really a paradox, because I think lower prices encourages loyalty and reciprocation. Most of the charity shops have closed down near me but there is one that is further out of the centre with great prices that my mum is always getting clothes from for a quid or two, so that's where she decides to donate to.

Yeah this has put me off some charity shops. I miss jumble sales - got loads of great stuff at those in the 90s!

One of my favourite charity shop bonkers pricing examples was a first edition Harry Potter book that someone had decided was a collectors item and worth £££. Fine if had been book 1, but it was book 5, which millions of people (including me) have the first edition of

The shops selling items at low prices tend not to clean, sort and display them, so that argument doesn't quite hold. Jumbles sales used to make quite a lot of money, same principle applies.

Most charity shops in my area are so full during clearout seasons, e.g after Xmas, spring etc, that they flat out refuse any donations, turn people away. You have to go to 4-5 shops to find someone to take your stuff.

They can't handle the volume of junk that people own and try to offload on others...

Do you not think that charity shops know a bit more than you do? They have the benefit of knowing what their outgoings are and what they are likely to sell. It is literally their job to sell stuff to raise as much money as possible. Don't you think that if they were really pricing people out, they would lower their prices?

I have no idea what you do for a living but I'm sure you know more about it than a charity shop manager would. In the same way, a charity shop manager knows more about managing a charity shop than you do.

In the same way, a charity shop manager knows more about managing a charity shop than you do.

I've spoken to the manager of our local shop that piles high and sells cheap. She happily tells customers that this approach makes the charity a lot of money, because the stock changes regularly and it encourages people to keep coming in and browsing.

Mary Portas' doing

I think Oxfam has a lot to answer for. Their pricing is insane! They also "adjust" their prices depending on the area they are in.

You're likely to make more money letting the odd valuable item go quickly because it's cheap and then using the space to shift more and more cheap items than having it sit there for weeks not selling and not letting you display and sell more stuff. People entering a charity shop are not looking to spend significant amounts.

I’m fairly rural.

The big ones, exact same.

We have a small, local area charity shop.

It thrives. A committee of trustees. Paid staff, then all profit goes to local requests. Twice a year groups, organisations, schools, whoever can apply for the money.

The only time a request is turned down is something like

I want a shed, I might then give a tomato to the food bank.

every one else tends to get around £1000 per year.

Locals donate their good stuff there, volunteers help, it’s the hub of the community. Once a month everything is one pound. Then they restock.

brilliant local model.

They are volunteers and probably do not know what exactly everything is worth. Perhaps you can donate some of your own spare time and do it better than them?

They often get sent to other branches where they’re more likely to sell before they’re reduced in price.

There's another model that might be even better at raising money for the charity, i.e. the uniform pricing/ rapid turnover one.

Agree.

And they like to see new stuff when they drop in to browse. Very few people will make a third visit to a shop where they've already seen the same old items out on the previous two visits.

I was in Harrogate recently and hit the charity shops

Certainly there wasnt £1 rails , but I was in my element because of the quality of clothes - very little shein and Primark - all good names and good quality

My wee town has 4 local charity shops and a national - the national is over priced by a square mile. I live in a deprived area, so most of the offerings are supermarket/primark/shein so I won't pay the prices the national are asking - although they are great for the "new' things they sell - got a lovely card and gift bag for 75p yesterday

When I was sorting out mums stuff when she passed recently, whilst she had her preferred charity shop that she always donated to, I by passed it for most of her stuff as they would only charge 1 or 2 quid, and a lot of mums stuff was good quality, barely if ever, worn So I donated most to the shop that priced decently - not ripping off, but making a decent amount

My DD is a charity shop fan and she’d agree - you see Tesco t shirts selling for almost the same as new! We go to the US regularly and she loves a thrift shop there - they are on the scale of TK Maxx and she has some great buys like a real leather blazer for under $10, wool skirt for $2.99 and wool short cape - a fabulous vintage piece - for $8. The most expensive thing she saw (too small) was a Calvin Klein dress for $15. They make money selling volume. Here she still goes but 80% of the time doesn’t buy as not unique enough and too pricey.

Hmm I’m I haven’t seen the prices as described on here, but I find since Vinted has taken off the quality and brands are much poorer. I love a charity shop rummage but it’s certainly trickier these days. That said I got a lovely Hawes & Curtis fitted shirt for £6.25 and a Cos shirt for £6 both in amazing condition the other day, so didn’t think that was too bad and I would end up paying more for the same sort of item on Vinted. This kind of morning is a lot less common for me now sadly.

I went into the Age Uk shop near me and saw they’d got a second hand large print novels. My mum can’t see small print very well so just the job. Every book in the shop was priced at £1 - fiction, non fiction, paperbacks, hardbacks, the lot except these large print novels that were priced at £3 each. I asked at the counter thinking it was perhaps an error but nope, the volunteer explained the large print books are more expensive because “they’ve been donated.” Which I thought was kind of the point of a charity shop. I mean, that’ll teach my mum for having poor eyesight won’t it, charge her 3x as much for the privilege of reading the only books she can see. I’ve boycotted the place since that, shitty practice.

I’m not so sure, there’s enough back-up opinion on anecdotal evidence on this thread that tells me maybe some of those managers don’t have a clue.

You don’t have to put blind faith into people doing a good job just because that’s the industry they work in….