Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think charity shops ....

143 replies

Hando · 03/12/2009 13:20

Should actually sell what is donated to them, if it is is good condition?

I did some volunteering work in a charity shop. It's a great cause and I had a couple of weeks spare time, so worked my arse off and enjoyed it.

However, I had to leave. I was disgusted by the way they treated the items kindly donated to the shop. Firstly, this charity shop have FAR more donations than they could ever sell. They go through and pick out nicest bits. If it has a tiny mark, missing button etc, then it gets binned.

One day we were told to sort through all that days donations and only keep kids stuff or designer labels- as the shop was getting full. We were throwing away bags and bags of lovely mens and ladies clothes lots of whoch were hardly worn and some really stunning bits. There ar elots of smaller, less well known charity shops in the same street so I offered to take some of the surplus black bags (perhaps over 20 in one day) to them for them to sell. I was met with astonished gasps. We couldn't do that. The "rag man" collects them and they get about £2 for a huge black bag full of clothes ~(sometimes lovely ones) which could have been sold for much much more.

The shop manageress doesn't like certain styles or materials so anything like that has to be binned. Hmmmm.... so she decides the taste of the whole town?

AIBU to be totally dissapointed at the way they treat donations from very kind people?

OP posts:
badietbuddy · 03/12/2009 13:21

Name and shame. That's terrible

Iklboo · 03/12/2009 13:23

Write to the head office of the charity and tell them what's going on

AmazingBouncingFerret · 03/12/2009 13:24

No you're not. It's a shame. When I volunteered for the salvation army charity shop back when I was a teenager anything that would slightly damaged or "unsaleable" would be collected and sent overseas to developing countries.

Original poster
Hando · 03/12/2009 13:32

BHF. Not sure of all the shops do the same but the one I was in did just as i have written. i was only there two weeks but did most of my work in the back room and sorting donations. The assistant manager who was in the store taught us how to sort through stuff. It was sooo sad. Also any kids toys were chucked straight in the bins out the back as the manager didn't like to sell kids toys in her shop. Tsk. They should put that on the bags they deliver then, so people could take them elsewhere. Sad because all these smaller shops have always got signs saying donations desperately needed, when the big charities get far too mnay donation and chuck away some lovely things.

I started placing things very carefully by the bins so people could take them if they wanted them. But it wasn't appreciated by the shop staff!

Not sure where the clothes ended up after the rag man took them. I find it hard to believe they were sent to poorer countries, why would they pay us for them? Or the "ragman" would pay us the he'd have to pay to get them out there too. We should have given them away to charitys who do that sort of thing. I suspect the ragman sold them on, like scrap metal dealers perhaps?

OP posts:
biscuitsmustbedunkedintea · 03/12/2009 13:33

Glad to hear your comment Ferret as I've just sorted out a lot of DD's old clothes. Most of it I didn't consider resellable, however I thought it was still wearable. Have just put them in the Sally Army bin at Tesco as my Dad said he thought they passed them on to families who needed them.

Agree with the others, name and shame!

Original poster
Hando · 03/12/2009 13:34

Amaxing bouncy ferret - i can even maybe understand damaged and unsalebale stuff being chucked. But this was perfectly good stuff, just being chucked because they had too much or it was the wrong season for coats/short sleeve tops. Even lovely shops like Next, Gap etc - do we have too mnay jeans out? If so, today we bin all jeans..

OP posts:
ChilloHippi · 03/12/2009 13:34

That's very sad to hear.

Original poster
Hando · 03/12/2009 13:35

Britsh Heart Foundation - Although of course I don't know if this is widespread procedure or company policy or if it was just this one shop beig run by this awful manager.

OP posts:
differentID · 03/12/2009 13:36

not unreasonable to be disappointed, no. It means I don't actually donate clothes now as I work near one and I see what get's thrown out in the communal bins every bloody day.

differentID · 03/12/2009 13:37

yes, it is also a BHF shop.

badietbuddy · 03/12/2009 13:45

How utterly odd that BHF seems to throw so much stuff out but they are consistently the most expensive charity shop here. I walked out laughing the other week when they wanted £6 for a used pair of Primark pumps

Original poster
Hando · 03/12/2009 14:21

they have huge charts out the back with set prices on. No bargains because the old dear doing the pricing doesn't know that FCUK is more expensive than atmosphere. You look up all labels and price accordingly. Another thing I was a bit stunned by. New things with tages are often priced quite highly too.

OP posts:
madmissy · 03/12/2009 14:25

they need big shake up really

QueenOfFlamingEverything · 03/12/2009 14:28

YANBU.

BHF are one of the worst for this - the larger chain type ones usually are the worst.

DP lives in a smallish town where the charity shops throw out into their skips an truly amount.

From those skips, we/people we know have found

a bin liner full of Brio
a brand new breastpump in a sealed box
a set of cast iron oven-to-table ware
gold jewellery worth over £200
a moses basket
a pair of Gap suede childrens boots, still with original stickers on the soles
more books than I could count
duvets and other bedding
Sylvanian animals
sandwich toaster

That is just the things that I remember right now. Someone we know pretty much furnished her house from the skips.

The 'worst' offender was indeed a BHF shop.

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern · 03/12/2009 14:29

I don't even visit our local BHF shop for that very reason baddibuddy. They were looking for things like £20 for a pair of worn no designer label shoes etc. I could go get similar new for less than that.

Unfortunatel it is common in a lot of charity shops, non seasonal clothes get binned, missing a button bin it etc.
If they really want rid of these things they should have a big 50p bargain bin to get rid of these quickly and i'll bet they more than the £2 for them all that the rag man brings.

Finding this out about a lot of the charity shops actually massively put me off donating TBH you hand over some lovely items in good faith thinking wow someone is going to get the use out of this and it goes in the bin I try to pass on as much stuff as I can to people I know now.

ChilloHippi · 03/12/2009 14:35

A colleague of mine used to volunteer in a charity shop (not the BHF) and took a shine to something as they were sorting. The supervisor said that item wouldn't be put in the shop as it wouldn't sell, but said she couldn't let my colleague have it or buy it as it had to be thrown away if it wasn't going into the shop. Crazy.

pigletmania · 03/12/2009 14:40

It is . It will put people off donating. It looks like there are bad managers of these shops that cant manage anywhere else so go to a charity instead. The prices of some of the things in charity shops are I used to work with adults who have LD, there was a man who loved cds and would go to charity shops looking for cheap cds. The prices on them were astounding, £3-4 for a used cd of somthing like Chesney Hawkes, or hits of the 80's, when you could get that from amazon cheaper or at the same price. I was in a charity shop myself recently and saw a pair of new look used trousers for £6 , next door in new look they had new sale ones for the same price.

grumpyskater · 03/12/2009 14:40

YANBU. I am shocked. Does anyone know what happens to all the discarded clothers? What does the 'rag man' do with them? Does most end up in landfill?

It'll make me think twice about donating to a charity shop again. I'd rather freecycle, or eBay occasionally, just to know that the clothes will be used and not thrown away! How awful.

QueenOfFlamingEverything · 03/12/2009 14:43

I suspect the rag man sells them onto developing countries where they are sold cheap and undermine the local textile industry.

londonone · 03/12/2009 14:44

This is so true. The charity shops round my way are also guilty of "ambitious" pricing. They regularly price second hand IKEA kitchen goods at a higher price than they cost brand new in the shop. I think they are loopy.

twolittlekings · 03/12/2009 14:46

This is disgusting. I have heard from a reliable source that some people who work in the shops take the best bits for themselves (supposedly that partucular charity has now made it a sackable offence since it is regarded as stealing) but I have never realised they THROW stuff out. I will definitely think twice about donations

Meglet · 03/12/2009 14:47

Did anyone see 'Mary, Queen of shops' earlier in the year when she re-vamped the charity shop. Seems they could all do with her treatment.

meltedmarsbars · 03/12/2009 14:48

The "rags" get sorted and the best sent to the third world to be resold, the worst made into rags for insulation/soundproofing etc. This is better than landfill.

However, what should a charity shop do with the donations? They get far more than they can sell, and the standard we expect has risen considerably, so damaged clothes are no use to them.

You could freecycle and donate some money to your chosen charity.

You could spread your clothing donations around various charities, choosing the ones most in need of donations.

You could find a local organisation that takes clothes and toys to a particular orphanage - there is such an organisation here, they drive lorries over twoce a year to Romania.

QueenOfFlamingEverything · 03/12/2009 14:48

I only ever take things to small local charity shops these days, where they sell everything that is in a saleable condition for a reasonable price.

MoChan · 03/12/2009 14:50

I think it's appalling how expensive charity shops have become (surely they have a dual purpose: to raise money for charity but also benefit people who don't have much money to spend on new stuff...?) but I didn't know about all this waste. That's dreadful. No wonder Freecycle is getting so popular.