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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:
cat64 · 03/12/2009 14:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

RJRabbit · 03/12/2009 15:08

And these are the same organisations who try to pull on our heartstrings for money donations. Will I feel guilty next time I walk past without putting some coins in the box? Hmm. Will I heck!
OP, you should go to the press with this.

Georgimama · 03/12/2009 15:13

Interesting. BHF is quite pricey for a charity shop, I had noticed this. Not as much so as Oxfam, who are also picky about donations. I am never giving Oxfam anything again after they turned their noses up at my (used twice) Mamas and Papas travel cot. I mean I was trying to give it to them, not sell it for goodness sake. I now take all my donations to Age Concern, who are very grateful for everything.

SolosScrapingUpForXmas · 03/12/2009 15:15

I think charity shops have gone all boutique like now and charge far too much for donated clothing these days. Sad to say, but I can't afford to shop in charity shops these days.

SolosScrapingUpForXmas · 03/12/2009 15:16

Ooops! seem to have repeated what everyone else on page two said!

TheDevilWearsPrimark · 03/12/2009 15:16

Lots of places get way too many donations and don't have the space to display them.

My friend volunteers at a local oxfam and she said she once opened a bag and found a pair of tights with skiddy knickers entangles amongst the other things. Not everything is saleable!

SolosScrapingUpForXmas · 03/12/2009 15:22

Eugh! TDWP.

pantomimecow · 03/12/2009 15:29

I suppose people have donated the goods to BHF and even if they are only getting £2 per bag it is still helping that charity

Long ago I worked in Nhs Finance and did some collaborative things with medical charities .BHF didn't act with a lot of integrity

oldfucker · 03/12/2009 15:41

I have finally sorted out all of DH's fishing and a couple of cricket books. I only took the ones in pristine condition, no marks tears and still good colour. There was a full re-usable bag full and I breeezily said to the lady "do you have a fishing section " she said no, and I joked well you have now. Its a very smart shop with all the books in sections

I had a look round the shop and as I was just about to leave they must of been sorting the books. I heard one 'lady' say "oh, they're ALL fishing books". If they hadn't of been so heavy I would of snatched them back

AmazingBouncingFerret · 03/12/2009 15:42

I donate all mine to Acorns Childrens Hospice. I work on the same street as them and you can tell alot about a place when you share a service yard with them!
Plus they know me well because I was always taking the ex-display toys to them rather than sending them back to our warehouse to be crushed.

Tidey · 03/12/2009 15:46

That's awful. I had no idea they threw so much stuff away. I donate all my charity stuff to Help the Aged and they send an update letter every now and then to say how much my donations have earned. (£180 last time! ) I quite often see the clothes and toys I've donated for sale in my local shop. If I thought for a moment they were binning it I'd send it somehwere else, or eBay it. What a shocking waste.

TheCrackFox · 03/12/2009 15:48

My Dad volunteers at Cancer Research (he likes to organize the books, mainly so he can get first dibs) and he has to throw loads away. It isn't the store manager's fault, these edicts come from Head Office.

PotPourri · 03/12/2009 15:52

That explains why I never see anything I donate on the shelves of BHF! I stopped giving to them as I was fed up NEVER seeing anything. Not saying I would expect it all to be in pride of place, but never was bothering me. So I was right not to give there.

Oxfam charge ridiculous prices - I have seen my stuff, but at 30% new price - taking the mickey if you ask me. So I am down to 2 local small charity shops or the Hospice shop in my parents town where I know they sell my stuff - mega cheap, but at least it is all going towards their funds

PotPourri · 03/12/2009 15:54

meant 30% off original price - i.e. not even half new price

Georgimama · 03/12/2009 15:54

I dropped some of DS's old toys into Age Concern a couple of weeks ago. The next day they were in the window and by lunch time the day after that they were all sold. I was really pleased, especially as they had priced them for about half what I paid for them, so made a good amount out of them and someone got some good quality toys.

KEAWYED · 03/12/2009 15:56

I've stopped giving now I take it to the womens refuge in town which has 22 apartments and I know they get used.

I even got a thank-you note for my donation which was appreiciated.

cocobongo · 03/12/2009 15:57

In terms of pricing, oxfam books has to be one of the worst. they just half price the rrp on everything, regardless of age or condition. As a lot of books now have their rrp artificially high, this often means you can get a brand new book cheaper than a tatty second hand one. Has stopped me shopping there now.

ChilloHippi · 03/12/2009 16:00

Coco, you are right there. I am lucky to have a charity shop near me that sells book at four for £1, but many of the charity shops in town sell them for more than you would pay new.

ChilloHippi · 03/12/2009 16:01

There isn't an Oxfam in my town. I guess that's because it's quite a poor area and not many people could afford to shop there!

Shineynewthings · 03/12/2009 16:07

I'm not suprised. I haven't donated to my local charity shop since the day I attempted to give in a practically brand new principles skirt with a minisule stain on the hem and was told they didn't want it. Skirt was £60 quid and this was years ago. I ended up throwing it. Everyday the local Shop (one of the more commercial ones mind) on our high street dumps the blackbags outside the shop and they are rumaged through by passers by. I've seen brand new books, toys, and even electrical stuff spilled out on the street. When my neighbour moved out she passed me a mint condition travelcot to pass along to the shop on her behalf. It was quality and quite heavy. The woman in the shop started complaining that it would 'need assembling' and was 'bulky' I offered to show her how to put it up; but she wasn't keen and I never saw it selling in the store, so I assume she binned it.

It disgusts me because I was once homeless and had to live in centrepoint and I know they could be given to those without.

underactivethyroidmum · 03/12/2009 16:13

I recently found out that our 'charity shop' lets people fill a carrier bag for a pound one day a week - most of which is then sold on ebay at a vast profit as the old dears in the shop haven't a clue how much anything is worth ! Needless to say I no longer donate to this particular 'large' charity as I consider this to be nothing short of theft

RJRabbit · 03/12/2009 16:17

I wonder why the charity shops don't get their act together and sell on ebay themselves?

SolosScrapingUpForXmas · 03/12/2009 16:18

I give away my stuff on Freecycle instead now.

Original poster
Hando · 03/12/2009 16:19

UnderactiveTM - At least that doesn't happen with BHF. Nobody gets a bargain on designer labels as they are all checked against the charts. They have photos of the labels made into charts, label names alphabetised (is that a word) on big posters. So if yu wonder what shop "Tu" or "George" etc is then you can look it up. The labels all have pricing bands, blue green and red for cheapo, middle and designer labels.

I don't see anything wrong with the people working there having first dibs on the donations... as long as they pay the right price for them. Where Edith who gives all her free time to volunteer and run the shop or Joe Bloggs from down the street pays the £2.50 for the Metallica cd doesn't make any difference. I do not agree to volunteers just taking stuff.

If we had stuff that the manager stacked up for the bin then they tried to get us to pay for it!?! I didn't mind popping a donation in the box but they wanted to charge us loads - for something that would otherwise go in the bin.

OP posts:
SolosScrapingUpForXmas · 03/12/2009 16:20

RJRabbit, you do sometimes see stuff being sold on ebay by charity shops. I've seen really old classic dressmaking patterns and things associated with dressmaking before and I'm sure some sell other stuff. i think they also get a consession for being a charity, so it costs them much less to sell on there.