to think that charity shop workers should not take all the best stuff for themselves?

[gramercy]

I admired dd's friend's coat. Her mother duly informed me it was a Boden coat which her mother had got from the charity shop in which she volunteers. "I gave mum a list of the brands to look out for - so she can pick them out when stuff comes in. I've got loads of good things."

I know this goes on, but I really don't think it's on. Even if the volunteer pays a nominal price, it means the shop is deprived of stock, and if the shop only stocks horrible old tat then people won't bother to go in. You can't imagine a boutique, say, allowing its staff to buy all the prime stuff first so there's nothing left to attract customers.

I used to work in an Oxfam shop as a Sat morning volunteer. We were able to buy anything in the shop, but it was full price (no discount) and all staff purchases had to be written in a book, so monitored (incl price). You could not price the thing you were about to buy (obviously!). Suggesting that volunteers buying items from the charity shop are theives is disgraceful -stealing from a charity which they are prepared to do often pretty unpleasant work for for free makes no sense, aside from anything else.

Volunteering in the shop was pretty grim, frankly. Lots of donations were fit only for recycling /the bin, very few were washed... it was genuinely astounding what people brought in. Some customers were very aggressive about things being "overpriced" - the point of Oxfam shops is to raise funds for Oxfams' work, not sell cheap clothes. There's no way anyone in their right mind would put up with it unless they actually believed in what the charity was trying to acheive.

Re: Chrstmas meal - that would be absolutely normal to pay for yourself: people donate for the charities work, and would be livid to find that the cash had been spent on "wining and dining" volunteers.

Surely if these clothes are donations for then even the volunteers should pay the same price for them as a punter. I think getting first dibs is probably a perk of the job but not at the expense of the charity

My daughter works in our local Sue Ryder shop on Sunday afternoons. She has bought a couple of nice jackets and she certainly paid full price for them. The staff are not allowed to buy items unless they are already priced up and have been on sale on the shop floor for at least two days. I think they can get a discount of 20% but as she says it's a charity, the clothes are relatively cheap so why would you ask for a discount. My son works in a different charity shop in the town centre and it's not the staff who are the problem it's the general public who think stealing from a charity shop doesn't count as a real crime.

I volunteer in a shop for a childrens hospice.

Most volunteers only work a half day or a day at the most so generally if we see something in the shop it has already been out a few days and we buy it full price. The rule is that an item has to see the shop floor before a volunteer buys it.

Good stuff does go quick - and you would be amazed at how people try and bargain you down - even from £1.

We do keep some stuff back if we are having a special event - like party or prom dresses or things suitable for halloween.

Given that in our shop alone there are over 30 regular volunteers I would be amazed if the charity offered to pay for a christmas dinner - and would not go as I know how long it takes to raise that money and where it goes to.

YABU - it's a perk of voluntary work. They work for free and are still paying for the clothes, they just have first pick.

I totally agree with 2babyblues.

YANBU. It's not in the spirit of things.

My mum does this, she pays full price though. She gives up a day a week to help a cause she feels passionate about, despite having health problems. She also gives lots more £ to the shop because of the stuff she buys. The other days she is in and out of the shop and every other charity shop in the town where she lives anyway. She bloody loves the places

Zombie thread

YANBU. They are there working for the charity - not themselves.

Interesting to hear from FARA there - I've always found there was loads of baby stuff in their shops and rather less decent stuff for older children, so I ungenerously suspected that the volunteers, who would be likely to have older children, were getting the best stuff (which is perfectly fine by me as long as they pay for it). Clearly I was wrong.

It would be more interesting had they not felt the need to resurrect a two year old thread for a bit of self-promotion!

Yeah, I guess, but it's a general purpose thread, nobody's going to rush onto it in order to give urgent advice to a pg OP whose bump is now actually starting pre-school.

I shat on the doorstep of the local BHF shop and they were very grateful, I wonder who got first dibs on it?

The wheels of FARA's marketing dept turn slowly it seems .

That's nice Bjups. Did you Gift Aid?

Ex-Oxfam lady here. We were allowed to buy stuff before it went on the shop floor, but after it had been priced by someone else. We had pretty firm pricing guidelines so even if someone knocked a bit off for their friend it would mean the thing went for £5.99 rather than £6.49. The sale also had to be recorded in a book at the till. We were allowed to buy unsaleable stock, as in things with holes in or hems disintegrating, for a smaller donation - being quite good at mending I used to do this a fair bit. It meant the stuff got sold rather than going in the rag bin.

In the meantime, we had to deal with people donating unwashed clothes, including skidmarked underwear and a bloodied butcher's apron; we had as many shoplifters as any other store on the high street so my job as the resident large young person was to scare these off; Saturday shifts involved a lot of drunks wandering in after liquid lunches and getting arsey about the prices; we didn't have anyone wee, poo or jizz in the changing rooms, but my friends who have also worked in charity shops tell me that's a lucky escape.

On the processing front, pretty much every item of clothing that came in needed steam cleaning, if only to get the creases out from being stored in a bag. We'd also put things away for more appropriate times - winter clothing donated in July went straight in the shed to be got out in October, ditto for a pile of sundresses that came in in December. We had some eveningwear around but most was stored up and put on a special promotion around Christmas. Nothing sinister, just putting things out when they would sell best. Certain brands of clothing - the ones that might go for more - needed approving by a manager or team leader before they went out. Books and CDs needed to be priced by particular team members - I was one of the people who could sort music, again because I was young and had marginally more idea what was in the charts. But since each of us worked at most two days a week, it could take a while for something to reach the shelf.

Whether certain other items - e.g. whips, handcuffs, erotica and penis hoopla - got put out depended on individuals' offence thresholds. So no, you might not see those on the shelves for a while, sorry to disappoint if you're the person who brought them in.

An EX friend of mine use to help herself to all the decent stuff.
She bragged that she put in a token payment and then sold on Ebay.
Apparently she could make up to £500 a month for an outlay of around £25.

The thing I don't like about the policy at the shop my DM volunteers in, is the amount of stuff that goes to the rag man. Almost all the baby clothes apparently, I am going to try and give mine to a refuge from now on. Our Farah is a bit of a rip off actually. A Lot of the clothes are quite bobbled and the old toys are ££££

*fara

Just be glad they are clearing the Boden things off the shelves to make room for decent stuff.

I'm more annoyed at the ridiculous pricing. Spotted this week in my local shops: £10 for primark dress that was probably cheaper new; £30 for some sandals from Dolcis.. £9 for a top from River Island that was clearly ripped at the seam.

Well unless her mum has a host of grandchildren, one in each size and sex, she's not going to be doing a roaring business.

If a book is worth £20 on ebay, then the charity shop should sell it at £20 otherwise they'd be better to just shove the stuff on ebay and make more profit. I find it irritating to see something markedly undervalued as the person who kindle donated it would have ebayed it and given the money.

I absolutely love charity shops and think the volunteers are brilliant but I do think that there ought to be some sort of rules as to how many things the volunteers can pick off for themselves. Similar to the ones dittany describes.