Are Charity Shops Becoming Greedy

[BettiG]

I love shopping in charity shops, well I did years ago. However why have they become so greedy and overpricing?

I went into one charity shop last weekend and they were selling all summer dresses for £2. I bought 5 dresses and spent £10. I saw that as an absolute bargain as I am going on holiday abroad in Sept and don’t want to spend too much on clothes that I will be putting away once I’m back off holiday.

I then went to another charity shop whose clothes were so overpriced for example a dress I picked up to look at from Primark was £7. I left empty handed from that charity shop so really I see that as that particular shop losing out.

So my question is are charity shops becoming greedy and taking the fun away from people shopping in them? I personally think before long they are going to fall flat on their faces as people will stop shopping with them which I think is so sad.

I used to go to charity shops mostly because I believe it was eco friendly as well as being cheaper - now I donate to charity shops but am very selective due to some of the policies and I do not shop at them at all. I would use vinted, ebay or Facebook as I do not agree with some of the policies and also many sell new things which was not my intended reason for shopping in the first place.

Charity shops where I am are trying to sell second hand Primark stuff at the same price as new. How they sell anything I don't know.

Which is exactly what all high street shops do.

The problem is their running costs are quite high, particularly the cost of disposing of all the literal rubbish etc people give them

I remember having to advise a charity with a charity shop and I was astonished by the costs involved in filtering through and then disposing of rubbish

If it's not in a nice condition just put it in the recycling

100% agree.

Not the point of your OP but I suspect related - my local charity shop acts like they're doing me the most enormous favour when I'm donating stuff, it's absurd. I had a bag of brand new unworn Clarks school shoes, unworn brand name kids dresses etc and they tried to turn them away because "2 bags limit" and I had 3. If they hadn't taken them I would have taken them to the tip because I haven't got time to deal with Facebook marketplace time wasters, vinted faffing etc. What a waste - I just wanted this stuff to go to a local family and raise money for a local charity at the same time. It's ridiculous.

And yes, agree re. quality, mine is full of worn out Costco and Primark junk.

They do indeed the only difference is high street shops stock is brand new unlike charity shops.

Overpriced charity shops is killing the trade it won’t be long before they start closing down.

I went in a charity shop yesterday and when customers was going to the till to pay for items they was being asked if they would like to make a donation on top of what they were buying . Isn’t it a donation when you buy the items?

I volunteer for a nationwide charity in one of their shops. I bought a M&S skirt there this week, priced at £4.50, no tags but looked new. Pricing is variable, there are guidelines in many shops, but not everyone will view an item on exactly the same way. If goods don’t sell, they are usually half priced after three weeks in our shop. In a smaller, local charity shop, I picked up a M&S dress for a fiver, then the lady on the till said everything was half price, £2.50 - bargain!

I’ve been on a slow weight loss journey this year, so I’ve bought several items from charity shops as my size reduces, and donated quite a lot of my now oversized clothes. Sometimes I’ll look round a few and find nothing, other times I won’t know which to choose!

Unfortunately they are raising less money with their high prices - It's often much cheaper to buy good quality used clothes on Vinted!

I used to buy regularly from charity shops but now find their stuff overpriced.

they tried to turn them away because "2 bags limit" and I had 3.

FFS. The pettiness, but also, the meaninglessness.

Is this a lifetime limit, or can you bring another bag after 5 years/months/weeks/days/hours/minutes have elapsed?

Or could a family member have brought the third bag, and pretended not to know you — but risked being ordered out if the staff detected that you were, in fact, in cahoots?

And what is the size of "a bag"? Would it have been OK if you had two 100-litre bags instead of three 50-litre ones?

Charity shops don’t give much money to the charity.

Varies from about a third to 5-8 per cent of the profits.

A while back now but I have actually seen a Primark t-shirt (which was £1-1.50 brand new) priced at £3 in a charity shop. I did tell the shop staff / volunteer but they weren't fussed

I agree prices have gone up, I wouldn't say greedy they are just trying to make ends meet and make enough to be able to support their cause and have experienced challenges just like any other area hence putting prices up.

I got fed up with sorting through acres of what might best be described as lifestyle tat, all brand new, in shops run by national charities.

Definitely the bigger name ones like British heart foundation are. Overpriced

I used to go to charity shops a lot and donate everything but the attitude of some of the people when you to donate - I tried to donate a brand new mattress topper, it was still in the sealed bag and had the £35 tag on it the other day, they responded like I was trying to hand over a fresh turd. I’m not bothering anymore it’s too stressful, sold it within minutes on Facebook when I got home.

I love a charity shop but agree they are getting overpriced. I saw a primark t shirt being sold for £3 that I paid £1.80 for a week earlier once

That's just total nonsense though - after essential costs such as heat, light, rubbish disposal etc are taken off, ALL the money goes to the charity. Where else would it go??

Don't forget rent too, that's a decent amount each month

I wonder whether it's ever worth somebody's time sorting, steaming, displaying and selling dresses for £2.

It's the same with eBay/Vinted sellers. Is it really worth ironing, photographing, listing and posting stuff that you're not going to make at least a tenner on?

Clothing is so overproduced and cheap to buy that people expect to get things for virtually nothing these days, but selling it is actually very time consuming.

I just don't shop in British heart, cancer research and scope now as they are out of my price range. But I don't think they're doing anything wrong, they appeal to people with more money who want to do something for charity.. I shop at the ones where a top is 50p etc

However why have they become so greedy and overpricing?

Because their job is to make as much money for the charity as they can, not to provide the public with cheap clothes.

Because they have been able to raise prices because there is no longer any stigma to buying from charity shops and buying second hand is now a popular leisure activity for pretty affluent middle class people.

Well, quite.

My neighbour was saying that she got caught by this same 3 bag limit, so she stood at the bin outside the shop posting the items into the bin one by one. A passer by spotted what she was doing and took the rest of the bag with them. Hope the charity shop was watching as the donations were literally given away for free/binned. It's just such an epic waste all round.

At BHF around 70p in every £1 goes into their charitable work, ie research, funding of medical specialists etc. Costs, including wages and salaries to all the staff, shop costs etc. come of the other 30p. They publish the details annually.

I volunteer for them because their research has saved lives. My father died when I was in my teens, DBIL in his 30s. Both with heart conditions that would be treatable now.

It’s very hit and miss. I tend to use charity shops for books now and Vinted for branded clothes.