Giving up on charity shop shopping!

[Notcontent]

I have always bought a large proportion of my clothes second hand. When I was a teenager (not in the U.K.) it was largely due to financial reasons. This was before second hand became cool. Anyway, the habit stayed with me and over the years, living in London, my wardrobe has been a mix of second hand (80% I would say), basics from places like Uniqlo and the occasional more expensive new item.

But in the last couple of years or so I have increasingly found very little worth buying in my local charity shops. There are fewer nice things (being sold online maybe?) and what is there is really expensive. Today I had a good look and there were gems like a shrunken Uniqlo jumper for £17 and lots of similar things.

Agreed @HufflepuffRavenclaw - someone comes on every charity shop thread and tries to perpetuate this myth. It is really frustrating.

I don't know why charity shops just don't stick up a large rail and whack all the Primark and supermarket stuff on there 99p per item. It will fly. And much better than selling for rag.
One of the shops in my High Street does this.
Nothing in there is more than £3, and (I presume once it has been there 2 weeks or something?) once it gets a felt pen mark on the label, then it is sold for £1.
I can quite often pick up a bargain in there. They seem to be taking a lot more money than the BHF shop about 6 doors down where everything is priced as if it weren't second hand, and where they rarely seem busy at all.

It must be really hard for you hearing people saying that about charity shop workers on every thread. I had no idea it was such an issue. My apologies 💐

Completely agree @THisbackwithavengeance , the rags are often sold to countries like Ghana and Kenya, which then flood the local markets with European cast offs from Primark and the likes. The local communities and their tailor / seamstress industries cannot compete with cheap, poor quality foreign imports. The local cloth, which has history and culture at its roots, is at risk of being rendered uncool or obsolete in the face of modern westernised facing cultures.
The tailor/seamstress who previously could make a living, now cannot, and so cannot provide for their family. Period poverty, food poverty and educational proverty then lead the families to become dependent on the same charities who may be indirectly affecting their livelihoods.

It is desperately sad.

So I follow a reseller who buys cheaply and then resells on eBay, Vinted, Depop etc. She often makes good profits, fair enough, the charity gets the money.
I was left a little aghast recently however. She has bought some items and the shop had given her a bag to carry it in. This bag was a bag for life which was a collaboration between s well known designer and a supermarket. Think hot lips logo! Anyway, no sooner had she emptied said bag, she listed it on eBay and got £20 for it!!🙄😳. To the best of my knowledge the money did not go back to the Charity which had in effect donated the bag to her for free!

Agree @HorribleHisTories15 - there's a real issue with cheap disposable fashion and the volume of it. The figures on textile waste are just horrendous.

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/textiles-in-europes-circular-economy

We're buying more, clothing is cheaper than ever, every single person in Europe is discarding around 11kg of textiles/clothing every year. It has to go somewhere. People hand it to us in charity shops because they know that deep down buying a cheapie £4 frock from Primark and wearing it once is pretty shit for the environment. So deal with their guilt by donating it. If they don't donate it, they'll shove it in one of the charity dumpsters, put it out for a kerbside collection, sell it to a cash for clothes type place.

The only solution is for people to STOP BUYING SO MUCH. I mean, I'm as guilty as the next person for going into Primark for a pair of pyjamas and leaving with bargains I never knew I needed. But I make a conscious effort not to.

I went into a couple of charity shops today. A handbag for £35, shoes - £30 and Gu glass ramekins for £1!! Ridiculous prices.

I have also moved to Vinted, although I reckon two/three hours round several charity shops will yield one or two nice items. Vinted is great and if I don't like the item, I just relist it slightly cheaper and someone else can have it.

Many charity shops put good stuff online, I haven't seen a leather bag for years in a charity shop, so there are few bargains.

My expertise is to spot that one higher end item, even if it's just a better brand or a nice fabric/linen in a whole shop or on Vinted and pick it up cheaply. I also do car boots very occasionally, although there it's like 1 in 1000 items that's ok!

My favourite charity shop locally has several £1 rails which I've found some great bargains on, there is a lot of polyester Shein/Primark on the rails too but plenty of good quality if you have time to rummage. Most of my Pyrex ovenware has come from that shop also, I don't mind it being a bit chipped. It's an independent shop which I think explains the noticeably cheaper pricing structure. And not too far away there is a big Barnardo's warehouse where all clothing is £1 an item and in addition they have some big bins full to the brim with clothes, 4 for £1 from the bins. I never have time for a proper sort through there but it's a very popular shop and seems to have a fast turnover

@Highdaysandholidays1 April seemed to be the month of buying leather bags in charity shops!

It’s easier to sell online now, and more people are savvy about googling labels to see if their stuff has any value then selling on Vinted. Then when the charity shop does receive stuff they are also savvy about googling labels and selling online. The best stuff never makes it into the shop, they sell it online for a higher price.

Several years ago I used to get loads of bargains in charity shops, but now everyone knows the value of everything. I see items with handwritten tags announcing their provenance, labelled with brand names that until a few years ago only a collector or enthusiast would have recognised. The other week I saw a “Scheurich vase from 1971, £50” - the sort of thing I’d have been able to pick up for a fiver a few years ago because nobody recognised it.

I bought a Coast dress and a jaeger jacket, total was £15 in a Marie Curie shop.

I volunteer in a different shop. We are not allowed to buy anything unless it’s been out on the shop floor for a day and get a discount of 25%. Everything is dated to rotate to other shops as a national charity. Only the manager and assistant manager can price items.

There you go then. I’m not imagining it - there really is no good stuff in charity shops any more.

I agree charity shops are getting more knowledgeable but I have had personal experience of when they have not Googled the label and I have been able to pick up a bargain.

Of course there's lots of good stuff in charity shops ... if they weren't performing well they would be closed down; I work in charity retail ... every year a few shops in my organisation get closed down as they are no longer profitable... new ones are opened; in the small town I live in we have over 14 charity shops ... do you really think they would all stay open if they weren't making money ?

Nifty too true, I was on the till in the charity shop I manage recently and a customer bought a brand new cashmere jumper to the till, it had been priced at £4.99 by one of my volunteers.... of course I felt like weeping but happy for the customer who got such a good bargain ... and will hopefully continue to shop with us.

I’ve also given up on them. I used to get some lovely clothes that were cheap but now I am regularly paying £5/6 for a top that I’m not that convinced about. I’m ashamed to say I then look on shein and can get a top that I really want for £8 so I would rather shop there.

We have a chart issued by our Head Office listing clothes labels and all are classed as Bronze, Silver or Gold; and priced accordingly if they are to be sold on the shop floor. Only the properly high value clothes go on ebay. So yes you can atill pick up a bargain.

I did witness someone question an SA in a shop recently question why a H&M item cost so much. The SA told them that prices are set by head office.

@FANTINE2 if something like that leaves you 'aghast' then you really need to get out more!

It's depressing to go through the rails at a charity shop and find that many items are shabby, faded, pilled, or with minor stains -the kind of things I'd be getting rid of, not buying!

Really?
I suppose we all have a different moral compass.

I saw a Boden blouse for £10 today, very obvious stains on the front of it, another shop had a silk top with stains for £25, they stood out in the sea of Primark etc

A couple of weeks ago, something caught my eye so I bought it. Not my size but far too good to leave. Wouldn't fit anyone in the family, but a very impressive brand, excellent quality, def. mentioned on S&B (What would M. D. wear? etc). Gutted it wasn't my size.

Sold it within a week for over £100 more than I paid.

Charity shops are just rubbish....

Today got a few nice things. Only went to 2 shops.
Levi's jacket, Whistles jumpsuit and Gap Khakis. £7, £5, £2
All looked clean and presentable.

I think it depends where you live.

Our local ones are pretty much full of Primark, New Look, Supermarket brands. They are not in the best condition either, mostly tatty & bobbled.
I don’t buy clothes in charity shops but children’s books and puzzles are great, they have them by the bucket load. 10 for a £1 which is bonkers. I’ve had so many gorgeous children’s books that look new.

I think if you have the time to trawl through rails & visit different shops, you will probably find some goodies.