Standard of Charity shop clothing

[FANTINE2]

I like to shop in charity shops, and over the years I’ve found some great stuff.
In the past week, however, I have had to return 3 items due to them having holes in them.
First a Whistles top . I discovered at least two holes as I was putting it in the bag. The assistant refunded me immediately.
Secondly a Hobbs jumper, wool with some cashmere. Really happy with it until I got it home and discovered two holes.
Finally today a Sweatty Betty sweatshirt with quite a high price tag. Again, got it home to find a hole!
Altogether I spent approximately £25 on these items. I know I will be refunded, but this seems to be happening more snd more in charity shops. It’s like as if they see an ok label and slap a high price on without checking to see the quality of the garment.
Do they really think that people are going to pay £10 for a jumper with holes in it? It’s really frustrating. I understand that they are trying to make money for the charity, but I think they are beginning to take people for mugs.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

whistles,Hobbs,sweaty Betty are high street brands not cheap but not premium.

For many of us they are expensive brands. They're not basic high street, they're expensive high street.
They're certainly beyond me

You seen to live in a north London middle class bubble if you think they're not expensive.

CoatOfArms
It's shocking that people would do that so those labels are needed. I'm not surprised now you've pointed it out though. I was in one of my local shops and the manager was saying they try to keep an eye on known shoplifters but nothing is done. The same shoplifters know they can walk out of town centre supermarkets carrying stuff and nobody will physically intervene because it's not worth putting themselves at risk.

you seem to be vexed at my definition of high street,why? They are all brands on my high street. No I don’t consider these brands expensive. And frankly so what?
If you consider them premium or expensive, that’s fine. I don’t have a strong opinion on it. My north London zone two bubble is unperturbed by your concept of expensive

Charity shops get paid huge amounts for rags. About 25 per cent of their weekly takings.

Britain exports vast rag amounts compared to other European countries.

The rags are sent to Africa or India where they screw up local textile industries. Many charities who say they benefit these areas keep making money by undercutting local industry, however.

Naivety about charity shops can be wearying - in a nutshell, they’re businesses who make profit from other people’s decency but whether they deliver it or not is more fiddly.

Nooooooo, nothing like 25% of takings. £2-£3 per black bag. We take £200-£300 through the till in an afternoon. Rags isn’t a money spinner - it’s a convenient way of getting stock which isn’t fit for sale picked up.

@Supersimkin2 Well I can say with 100% certainty that none of what you have mentioned applies to the shop I help out at. All the money we raise goes to our vital helpline service which supports people day or night. I don't believe your 25 per cent figure for a second, where did you get that from, perhaps madeupfigures.com? The money we make is not profit, it goes directly into running our services. Frankly I'm sick of the lies that are peddled on here about charity shops.

OP you either need to learn to sew, or check more carefully. The charity shop refunded you for the defects they had missed. I volunteer in sorting clothing for charity, there's a lot to get through and even careful people can miss something or misjudge quality among the kilos of rubbish.

@Supersimkin2
25% of takings- don’t be ridiculous. On a busy day we take £800. You really believe £200 of that is from ragging?….

Does no-one understand how to do basic mending anymore?

this is great stuff: https://www.collingwoodnorrisdesign.com/visible-mending/book-visible-creative-mending-for-knitwear

I genuinely wouldn’t know where to begin
basic sew a hem or button,yes
creatively darn a sweater , no

Being able to do any kind of mending, decorative or otherwise, seems to have completely fallen out of people's skill set unless they sew for a hobby or have been taught. It seems to me worth mending a good quality garment even if it cost £5 at the charity shop, you would get years of wear out of it.

You’re right as is @Wednesdaysotherchild
i think most people don’t have the skills,don’t know how to start and it feels daunting

Agree that mending/sewing is a dying art. Why bother to repair when a replacement is so cheap?

I see that toast sell on repaired items, sweaters and dresses darned with pretty patterns etc

I think that's an example of something everyday/cheap being reinvented for the rich!

Uniqlo do something similar although I've only seen it in a couple of their larger stores.

No, Not at all
Toast aren’t cheap to begin with. Toast sell on repaired own brand garments
Presumably trying to promote their thrifty recycling hacks, be more responsible blah blah

That's what I meant, Toast clothes are really expensive and presumably nearly as expensive from their repaired range. Thrifty mending is doing it yourself because you can't afford a new item, even a cheap one, it's one persons survival skill being someone elses elite lifestyle choice.

Given we seem to have forgotten mending is even possible never mind how to do it I guess it's a novelty.

That's what I meant, Toast clothes are really expensive and presumably nearly as expensive from their repaired range. Thrifty mending is doing it yourself because you can't afford a new item, even a cheap one, it's one persons survival skill being someone elses elite lifestyle choice.
I see what you mean, and probably consumers view it differently when they have choice.

It strikes me a similar pattern with children's clothes. When I was a child in our area people used to view charity shop clothes as a thing to mock, having hand me downs wasn't considered ok by some people and looking back it's because it wasn't an affluent area, and having new things was important to a lot of people because it made sure that you didn't "look poor".

But in my social group now, there isn't a social stigma against having second hand clothes for children, or patching their trousers because they're otherwise decent and they'll only wear the knees through a new pair anyway, or passing on clothes with paint on because they'll do for nursery. I suspect that it's because people generally feel secure in themselves so they don't feel that there would be judgement their way for mending and buying second hand.

I am able to mend, thank you , and have done so on several occasions.
My point is that I purchased three items in less than a week in three different charity shops. All items were “desirable”, namely Hobbs, Sweatty Betty and Whistles. When I got them home they all had holes in them. This leads me to suspect that charity shop volunteers see good brands and just slap a highish price on them regardless. They don’t check them thoroughly.
Obviously there are some people who disagree, but I think this is happening more and more.

I think that people have agreed several times on this thread, OP, that charity shop volunteers do not have the time, good light or strong eyesight to check everything thoroughly.

As you have encountered this 3 times now, save yourself time returning them by checking before you buy.

You remind me of someone who came in when I worked in a charity shop on Saturdays as a teen. She was tutting at us because we needed to look up how to do a return in the till manual. My colleague, a student in his 20s, said with deathly politeness, “Madam, we do volunteer our time, you know.”

Moths. More moths around cos climate change = more holes in nice clothes.

How rude!