What shopping in charity shops makes you realise about the high street at the moment?

[Britpopbaby]

I picked up a Richard’s cardigan in a charity shop today for less than £7 which is 70% lambs wool? 20% angora and 10 percent nylon. You’d be hard pushed to find that kind of composition on the high street now and I imagine that of you did it would be part of a premium range.

I bought a brand new clock for my Dd1 it was £4 in the charity shop ,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293647850930
l also bought several books for 50p each , it made me realise if you wait long enough , things turn up all the time & you can save yourself a fortune .

A good time of year to go for a look round the charity shops! Thanks for the reminder

How well made the tailoring was, coats, jackets etc. it generally makes me nostalgic for the 90s and 00s

How charity shops aren’t paying clothes manufacturers and their workers, or clockmakers, or the authors of books.

So raising their prices doesn’t make sense.

Personally I find most second hand clothing makes me think it wasn’t worth buying the first time around let alone the second.

This is why I still hang on to all my old stuff as long as it still fits, is classic styles & is in good condition. The quality was so much better. Only new things I buy now are from the Scottish factory outlet shops where you can get cashmere, lambs wool etc far cheaper than from the premium brands they supply.

I buy the older stuff on Vinted. I went in charity shops today and there was nothing there, just horrible polyester stuff. I'd prefer to get the better quality clothes, including 90's and 2000's from Vinted or vintage shops, there's nothing in so many of the charity shops near us (not a rich area).

It makes me realise how small the vintage clothes are and how most clothes are now vanity sized. I picked up a vintage size 10 skirt and it would be no more than a 4 or 6 nowadays.

Also the clothes are usually tatty and overpriced. I can't remember the last time I found anything worth buying in a charity shop.

@Avacardo2023 I feel that there needs to be a much bigger discussion about sizing as there is no such thing I believe as a standard size and that lifestyles have changed and so sizing needs to reflect that IMO which I don’t think it does.

Angora comes from rabbits. That are plucked.

But they do pay salaries, rent, utility bills, costs for promotional material, buy cleaning products, pay for stationery ….and so on and everything has gone up.

another charity shop bashing thread. We haven’t had once since….yesterday.

@ShanghaiDiva The intention isn’t to bash charity shops but more of a comment on the state of things, mainly quality, of the things on high street shops.

Lambs wool hasn't been a premium yarn for years. Even merino has lost its cachet as it has become more widely available. And cashmere is appearing more often at a lower price point.

Charity shops are there for fundraising purposes to fund whichever service that charity provides - which probably includes materials, rents, utilities, vehicles, salaries for peoples' skills etc. So there are a lot of costs involved they have to pay for - most of which are all going up.

Cheap cashmere tends to fall apart quickly. I have some old (charity shop) Cashmere jumpers which are immaculate despite being 20+ years old and being worn regularly.

similar jumper would be £600 today but I bet it wouldn’t be as good quality.

I love charity shops.

Definitely notice that a size 12 today is a size 6 from 20 yrs ago.

That older clothes are cut better and better quality overall.

I can buy two Monsoon outfits for DTwins for £1.50 (children's clothes are all 50p each or 3 for £1!!!) Or go to Monsoon and pay £80-100 for the same.

Despite being able to afford it, I will not buy any new clothes for DC except on rare occasions. They stain them, put holes in the knees, outgrow them at an astonishing rate. With charity shops, FB marketplace and the like, I don't care if things get trashed on the first wear. I was cross when boy twin wore his £50 trousers for the first time at a wedding and grass stained them the moment we left the church.

It makes me realise that the £40 I save on each pair of M&S autograph trousers for DH (on his third pair from a charity shop now) is £40 for fillet steak for tea, or a birthday present for Nan, or diesel in the car. It's a no brainer.

Less landfill. Donating to charity. Saving thousands a year. The satisfying feeling of a great bargain. Certainly for clothing, and glassware too, it's made me feel the high street is falling fast behind.

Charity shop purchases make me realise how the quality of materials and manufacture has deteriorated over the last 2 - 3 decades whether it be clothes or household items. And I could kick myself when I think of so many things I turfed out years ago.

Mmmm. Some of my nicest things have come from charity shops - skirts, an M & S trench coat, gilets, an unworn denim jacket, barely worn skinny jeans.

What do you mean by 'sizing needs to reflect that'? I think sizes should be ditched in favour of actual measurements.

People say this. I don’t buy many clothes so have lots that are old enough to be vintage. I wear the same size when I buy new as my old stuff.

Definitely notice that a size 12 today is a size 6 from 20 yrs ago
is that really what you mean @WillYouPutYourCoatOn ? Because that sounds the opposite of vanity sizing. Vanity sizing would have something tha5 used to be a 12 labelled a 6 to make you feel thin. Or are you just parroting vanity sizing nonsense without having actually observed it?

@Plexie I think that given how lots of high street knitwear is acrylic or polyester that lambs wool could be classed as being a premium material.

@OnlyCorrect I mean that how we live our lives now and our dietary habits have changed and as such I think there needs to be an acceptance of this in terms of sizing. I also agree that getting rid of the numerical sizing system would be good.

That may be your intention, but it will no doubt evolve into a charity shop bashing thread. Already had comments about pricing and from there it generally moves on to dim volunteers/volunteers are thieves/ bobbly Primark jumpers/greedy chief executives…and so on.

It's actually option 3: Watching TV and not paying attention to what I'm writing.

Basically a size 12 from 20yrs ago is tiny by today's standards. Whichever way round I should have written it, that's what I meant.