If you shop in charity shops do you think the quality clothing is harder to find?

[Britpopbaby]

I fear it is all disappearing and in its place is the usual super market fashion and fast fashion.

I volunteer in a charity shop and we definitely have more shein et al donated. It doesn’t sell well as the quality is poor.

I volunteer in a charity shop superstore and things are priced by type rather than quality. So a Cos pure cotton blouse is £3 and a shitein blouse is also £3. It blows my mind 🤯

I'm a volunteer as well as an avid shopper. I have definitely noticed during the 10 years when I have been volunteering that the volume of donations is unchanged but the quality is definitely on the slide.

We still get decent brands - enough that we have a separate rail for "labels", designer occasionally but Mint Velvet, Phase Eight, Karen Millen etc. But also loads of shein/primark/pretty little thing which is only fit for the rag bag.

*edited - i'm an AVID shopper, not an avoid shopper.

See this I like in terms of the pricing being “brand blind”.

Unfortunately there’s a mass of fast fashion shopaholics out there who have their conscience eased because they think that their rapid turnover of clothes is not an issue as it all goes to the charity shops and so they’re doing them a favour 😬

Yes - people are selling mid to high quality stuff on Vinted. The only really good quality stuff eg Karen Millen, Phase Eight, Mint Velvet etc gets donated to the shop I volunteer in by people who clearly don’t need to get a few quid by selling their castoffs

Some of my best items are from Shein.

The supposedly ‘quality’ brands have been cutting corners and using cheaper and cheaper material for quite a while now. The stitching is poor, the patterns are - interesting - and the cuts are not flattering. So you won’t find them.

Yeah you have to sift through all the fast fashion shite now. A lot of these girls online seem to do these massive Shein and whatnot hauls, wear the outfits once for a post and then donate it all, it's such a disaster for the level of waste.

That's interesting. I would have thought the amount donated might have decreased due to platforms like Vinted.

I've got a few things from shein that I regularly wear to work and have been wearing them for over 2 years. Although the sizing can be hit and miss I've found the quality generally fine. If I was running a charity shop I'd stick everything like that in a bargain bin for 50p or £1 an item, as long as it's still wearable of course.

I donated a Mint Velvet top to a charity shop recently! 🙋🏻‍♀️😂. To be honest, I don’t think that Mint Velvet is very good quality though. You get the odd piece that’s well made, but on the whole, it’s not much better than the fast fashion shite. I’ve stopped shopping there.

Only guessing but perhaps even though Vinted (& ebay, depop) resales are up, the gross volume that people buy is increasing even faster?

Yes, clothing consumption has massively increased thanks to cheap fast fashion brands. In the 1980s the average person bought 12 new items a year. Now it’s around 70 items a year!

I find it cheaper to buy new charity shops seem to be way over priced now.
The last time i went in one was to have a peep found a summer vest tagged at £5.50 went to tescos and got the same vest 3 for £5.

I’ve charity shopped for years. I’m still finding nice bits but I live in a very affluent area which helps a lot I think.

I’ve never bought super cheap brands even in the days when I bought new but I’m freaked out by the poor quality I see in the Chazza. Nasty cheap polyester dresses and synthetic knitwear. I just don’t get it.

I looked quickly in a department store today and some of the clothes that so called “good” brands were selling was shocking. The design was literally non existing and the quality would have been just as bad. Labels that were aspirational to me twenty years ago are worse than a lot of high street fashion brands now. When some of the stuff ends up in charity shops and priced as a premium it makes me worry for the future in terms of throfting a bargain.

I reckon it is worth travelling to affluent areas sometimes as the quality can sometimes be better. I love charity shops for clothes, kitchen /house items and books .I have used charity shops for years. In the majority of cases I actually think there has been big improvements with the quality of donations. I never see tatty books displayed and I like books on colour and style and crime fiction and modern romantic fiction. I used to work for a well known bookselling company and remember many years ago a customer said to me she knew that the spicy Mills and Bone books are over 50p.! I prefer authors like Carole Matthews ,Sophie Kinsella so I am always on the look out for books that I have forgotten about or did not read for whatever reason. I use libraries but sometimes they do not stock old books that authors wrote. I spent my bonus from the Nationwide on some books on ebay and recently got 4 tops from vinted that I liked as I recently got a brand new pair of jeans rather than from a charity shop due to being a short in height person. I also got a jacket and a cardigan on ebay. That concludes my purchases with the £50 bonus.

Yes, it’s declining fast.

I have brought the old thing from mint velvet in the sale, I do like their highneck vest tops they do every summer, I have 2 black ones, but to be honest at £25 they are over priced, I have 4 from marks and spencer which I think I paid half that price and they are just as good. I've had them 3 summers and just wish they would do them again I would buy in every colour.

The quality of good brands of new clothes declined sharply with covid, and between that and the influx of shein shite, there’s nothing worth buying in the charity shops now.

I think the quality of donations have declined. It's easier to sell secondhand these days and charities can be awkward about receiving donations. I gave up with charity shops, I just buy less and buy better, wear it until it's worn.

I love shopping in charity shops but very rarely find anything decent these days - or balk at the price
I find better bargains in Sainsburys and tkmaxx clearance

DD used to be an avid charity shop visitor but more recently goes to Vinted or the vintage shops for decent stuff. She recently got a stripy Levi t-shirt for a few pounds, from Vinted. It can take a little while but sometimes something will turn up which has quality & value. Charity shops don't have the same quality they once did, we both agree, even in the "posher" areas.

70 items a year. That’s terrifying.

Yes I thought that too. These stats come from the US, but I can’t imagine that we are hugely different with our Primark/Shein haul culture.