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 look on Vinted now for quality items made from decent material. I too have found that the charity shops in my (reasonably affluent) area have had a reduction in quality. Every so often there is a donation of ‘old lady clothes’ that are amazing quality but the rest has rapidly become second hand Shein and Primark polyester.

If it's a nice brand I try it on Vinted first. I'm less likely to give anything to the charity shop as since covid most don't want donations. I don't many clothes at all any more but I still find nice bargains in the charity shop and mostly donate to drop step collection companies. The very few Shein items I have have lasted me years of weekly use too. Not had to donate any of it.

Of course charity shops want donations, they literally cannot function without them. Unfortunately many are completely overwhelmed with the amount of stuff people want to donate.

If that's the average, somebody must be buying hundreds to make up for my 3 or 4 a year!

I think some of the shops get their stock from places other than walk in donations though? Cancer research near me will take one carrier bag max at a time. With paying for parking and not normally going to that area I can just have multiple bags collected from my doorstep with Anglo

Same. I have no need to buy so many clothes per year. The clothes that I have are good quality, and last me years. I wear items year in, year out. I am mindful of my contribution to the constant landfill going on.

You can’t really blame the charity shops for not selling the branded items in the shop if they can get far more selling them themselves online etc can you, DS works for an organisation that has a charity shop as part of its package, he told the staff to look carefully at what they selling/ charging after finding a near perfect CP company hoodie on the rail for £2 that would have fetched £40/50 on vinted,all extra money for the charity

Yes, some might have central collection and distribution - bags from people's doorsteps.
Others just don't have the room in their stockroom to take any more.

I live in an area of relative rural deprivation. I have shopped at charity shops my whole life (am 51) but virtually never get anything these days. There are never good quality brands in the charity shops and I am gobsmacked at the high prices. I don't know how they keep going around here. I use Vinted a lot and buy new from decent brands when I can.

@fatphalange 😳OMG £25! I work in charity retail and there is rarely anything on our shop floor above £12. Items that are high end are priced about £15 if in very good condition and a new designer item would go to the eBay shop. Most of our items are priced £1-£6 for lower quality labels and £4-£9 for higher quality. A very decent coat is currently selling for about £9 and a party dress £9-£12. We know our customers and the market and sell accordingly but that doesn't stop area/office management constantly asking us to raise prices.
I recently had a jumper returned by someone who paid £20 for a jumper that had holes (didn't see the holes at the time) - £20! She asked me what we would have had on it and I said £6 without the holes but with the damage we would not have sold it at all as we'd have recycled it. So our shop had to refund her the £20 and then get it recycled.

But in answer to the original OP's question - at certain times of the year we do get less donations and less quality things. After Christmas tends to be ok but from February to April donations can drop considerably mainly due to people feeling the pinch post Christmas and opting to try selling on Vinted etc and then it picks up again when things don't sell or people find it a faff and just donate instead. We do try to plan for these dry spells by putting spring/summer stock aside so that we have stuff prepped to sell but takings still take a big hit.

For those asking about why some charity shops refuse donations - there are 2 reasons for this. Space to sort donations and store them is very limited or they just don't have enough volunteers to do it. It's not that charities are being ungrateful (although I accept some are 'tricky') but they can't deal with too much.
Our shop is 50% selling floor and 50% prep/storage so we often have about 100 bags awaiting to sort and sometimes have 500+ because we don't turn away anything. The other thing to bear in mind is that items that are dirty, damaged and/or smell are sent to recycling immediately - it's a myth that charity shops have washer/dryers 'out back'. I have only seen one shop that did this and that was run by a bunch of 'ladies who lunch' (their own description) who ran a local hospice shop like a boutique - they were lovely but bonkers!!!

That’s an interesting statistic. I thought I bought quite a lot but I’m much, much nearer to the 12 items than the 70 items, which seems quite shocking for an ‘average’. I was wondering if it includes sheer tights which may need replacing after a couple of wears, but I guess if it did, the 80s figure would be higher.

It’s luck around here. I’ve found a few excellent bits this past year, Italian cotton shirts, excellent nick tweed lined coats and such. The amount of times I pop in I’d say 1 out of every 6 times I hit the jackpot.

The good stuff is bound to be much rarer. First, because quality clothes last longer so are thrown away less often. And second, because far more cheap fashion is bought nowadays. Some of the New Look/Primark/Tesco stuff is more expensive in the charity shops than in the original store.

I haven’t always shopped in charity shops only the last 3 years due to retiring, less budget and more time to browse. There is an increasing amount of fast fashion but I’m still able to find some gems . There’s quite a high elderly population where I live who probably wouldn’t bother with Vinted or eBay . It’s not uncommon to find really lovely vintage things at reasonable prices.

Anyone donating fast fashion garbage like Shein/Primark/supermarket clothes should really be just sending it for recycling or the tip. No one wants your £5 sweatshop T-shirt in a charity shop thank you very much. Grim.

I bought much more than 12 items a year. So did every single person l knew. Even as a student.

We had cheap shops then like Mark One. Lots of people bought loads there.

What you and your friends bought doesn't alter the average.

Ive had primark stuff thats lasted 5-10 years. I wouldn't put it in a charity shop but its not falling apart after a few wears

I used to teach history of fashion. The 80’s was a time of increased consumer spending particularly on clothes due to the rise of sub cultures and ‘designer’ clothing.

l can’t find any evidence to back your claim up apart from in America.

I would never buy Shein et al new as I don't agree with them, and often when I see them in the charity shop I don't want to buy them as the material seems cheap and the quality poor- but if I liked something I would buy it. However I'd expect it to be priced accordingly- the big charity shop near me sells a lot of Shein and Primark and it's all the same price as it would be new, basically.

I do a lot of charity shopping, probably several times a week in lots of different shops, and if you put the hours in it's still possible to find good stuff. There is one near me that's a bit off the beaten track that always has loads of amazing stuff in, I don't know who lives near there but I hope they never move!

I think quality has reduced overall, ie new clothing is lower quality than it used to be. Even expensive brands use a lot of polyester and other man-made materials. This is reflected in the donations.

I'd agree with that too @WhatALightbulbMoment - I was in Phase Eight the other day in their 'occasion' section (alright it's hardly designer but they're charging between £200-400 for a dress) and couldn't believe the quality. Stuff like maxi dresses with a tiered bottom, or naff little string ties on the chest that aren't even proper ties. Really shocking.

Can the charity shops sell on Vinted? Or do their own online sales platforms - that would save them the over heads of bricks and mortar and the hassle of staffing etc.

I live in a wealthy area so there are often lots of top quality brands - often ones I wouldn’t know and have to look up. I have immaculate knitwear worth £300 new for a tenner. I have a Gucci suede trench coat and Joseph jeans both £15. For me it’s the thrill of the find. In my area it’s often occasion wear that’s donated so lots of Hobbs etc - I get a lot altered as the lengths are unflattering and unfashionable.

What claim? I only said that someone's personal experience has no bearing on the average. I haven't claimed what that average is and don't know where the average figure (stated by another poster) came from. Whatever the average was makes no difference - one person's behaviour is irrelevant.

Our local hospice has a "quality shop" and pound shops. You have to go to the quality shop for good brands but they are there.
I gather Oxfam does the same - I used to live in Hackney and they had a cheap superstore there and the posh stuff went to Chelsea et al.