Do you think that low prices on Vinted will make charity shops consider their pricing strategy more?

[Britpopbaby]

In terms of lowering their prices overall rather than increasing them.

I doubt it. There's huge convenience to buying from a charity shop, where you can try the clothes on, check the condition for yourself, not run the risk of being scammed etc.

Vinted etc. have the advantage that you can search for exactly what you want from a much wider range of products, without having to leave your house. But if you enjoy a wander round the charity shops and buying on impulse, that's not an experience you can have online.

In short, they cater for different needs.

No
they will start using Vinted as well as bricks and mortar shops
People also enjoy shopping in charity shops so …

I regularly walk past a charity shop where I live and am always astounded at the prices...very high and I know I can find better and cheaper on vinted

If Vinted becomes too much competition, it's more like charity shops will start to close rather than reduce prices as they need to sell at decent prices to cover their overheads and still be able to generate income for the charity.

I love charity shops as there are also books, household things as well as clothes .I use vinted when I want something specific so I reckon there is room for both places. I have had some wonderful tops and jackets and dresses from Vinted. Trousers are best to be tried on due to length so I prefer to go to a charity shop for them rather than buy from vinted. When I get dresses I can specify colour etc.

it probably depends on what's being sold
the initial prices on vinted might be cheaper but by the time you've added on the seller protection fee and postage it adds up.

nobody is going to sell, e.g. a book for cheaper than about a quid. with the fee and absolute cheapest postage that's still about £4.20 from vinted where it would just be the quid in a charity shop.

Whereas if you see a dress you like it's probably worth it, because even if the additional charges take it from £3 to £6, what are the chances you'll find a dress you a) like b) that fits c) is in reasonable condition for six quid in the charity shop?

Charity shops have to pay rent, salaries, council tax, national insurance, electricity bill and clean the clothes.

Vinted isn’t particularly cheap for the buyer as we have to pay the p&p and whatever the other bullshit charge is. When you buy from a charity shop the price is the price.

Charity shops are great for a browse, a chance find.
Some of the prices are a bit silly, at some places…
I’ve never looked at Vinted or EBay or similar.
Gotta see the condition, sniff the pits, check knees.

There's a (huge) charity shop near me and I LOVE a toddle around on the weekend. 3 dvd's for £1, clothes all £1, 3 books for £1 plus furniture/ toys/ school uniform etc etc. Love it.

Then I wandered into a BHF shop further along the high street and OMG the prices!!! Books £2 and saw a dress for £35 (not designer). Glasses were around 4.50 - you can buy them cheaper in Tesco! Have no idea how they are still open.

I saw a Zara blazer when I was walking past a charity shop...I went in to have a look. £40! It wouldn't have been much more than that new I'd have thought. Not an especially affluent area by the way.

Why would charity shops be reconsidering their pricing strategy? Do you have information that retail isn't providing a good return on investment for the charities?

Or is this just another thread about how Mumsnet posters, personally, would like things to be cheaper in charity shops, and furthermore that Mumsnet posters, personally, must therefore know more about running the business of a charity's retail arm than the professionals who are charged with developing this income stream?

The BHF shops near me are all much pricier than the other charity shops. I volunteer (in a different one!) and think the prices are fair. There's a £1 rail with lots of everyday clothes on (Primark, Shein etc) and then the other rails are £4 for better quality stuff (Next, M&S, Zara). Dresses are about £6 each. Yes, we sell the odd genuine treasure which is priced according to stuff on Ebay - handbags, designer trainers, leather jackets, etc - so possibly £20-£60. The manager is not averse to a bit of haggling on these! We get regulars in every week who spend a few bob and then those who have no budget. It's a mutually beneficial transaction!

I found it quite interesting that charity shops only seem to be making about 17% -20% net profit which I found really low given a lot of the labour and stock is free.

I suspect charity shops might concentrate on areas that make money so perhaps furniture shops. My local bhf does a roaring trade on seconds hand sofas as they will collect / deliver.

Bric a brac can make a fair whack and books are cheaper due to postage. Possibly they will reduce amount of space dedicated to clothes/ stop selling them in some stores/ start flogging them on vinted.

Nope-why do you think they would?

I didn't get the perception that posters were commenting on structure and investing... just thats it's a bit odd that some sell items that are more expensive new.

There have just been so many threads (not just on Style and Beauty) where posters queue up to say "charity shops are getting it all wrong, they should stack them high and sell them cheap, then they would make more money, I just know they would, they just haven't thought about it like I have", usually coupled with "charity shops somehow (and regardless of their own charitable objectives) have a responsibility to provide people in my town with a source of cheap clothes".

No. I don’t think that Vinted is particularly cheap by the time you’ve added on fees and postage. Plus Vinted involves an element of risk as you don’t get to see the item, try it on, and return if it doesn’t fit, and so lots of people who buy from charity shops won’t shop on Vinted.

Yes, BHF always seem expensive, although their furniture-only shops are very cheap - you can pick up e.g. a coffee table for under a tenner, and a few years ago I got a real leather sofa in great condition for £90 including delivery.

Unfortunately Vinted has affected the quality of clothing found at charity shops as many people now seem to sell their castoffs instead of donating - particularly luxury brands. I regularly used to find designer clothes and other quality items but this has become much harder.

I’m not sure.

i bought a lovely Zara dress yesterday at a local charity shop for £6. It didn’t fit me very well so I put it on Vinted for £15 and it sold 2 hours later!

I think we might see an increase in thrift type shops there is one near me that has a pile it high, sell it cheap mentality. It has multiple purposes though, reducing waste for items that can be reused, helping the community lots of free rails for kids school uniform , kids coats and wellies type stuff and also funding local charities, community organisations and voluntary organisations.

It’s really well thought of locally and does a bustling trade. I buy/ donate / volunteer a few times a year. Essentially the shop and its stock stays but a new group takes it over each week. Tend to make £1-3k a week, a drop in the ocean to big charities but a huge help if you’re a wee group.

Most of my charity shops charge £6 for a pair of jeans, I can get exactly the same on vinted (once postage etc included) but be more certain of fit, because I usually don’t have time to try stuff on in the charity shop or the changing room is full of spare stock! so Vinted it is. The prices have gone up in most of ours by too much, I appreciate they have overheads but I’m not paying a tenner for a secondhand T-shirt. I do still go for a wander and a browse every so often but rarely buy clothing these days.

I love charity shops. What I’ve noticed is that pricing in many of them is subjective and very much depends on who is pricing. They do have guidelines but they still overprice things they personally like and underprice things they don’t know about or do not like. I often see M&S items priced higher than some high end European brands. I also noticed that if you show an interest in something, next time you come , this brand will be priced higher.

I am a charity shop volunteer and we do our best to price at a reasonable rate. We are a small shop which is entirely volunteer run, we have no paid staff at all. We're part of a large charity you will have heard of with branches all over the country, we do get a vague pricing list but it's very open to interpretation and just classes brands as low (H&M, Tu, George) medium (M&S, Next, Fat Face) or high (Reiss, Whistles, Hobbs). We know what sells and what our customers will pay - come to our shop and tops are £5 - £6, a dress from somewhere like M&S would be £8-£9, a coat from Hobbs about £15. We are definitely seeing a decline in the quality of donations and I'm sure some people are selling their old stuff, but we still do get really good stuff.

Other charity shops are wild with their pricing, we were in North Berwick a few weeks ago (which if you don't know it is a posh wee town on the coast outside Edinburgh) and one of the chains was outrageously priced - their standard price for a dress from Next or M&S appeared to be £26.95. Crazy. But this was another large charity chain and they must be shifting stock at that price.

I also think people who don't see charity sales figures week in, week out focus solely on the clothing. Our figures show we sell more bricabrac and toys/games than we do clothing. Also the "pile it high sell it cheap" model might work for some charities but you need a lot of bodies to keep processing donations, pricing, steaming, stocking shelves, manning the till. We struggle to find the minimum of 2 people per shift.

People buy from us because when you come into the shop you can inspect the item there and then, check it for marks or other problems. Try it on and make sure it fits!! And then take it away immediately. Or if you do take it home and it doesn't fit, getting a refund is easy. Vinted is brilliant and I have bought and sold on there myself but it's a different beast.