Why do charity shops do this?

[LuLuLemonadeDrinker]

A couple of local charity shops near me both constantly have signs up outside on an A-Board, saying that they are not taking donations. However, both of these have very little stock inside, and are both very overpriced. For example, a worn, very bobbly Primark jumper for £7, and a Boohoo polyester dress for £12.

One in particular is just depressing to go into; I went in the other day for the first time in two months and some of the overpriced clothes that were there then were still hanging there, still for sale. The rails were also pretty empty. The board was outside as usual requesting no donations. There were 5 members of staff in the shop.

I really don't get it; surely it would be far better, and raise far more money, if they had more stock out, and priced it at lower prices for a quicker turnover. I really can't see the shop I went in yesterday raising much money at all, as there's never anything in there really to buy.

I'm sure some posters will reply saying it's a 'charity shop bashing thread', and yes, it is! I want to support charities and want to buy pre owned items but shops like this aren't exactly going to raise any money!

I must have great charity shops near me! We do get tat as well but the nearest one to my house has a steady stream of M&S and Zara, some with tags, for really good prices.

@LuLuLemonadeDrinker , either shop elsewhere or apply for a job as a charity shop manager.

Haven't rtft, but that seems really strange! I live near a small town with a number of charity shops which I was browsing last weekend. They were all well stocked, pricing was realistic, quality was decent. I would suggest lack of staffing to sort through donations, as pps have suggested (I know some people take the piss and send substandard items just to get them out of the house, and that doesn't help), but it sounds like they have plenty... this just sounds like a particularly crappy charity shop to me, but they're not doing themselves any favours refusing donations.

That's right. I popped in to donate stuff and noticed them on the shelf. I was going for the weekly shop afterwards, so I couldn't even spare the £15. How sad is that?

The big out of town place I go had a ‘nicer’ section with actual nice brands priced slightly higher, the main section has the cheaper/supermarket stuff at low prices.

It’s probably lack of volunteers /storage space.

If they don’t have much stock out and they are saying they don’t want donations, I’d take that to mean they’ve got bags and bags of donations in their store room but no one prepared to sort it out, get it labelled up and ready to be out for sale. That boohoo dresses are being priced so incorrectly (priced as if they are premium not cheap on the charity sales guide) would also strongly suggest they are lacking good sorting and prep volunteers.

years ago when dc2 first started preschool before I returned to work, I volunteered two mornings a week at our local Oxfam shop, we had a team of 4 volunteers on sorting out duty just to keep on top of it, most of the donations weren’t in a good enough state to resale. The usual staffing was 4 people in the back sorting, one on till, one manager who stocked the shop and looked after everyone.

Normal if you're like me.
The weekly shop has been whittled down to only the bare essentials and I'm bored of boiled rice and yellow-sticker tinned food every day.

Some volunteers just take the good stuff and not pay for it - my batty great aunt would do that regularly when she was left on her own. I think the signs are to stop stuff being left outside. If you actually went in with a bag, the are more likely to accept it etc. Five volunteers seems excessive if there's no stock? Do they just stand around or drink tea most of the time? Okay being a bit critical there, but that's the thought that popped into my head. Books seem to be heading towards extinction ... many libraries are selling them off.

seven pages is slightly longer than average but finally we have the ‘volunteers take the good stuff’ comment!
please do define good stuff??

Some volunteers just take the good stuff and not pay for it - my batty great aunt would do that regularly when she was left on her own

most charity shops have rules about lone working - the two major chains I volunteered with (Oxfam and Save the Children) would never have allowed a situation when one person was on their own. I have also worked with probably hundreds of volunteers over that time and nobody helped themselves. The two charities I volunteered for had written policies about volunteer purchases.

Posters always bang on about "the good stuff" but never seem to define what that is. I am a 50s, size 14 woman. My "good stuff" is Hornsea pottery, original paintings and other home decor items, crafty supplies, natural fibre knitting yarn, history books and the occasional item of clothing.

I have zero interest in handbags, shoes, jewellery, children's clothes, sports gear, clubbing gear, anything a size 10 or under or size 18 and over etc etc.

Stuff still in boxes. Like half a dozen good quality men's shirts never used as the man died; full sets of crockery; brand new bathroom sets.
My aunt accumulated hundreds of small crystal ornaments which we know she didn't buy. DVDs for recent films. New cases for iPhones and protectors. Sure there was other stuff that was mentioned by my aunt, here daughter (not my cousin), and aunt's friend who also volunteered. There's been a few scandals in the posh parts of West London, where high end stuff get donated and never reached the shelves. That one in Richmond for example that made the papers around a decade ago?

This was mainly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Volunteers were in and off all the time to do grocery shopping etc. My aunt was batty and cunning - she's now gone. Unfortunately her daughter seems to have taken the family tradition of this.

So 25 to 30 years ago then...

Some of our local supermarkets are taking 2nd books again, hurray!, through different schemes. You either leave your books at customer services (presumably where they are checked for X-rated stuff??) or you put them straight on the shelf with the charity tin.

Tesco - customer services
Asda - shelves next to customer services
Morrisons - shelves opposite customer services

We have one of them in my town. Everything is arranged into size groups rather than colours and it's a complete jumble sale, but my God it's popular and because nothing stays on the rails for very long before being sold there is always new stock too.

A sharp contrast to the beautifully laid out, boutique style one a couple of doors down which is usually empty. The last time I was in there I pulled out a dress I'd recently seem in the supermarket to find it was nearly double the price and not even BNWT!

I do feel sorry for the staff in the posher shop though cause they always seem bored senseless.

“Volunteers take all the good stuff” yet same posters never want to volunteer themselves or actually check if said charity shops have policies to stop this…

that said, volunteers usually get first choice of what to buy. Generally policies are you can’t price up items you’ll be buying, but if it’s a volunteer or a random person buying something it makes no difference to the charity.

My local charity shop has now decided to price things with how much people are also charging on eBay! Sign next to the item says “eBay price £20” hasn’t been sold on eBay just listed at that!!

I think the future of the generalist bric-a-brac and clothes type charity shop, is pretty limited, particularly in less affluent areas.

Fast fashion and fast homeware means a lot of stuff is almost worthless second-hand, because it is so cheap to buy new anyway.

Although they don't pay business rates, they will still have overheads- rent, utilities, salary of the shop manager, and the cost of carting away the dross they can't sell; so the shop will have to make a certain amount of money to break even, let alone profit. They may not be able to get sufficient throughput to do this by selling everything for 20p or whatever (although some might).

The future is probably larger but fewer stores in retail parks where more stock can be displayed/sorted/stored, volunteers can be centralised, and overhead per square foot of sales space is lower. That will probably enable things to be sold more cheaply, and also more sales of higher value items like furniture.

At the opposite end you will see specialist charity shops in more affluent areas, specialising in books; or vintage furniture; or vintage clothing etc. They will be positioned to attract a more affluent customer who can and will spend more.

Yes, I volunteered years back now and we used to get first refusal. I think given we were donating our time and labour for free, that was a reasonable perk.

The point is that the definition of good stuff varies for person to person. My good stuff is a brand new paperback which I will purchase, read and redonate with gift aid.

A poster will come along now and tell you that perk is completely outrageous!

If you work there you get bored of the stuff and aren't interested in it. Apart from on MNland, where all the good stuff is grabbed by the volunteers leaving only bobbly Primark jumpers, grotty Tesco vests and Shein dresses.

How big do they think our houses are?

It’s already the case that for charity shop chains, the shops in more affluent areas that get lots of good quality donations pass them on to shops in poorer areas where they don’t get donations in resale condition.

If you are a volunteer, enormous because you are probably a 'boomer' (meaning between the age of 40 and 90) and bought your first house for 5 shillings and sixpence then made a profit of 450% etc, and now make millions by selling the charity shop hauls on vinted.

If you are a customer, probably really struggling in your 5-bed 2-bath tiny detached house despite having 2 6-figure salaries.