Charity shops

tiff · 24 January 2005 at 1:41PM

I know its not everyones cup of tea but now and again I trawl a high street near me that has 9 charity shops at the last count. Some of the prices are expensive I think, I know that they only take quality stuff these days and pass on the rest to charities abroad.

Does anyone else shop in charity shops, are there certain shops that are cheaper than the others? What have you bought and what was your best bargain?

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Sarahsaver · 24 January 2005 at 4:41PM

I regularly shop in a local charity shop, as its not part of a chain, its a local charity, and the prices are very competitive. Went into oxfam the other day and you can get new stuff for the prices they charge!
I have on a brand new blue velour zip up top, with pockets, very trendy gathered shoulders, still had the tags on it and everything, £1.50. The same shop regularly has clearouts from a local shop which sells designer clother - saw some Christian Lacroix stuff there too!
The charity shop is often my first port of call for many things - picture frames, kitchen equipment, kids coats, pocket money toys for the kids. Also with clothes for myself I look there first if i have a bee in my bonnet about a particular thing i just 'have' to get. Often a look through Glamour magazine to see what's 'in' this month, then off to the charity shop to get things that fit the bill, if i dont already have them lurking at home somewhere...! Im finding now that it is true things come round again, the few things i have from my student days in the early 90s are coming back in now. I also donate to the charity shops. It does my kids good, a valuable lesson in learning to keep tidy and to think about other people. I look on it as decluttering my home for free, whereas one of these decluttering experts would charge a fortune! And I always make sure the stuff i give is in good order and clean.

culpepper · 24 January 2005 at 4:44PM

I use them all the time.
The RSPCA shop is very good for everything.
We also have the Childrens Ambulance shop which has excellent prices.
My best buy was a Tent for my daughter for £5.It is a 2 man ridge tent with a fly sheet.Much nicer and roomier than the little dome tent we originally bought her new (it wasnt waterproof) .I bought one of those folding picnic table and chair things for £4 too.
I think there are about 14 charity shops in our local town so we have plenty of choice.:)

Lillibet_2 · 24 January 2005 at 4:59PM

I have the choice of 5 in my (little) high street, with Oxfam being by far the most expensive & so over stocked it's diffcuilt to look at items properly, Scope & Cancer Research have middle of the range prices but their stuff is always spotless & they have big shops so a deacent range, a local hospice shop & a Romanian Orphanage shop being the cheapest by far if somewhat old fashiend in both their stock & staff. I regularly check them all but find the bulk of my purchases are made at Scope, Cancer Research & the Orphanage shop. The next town over has only 2 charity shops, both quite big & very well laid out, prices a little higher but as it's a posh town the stock is usually all very good quality stuff. I find it worth the occasional trip if I'm after something specific or for a special occasion. However, with places like Primark & Tesco offering good quality basics at very low prices I tend to stock up seasonally & just top up from the charity shops now, unfortunately they just aren't so competitive anymore.

Galtizz · 24 January 2005 at 5:16PM

In the town near to me there are more charity shops than any other shops. I go into them quite often and have a look. I rarely buy clothes because, as Lilibet says you can usually get them cheaper from supermarkets and Primark.

The best thing I get from Charity shops are books, my local library is very small, I've read most of the books by the authors I like in there and they don't update very often, but the town has a large student population and there are always good, often new release books in there for about £1. I always pass them around friends and relatives then take them back after I've read them. More expensive than a library I know, but lots of people enjoy the book, I give £1 to charity and it's still cheaper than paying £6.99 for a new copy that would go around the same people and end up at the same charity shop.

tiff · 24 January 2005 at 5:27PM

I know some clothes are cheaper in supermarkets and other places but I was looking for a fleece for when camping, I'm overweight and its just for camping so I dont mind if its a mens one. Found one for £3.50 and it was a well known quality make. I dont think the quality of clothes is brilliant in Asda for example, the clothes fade and t shirts usually shrink or go out of shape. I dont admit that I have bought stuff in charity shops, my Mum would go berserk with me, but then she has a lot more disposable income than I have. She once raved over a fleece that I bought for my son when he was a baby, it came from a charity shop, was a bargain and looked like it had never been worn but I never said anything. It has been quite rare that I have bought anything but I'm going to take a look tomorrow and see what I can find. That tent was a real bargain Culpepper.

VickyA_2 · 24 January 2005 at 6:56PM

My local town has numerous charity shops, which I always lose count of! I do begrudge Oxfam's prices though, as some of you have mentioned. I know it's for charity, but when a dog-eared paperback is on sale for £2 I'm not exactly drawn towards buying it! Plus our local market has an excellent book stall which sells not-so-dog-eared books for 80p each.

klondyke · 24 January 2005 at 8:43PM

VickyA wrote:

My local town has numerous charity shops, which I always lose count of! I do begrudge Oxfam's prices though, as some of you have mentioned. I know it's for charity, but when a dog-eared paperback is on sale for £2 I'm not exactly drawn towards buying it! Plus our local market has an excellent book stall which sells not-so-dog-eared books for 80p each.

Don't blame you! I 'do' books for local Oxfam. One of our biggest problems is Oxfam 'management' price guidelines, which we are supposed to adhere to. They don't take account of the number of other charity shops in the area (6, in our case). Some of us price them well below wot we're sposed to, but then find other helpers pricing thing up to the hilt! Mind you, as a volunteer, I don't take too much nonsense from a paid area manager 'telling us off' for low pricing, but there you go.

Much the same with clothes, tho' I don't deal with them, thank goodness.

As to 'dog-eared', we're supposed to throw those straight out along with those unsold after a month or so. Ouch! I still have the horrors at throwing out good unsolds, though, for a while we were passing these to Books for Africa - but they have a warehousing problem unlikely to be solved while all space is being taken up with Tsunami donations. Can't win, really.

juno · 24 January 2005 at 8:46PM

Our Canver Research shop sells some books for 10p! It's normally Children's books and older editions, but they sometimes have good ones. It annoys me when a book given away free with a magazine is sold for £2, when the magazine cost about that anyway!

My best bargain was from a charity auction, and was a (real!) Gucci watch. If you see any charity auctions advertised, then go! The one that I help out at normally has a variety of things and as there's not many people there they tend to go for low prices.

tiff · 24 January 2005 at 11:52PM

Now that we have an excellent search facility I have read several threads in different forums about charity shops, sorry for repeating it.

16011996 · 25 January 2005 at 9:15AM

don't worry tiff, things often get duplicated, but its interesting that this comes up time after time.

i find oxfam near me quite cheap, but they price all things at a set price, tops, trousers, skirts and dresses are all £1.99 each. shoes and handbags £1.59, kids clothes 3 items for £1.59 (except coats which are £1.59 each) suits are £3.99 and accessories are 99p (ties belts etc). I guess it saves them time pricing and the shop is always busy. they do linen too for 99p for small and £1.99 for large items.

i like table top sales though, i find best bargains there usually. i am wearing a pair of calvin klein jeans i bought for 50p in there which are my favourite buy. local churches have them round here quite often, and they are always advertised in the free paper. sometimes the churh charges 20p to get in, but for what i save its well worth it. and its nice for the churches etc to make a bit of money from it.

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Charity shops

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