Charity shops getting expensive!

lessonlearned · 17 July 2017 at 12:24PM

As you say - bonkers.

We may be a first world country but we still have plenty of pockets of deprivation where people genuinely struggle to feed and clothe themselves and their families.

Charity shops should gear themselves up to prevailing local market conditions not have prices set at arbitrary levels by Head Office Honchos in their ivory towers.

One of my abiding memories was when I once did a car boot sale. I had a load of clothing from my boys. I was quite hard up at the time and most of their clothing was only lightly worn because they were growing so fast. I needed to try and get a bit of cash for it rather than donate it.

A man came to my stall with his son and daughter. You could tell just by looking at them that he had fallen on hard times.

I had plenty of boys clothes so no problem there but I could see the girl was in desperate need too. I ferreted Around and found some things which could be regarded as a bit more unisex and showed them to her. Her face lit up and she asked her dad for reassurance that they would be ok for a girl.

I let them have bag full of stuff each for just a few quid. Her dads gratitude was very humbling and the joy on those kids faces will remain with me for ever.

Yes poverty may be relative and I doubt that anyone in the U.K. Is as poor as they are in third world countries but there is still plenty of hardship. And there are still children who are desperate for warm winter clothing.

Out,_Vile_Jelly · 17 July 2017 at 1:42PM

My absolute pet hate is Wordsworth Classics being sold for more than their original 99p price- they were deliberately published at this price to make great literature cheaply and widely available.

NineDeuce · 17 July 2017 at 2:01PM

Inflation?

YorksLass · 17 July 2017 at 6:55PM

Does anyone remember a TV series from about 8/9 years ago featuring Mary Portas who, at the behest of the Government of the day, overhauled Save the Children charity shops? Her mission was obviously to help the charity make more money for its cause but I can't help feeling it was at the cost of alienating the volunteers as well as drastically increasing the prices of goods offered for sale. She was very critical of the quality of donations from the public, store cleanliness and the lack of business acumen of the staff. Maybe this is where the rot started and other national charities followed her example.

I have 6 charity shops in my neighbourhood, all with varying prices. The latest one to open - a hospice shop - is reasonably priced, stocks good quality items plus they have new goods on sale too but these are somewhat overpriced IMO. The Mind shop is pretty good pricewise and seems to have a good turnover as does the slightly dearer CRUK. The others - Oxfam, BHF and Jewish Welfare - are expensive. One of them (I can't remember which) sometimes has "sales" (usually books) when you can find bargains. All of them have a definite lack of men's clothing and what little they do have is generally poor quality.

I'm in agreement with other posters that it's better to price goods sensibly and have them sell, rather than have them stagnating on rails because the prices are too high. As others have pointed out, there is still genuine hardship in this country and many people use charity shops for exactly that reason, not through choice.

SDG31000 · 17 July 2017 at 7:26PM

I work for a chain of charity shops and I have to agree with some of the comments.
I try to keep things at a reasonable price and its only things like expensive pottery, jewellery etc that are sold somewhere else. Men's clothes just aren't donated in the same quantities as women's clothes and we struggle to keep the rails filled. Things stay at on the rails for 4 weeks and are then reduced to half price.
However I see it from the other side as well. I get people arguing about prices with me on a daily basis, even when something is 50p. We also have things stolen every day. Funding for just one of the projects we support has recently been cut by £150,000 per year and that money has to come from somewhere else. The demand and need for what we do has gone up in leaps and bounds and we are struggling to help everyone that needs it.

VfM4meplse · 17 July 2017 at 11:18PM

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

My absolute pet hate is Wordsworth Classics being sold for more than their original 99p price- they were deliberately published at this price to make great literature cheaply and widely available.

I caught the 2012 Danish version of Kon-Tiki the other week (I believe it's still available on the iPlayer) and decided I would like to read the book, so duly P'inned it.

I was amazed to see it in a thrift shop (admittedly not a chazzer) and equally so to find it priced at £5 - it's a thin and very old paperback, the RRP on the back was 80p. For that price I'll stick to the library.

Floss · 18 July 2017 at 7:30AM

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I caught the 2012 Danish version of Kon-Tiki the other week (I believe it's still available on the iPlayer) and decided I would like to read the book, so duly P'inned it.

I was amazed to see it in a thrift shop (admittedly not a chazzer) and equally so to find it priced at £5 - it's a thin and very old paperback, the RRP on the back was 80p. For that price I'll stick to the library.

That may well have been my dad's copy, cleared from my mums house in 2005! Were any of the others there too?

Pollycat · 18 July 2017 at 7:45AM

lessonlearned wrote: »

Well said Polly. Hope you don't mind me chopping your reply down but I think you have hit the nail on the head there.

As someone who has volunteered in one of the chains I was appalled at the waste and lack of business acumen shown by those in Head Office.

I always felt that the local branch manager should have been given far more autonomy. They know the area, the prices that it can stand, what sells well, what languishes on the racks, how to drum up business with local initiatives and seasonal marketing.

Most of the chains have a dating system at work, roughly a month on the rails. (You can tell the dates, its shown on the tickets)

If it doesn't sell then it gets bagged up and sent to another branch. I really can't see the point. It's a lot of work for no financial gain. Yes the volunteers aren't charging for their time so they are not spending money on staff wages for that task but It is still an inefficient way of going about things. It would be more fruitful to just price it according to local market conditions and get the sales.

A quick turnover, with new stock being displayed more regularly would also maintain customer interest and increase footfall which of course would lead to more sales.

When I worked on site selling new build houses I had to look good but my clothes got wrecked very easily. I used to buy all my posh suits from a nearly new shop which specialised in high end labels. I used to buy suits which would normally cost £200 to £300 for around £30 to £50.

There is a huge difference between a nearly new shop and a chazzer but It seems that some of the national chazzer chains are trying to aim for the the same market, hence the store refits and higher prices.

They should stop trying to compete on that basis and go back to their original model, i.e. Pile it high and sell it cheap. It's hardly rocket science......and let's face it most charity shop customers couldn't give a fig if the shop itself looks a bit "tired". So refitting the shops to make then look like high street stores is a complete waste of money. As long as they are clean and hygienic that's all matters.

Re the fusty smell. It's usually worse when the shop has old carpets.
Replacing with vinyl or laminate reduces it but laminate in particular can be slippery when wet, unless you can have an area by the door for proper non slip coir matting or similar to soak up the moisture. A bit of a health and safety issue I am afraid.

Our shop had old carpets ........we kept the door open as much as possible.:rotfl:

I don't mind at all, LL - and I agree with everything you say too.

YorksLass wrote: »

Does anyone remember a TV series from about 8/9 years ago featuring Mary Portas who, at the behest of the Government of the day, overhauled Save the Children charity shops? Her mission was obviously to help the charity make more money for its cause but I can't help feeling it was at the cost of alienating the volunteers as well as drastically increasing the prices of goods offered for sale. She was very critical of the quality of donations from the public, store cleanliness and the lack of business acumen of the staff. Maybe this is where the rot started and other national charities followed her example.

I remember that programme.
Our STC shop was refurbished.
It's been closed for a couple of years now.
Well, that worked well, didn't it. :cool:

SDG31000 wrote: »

I work for a chain of charity shops and I have to agree with some of the comments.
I try to keep things at a reasonable price and its only things like expensive pottery, jewellery etc that are sold somewhere else. Men's clothes just aren't donated in the same quantities as women's clothes and we struggle to keep the rails filled. Things stay at on the rails for 4 weeks and are then reduced to half price.
However I see it from the other side as well. I get people arguing about prices with me on a daily basis, even when something is 50p. We also have things stolen every day. Funding for just one of the projects we support has recently been cut by £150,000 per year and that money has to come from somewhere else. The demand and need for what we do has gone up in leaps and bounds and we are struggling to help everyone that needs it.

I'd never haggle about prices in a charity shop.
I might point out that a high priced item has a flaw - I looked at a Betty Jackson maxi dress which had been taken up very badly, still decided to buy it and mentioned it to the assistant as I know this shop (Hospice) are very keen on checking stock quality.
She said 'it must have slipped through' and knocked some money off.
I'm a regular customer though and donate regularly.

Shocking that anyone could steal from a charity shop.

VfM4meplse · 18 July 2017 at 8:23AM

Floss wrote: »

That may well have been my dad's copy, cleared from my mums house in 2005! Were any of the others there too?

It was a real collection of odds and sods found an eclectic shop in South Essex. I get the impression that it may have been part of a job lot at a car boot sale.

Prinzessilein · 18 July 2017 at 8:24AM

My Mum haggled once in a charity shop...a British Heart Foundation furniture store...we were furnishing a new flat for me. (Circumstances meant that I was moving with practically nothing...I DID buy a new bed....everything else was second hand)...One item - a rocking chair was somewhat overpriced...we had looked at it before - a few times - and decided it wasn't worth the price ticket -especially as it needed a bit of work on the upholstery....On the day we went to buy the stuff for my flat Mum asked about the rocker...the assistant pointed out that they had to sell for the ticket price, so Mum asked for the supervisor. She explained that we were buying quite a bit of furniture (sofa...tables...chests of drawers...book shelf) and as the rocker had not been sold in almost 2 months, perhaps an agreement could be reached? The supervisor was more than willing...and even offered an extra bonus of free delivery for the lot as we had bought so much!

Generally speaking though, I would not haggle in a Charity Shop...in fact I have been known to pay extra! As I have said, I collect books. On the increasingly rare occasions that I find a book I will sometimes pop a little extra into the tin by the till - especially of I feel it is very much under-priced. (Sometimes they fall through the 'experts' scrutiny and the shop doesn't realise the book's value)

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Charity shops getting expensive!

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