charity shops

Fly_Baby

1sue23 wrote: »

I volunteer in a charity shop and all books are 25p any in even slightly bad condition go into the bin ,unless us volunteers want them and then we make a donation and can have them ,I then pass them on to the elderly who live in the sheltered housing down the road from me ,who in turn pass them onto friends and hospitals .

If you cannot use books in a slightly bad condition then why do you accept them in the first place? I don't know about everybody's motivation of course, but personally I am very attached to my possessions and every single thing has its special memory. So if I do decide to part with any of them for a good cause then I want to be sure that it will indeed be used, not chucked in the bin.

PS. Books in a less than perfect condition are sold on Amazon for 1p or more + £2.49 P&P (making it AT LEAST £2.50 for one book) and people are willing to spend this money and read those books. And charity shops are too posh for that?

shiprob195

A little off topic, but I was walking past SCOPE in our town today and in the window was a double buggy (used) with a price tag of ............£125.00 :eek:
A little note underneath saying similar in Argos for £200.


I could not believe it!!! :rotfl:

Vicky

Fly_Baby

Common sense suggests that the most used books will be the books read most often. Surely that shows that they will be a good buy?

I love nothing more than the smell of an old good book, an anticipation of all the pleasure you are about to get by reading it.

Fly_Baby

shipr!!!95 wrote: »

A little off topic, but I was walking past SCOPE in our town today and in the window was a double buggy (used) with a price tag of ............£125.00 :eek:
A little note underneath saying similar in Argos for £200.


I could not believe it!!! :rotfl:

Vicky

I once bought a buggy in a charity shop for £3. Now that's what I call a bargain.

mudgekin

I dropped 3 full bags of clothing into a charity shop last week which I have outgrown. they were all size 8 and 10 and had been bought when I had much more money and much less sense and I'm now a size 12. Some of the suits has been worn once and all the items had been expensive. 2 days later I spotted one of the women from the shop with one of the suits and when I went in for a browse there where very few items out for sale and the ones that were had been priced at ludicrous prices and one of the assistants was wearing a pair of trousers and a sweater that I had given.

The items were handed in for 2 reasons, one that some folks would get some use from the items and get good quality things cheap and two that the charity would benefit from some extra cash. Although they were expensive items and classically styled, to ask £50 and upwards for items in a charity shop is so wrong. That will be the last I hand any more items in. The idea that the shop assistants get first pick and I have no doubt didn't pay the prices that they had things for sale at really stuck in my throat

Young_Aged_Pensioner

mudgekin wrote: »

That will be the last I hand any more items in. The idea that the shop assistants get first pick and I have no doubt didn't pay the prices that they had things for sale at really stuck in my throat

we may get first pick but the shop i VOLUNTEER in we pay the same price as the customers !

consultant31

eaton57 wrote: »

I'm not making a comment on how much the books were but I think it's important that other readers know this is not true. This is taken from Oxfam's website www.oxfam.org.uk
For every £1 you give to Oxfam

• 80p is spent directly on emergency, development and campaigning work
• 10pis spent on support and running costs
• 10pis invested to generate future income
  
  Average 2004/5, 2005/6 and 2006/7. For further information, see the Oxfam Annual Report and Accounts 2006/07 which has been prepared in accordance with the relevant Charity Commission and accounting regulations as confirmed by our auditors.

Please keep on giving anything you can to support their work.

Normally I wouldn't believe everything I read in the papers, but this is from The Guardian - one paper which wouldn't publish without checking it's facts, I would have thought:-

One volunteer wrote telling Society: "Our costs have spiralled out of control, so much so that Oxfam is in the middle of a crisis. They'll be making large numbers of employees redundant and closing offices all over the country." The problems had been developing over the past four years, she said, during which time director David Bryer had received salary increases worth at least £25,000.
Another Oxfam volunteer claimed that Bryer had presided over a culture of rising costs, with the result that less than 20p of every £1 earned in Oxfam shops was going to aid projects. The correspondent wrote: "This is a great charity, to which I have always been deeply attached and worked for as a volunteer for 10 years. I am very distressed to see the growth of bureaucracy and lack of financial control that has gone on now for a number of years."

Sorry, I quoted the wrong post, should have been in answer to Voyager2002

lostinrates

mudgekin wrote: »

I dropped 3 full bags of clothing into a charity shop last week which I have outgrown. they were all size 8 and 10 and had been bought when I had much more money and much less sense and I'm now a size 12. Some of the suits has been worn once and all the items had been expensive. 2 days later I spotted one of the women from the shop with one of the suits and when I went in for a browse there where very few items out for sale and the ones that were had been priced at ludicrous prices and one of the assistants was wearing a pair of trousers and a sweater that I had given.

The items were handed in for 2 reasons, one that some folks would get some use from the items and get good quality things cheap and two that the charity would benefit from some extra cash. Although they were expensive items and classically styled, to ask £50 and upwards for items in a charity shop is so wrong. That will be the last I hand any more items in. The idea that the shop assistants get first pick and I have no doubt didn't pay the prices that they had things for sale at really stuck in my throat

Which is also why charity shop buying used to be cool when I was a kid but is not as cool as a cheap high street shop now with my neices and their friends....what they can get cheaply is really not the treasur trove we found. My friends and I could dress entirely from various chairty shops with a bit of imagination if we so chose, getting bargains that were kookie...like things from our grandmother's, mother's or cool aunt's wardrobe. some things would require a bit of a good babysitting money week, but we could do it. A better system alround than what exists now IMO.

MoaningMyrtle

If you have time to browse, the occasional bargain can be found.

I was a little peeved when there was a (Primark) dress for £6.99, the belt was missing so I asked if I could have a slight discount, the sourpuss behind the counter looked at me as I'd asked for the earth and said 'no'. Needless to say, I won't be buying from there again.

Like all shops, there are good and bad staff working in them.

LydiaJ

eaton57 wrote: »

I'm not making a comment on how much the books were but I think it's important that other readers know this is not true. This is taken from Oxfam's website www.oxfam.org.uk
For every £1 you give to Oxfam

• 80p is spent directly on emergency, development and campaigning work
• 10pis spent on support and running costs
• 10pis invested to generate future income
  
  Average 2004/5, 2005/6 and 2006/7. For further information, see the Oxfam Annual Report and Accounts 2006/07 which has been prepared in accordance with the relevant Charity Commission and accounting regulations as confirmed by our auditors.

Please keep on giving anything you can to support their work.

consultant31 wrote: »

Normally I wouldn't believe everything I read in the papers, but this is from The Guardian - one paper which wouldn't publish without checking it's facts, I would have thought:-

One volunteer wrote telling Society: "Our costs have spiralled out of control, so much so that Oxfam is in the middle of a crisis. They'll be making large numbers of employees redundant and closing offices all over the country." The problems had been developing over the past four years, she said, during which time director David Bryer had received salary increases worth at least £25,000.
Another Oxfam volunteer claimed that Bryer had presided over a culture of rising costs, with the result that less than 20p of every £1 earned in Oxfam shops was going to aid projects. The correspondent wrote: "This is a great charity, to which I have always been deeply attached and worked for as a volunteer for 10 years. I am very distressed to see the growth of bureaucracy and lack of financial control that has gone on now for a number of years."

Actually, it's perfectly possible that both these posts are true (although I've no idea whether they actually are or not).

The quote from the Oxfam website is talking about money given to Oxfam - that means direct donations of cash or online by credit card or whatever.

The report in the Guardian is about money from Oxfam shops which, AFAIK, are run as a somewhat separate entity from the charity itself.