charity ? too fussy by anybodies standards

cheapscate

I won't go back to my local charity shop after the rude behaviour of the staff. I encouraged my two kids to give away xmas presents thay had received but were not age suitable for them - they were new and boxed. Both my kids were unhappy but I told them that other people would benefit and they agreed to donate their gifts. I checked before hand on the phone that the shop could accept toys. When we arrived with the 2 boxes I was rudely told 'wait, we might not want this lot' , once they looked it over they said to another member of staff 'put it in the stock room'. They did not say another word to us - even though it was obvious that my children had made this donation and were standing right in front of them - not even a thankyou. There was no common courtesy shown and it was a terrible example to my kids. I will never force my children to make a charitable donation again.

rarrarrar

Some of the reasons charities will not take certain items is the risk of litigation as perceived by their insurance companies, the policies laid down by Trading Standards ,the law related to knives and sharp objects and the cost of disposal of items like TVs.

We are always careful to thank our donors even when it is obvious that the donation cannot be sold and except for certain categories would never turn away any donation.
(I wish we could find somewhere to direct people wanting to donate pushchairs to.)

Giving a warm welcome to donors and customers is essential to the success of a charity shop but some volunteers are almost a law unto themselves and can be very difficult to "manage" . Feel free to complain to the manager - it may be what they have been waiting for in order to deal with a difficult staff member or volunteer.

Regarding haggling there seems to have been a sudden surge in people wanting a price reduction in the last few weeks, you are far more likely to be successful on a high value item ie >£30 which has been around for a few weeks , but very unlikely on a £2.99 one !

Robert
Charity shop volunteer

MoradoJess

Not quite the same thing but this annoyed me a bit. My dad manages a casino and they had to sponser a charity, the only things that affected choice of charity was that it would have to let them say they supported the charity etc and also that childrens charities wouldn't be suitable. The first place he went to was a breast cancer charity who said they would accept the money but wouldn't get involved in anything with the company, this annoyed me as they lost themselves quite a bit of support and just because of where the money came from :mad:. The casino now supports a very worthwhile hostel for abused women.

JoolzS

As there are some charity shop workers posting on this thread there are a few questions I'd like to ask:-

Why do charity shops no longer use the "pile them high and sell them cheap" mentality? Also, why do they charge more for items than they would cost brand new?

Why are books so over-priced? Why are ties and scarves so over-priced?

I simply won't pay £2.95 for a t-shirt in a charity shop when I can buy one brand new for less money at many, many other stores.

To me a charity shop should sell items at far below retail price, so that people who can't/won't pay retail price will shop there, which puts money into the charity.
I won't buy a used t-shirt for £2.95, a used book for £1.99, a tie for £1.00, etc. All of them are only worth spending 50p (at most - probably 20p for a tie). I've pretty much given up on the charity shops now I can't find any real bargains in them. They have all pretty much turned into clones of retails shops.

Maybe I'm the one in the wrong, and the shops are earning loads of money for their charities - I'd love to know if that's true.

I'd also like to suggest to some charity shops that you "fire" the volunteers who aren't useful. One of my local shops has the most ignorant, unfriendly, unhelpful volunteers I have ever come across - I no longer go in there because of them.

Julie

fiendishly

symikins wrote: »

you know l actually found a second hand top from primark that was cost more than a new one in store !!! .

This is very common in the shops near me, particularly with Tesco Value and Asda items. When looking for jeans for my son, I found several pairs of tesco value ones priced at £6, when they are £3 new.
I think the problem is poor training of the people who do the pricing, many of whom are out of touch, for whatever reason. Difficult to address though, due to the nature of the work.

Oldernotwiser

JoolzS wrote: »

As there are some charity shop workers posting on this thread there are a few questions I'd like to ask:-

Why do charity shops no longer use the "pile them high and sell them cheap" mentality? Also, why do they charge more for items than they would cost brand new?

Why are books so over-priced? Why are ties and scarves so over-priced?

I simply won't pay £2.95 for a t-shirt in a charity shop when I can buy one brand new for less money at many, many other stores.

To me a charity shop should sell items at far below retail price, so that people who can't/won't pay retail price will shop there, which puts money into the charity.
I won't buy a used t-shirt for £2.95, a used book for £1.99, a tie for £1.00, etc. All of them are only worth spending 50p (at most - probably 20p for a tie). I've pretty much given up on the charity shops now I can't find any real bargains in them. They have all pretty much turned into clones of retails shops.

Maybe I'm the one in the wrong, and the shops are earning loads of money for their charities - I'd love to know if that's true.

I'd also like to suggest to some charity shops that you "fire" the volunteers who aren't useful. One of my local shops has the most ignorant, unfriendly, unhelpful volunteers I have ever come across - I no longer go in there because of them.

Julie

Surely charity shops should get as much money for their donations as possible; the "charity" aspect is where the money goes, not helping the people who buy there.

Whilst I might enjoy shopping in charity shops that price things very cheaply, when I have things to donate I'd rather give them to the shops that'll raise a lot of money from them.

cattie

JoolzS wrote: »

As there are some charity shop workers posting on this thread there are a few questions I'd like to ask:-

Why do charity shops no longer use the "pile them high and sell them cheap" mentality? Also, why do they charge more for items than they would cost brand new?

Why are books so over-priced? Why are ties and scarves so over-priced?

I simply won't pay £2.95 for a t-shirt in a charity shop when I can buy one brand new for less money at many, many other stores. Julie

There is a Cat's Protection charity shop near me that sells all adult clothing items at £1, things like scarves etc are 50p. Hardback books are 50p, paperbacks 25p. This shop turns no donations away. Their outlook is that even if an item makes 10p, it's 10p towards a can of cat food.

The shop is always crowded & does a good trade because it's ethos is to price to sell. Clothes & books sitting on hangers & shelves for weeks on end isn't going to be putting cash in the coffers & helping the cats & I do think there are a great many charities that could learn a lesson here.

Another reasonably priced charity shop I know of is the Geranium Fund for the Blind clothes average £2 & books 25p & we have a local hospice shop that charges around the £2 mark for adults clothing & 4 paperbacks for £1. These are the shops I buy my books & stuff from & I avoid the high street charity "chain stores" as I now think of them as much as I can.

One of my pet hate about some of the charity chain stores is how some of them now have the clothes colour coded, ie all the reds & pinks together, sizes all mixed & jumbled up, making it quite laborious to sort through to see if there is anything you like in your particular size.

GiveItBack

JoolzS wrote: »

I'd also like to suggest to some charity shops that you "fire" the volunteers who aren't useful. One of my local shops has the most ignorant, unfriendly, unhelpful volunteers I have ever come across - I no longer go in there because of them.

Julie

I'll leave the rest for others to cover, this one interests me. It's very very difficult to manage volunteers, and also very difficult to 'fire' someone that is giving their time. I think it's a particular weakness of charities managing recruiting training and removing volunteers and one that more charities need to spend more time and money doing.

rarrarrar

The role of the charity shop is to raise as much money for the charity from the donations received.

Goods should be priced on a "what the market will stand" basis and for a particular item this will vary widely depending on location, region,customer base , what time of year it is and what stock there is.

If shops get the pricing wrong (too low or too high ) their turnover goes down !

Pile it high sell it cheap isnt always the best way - uses up a lot of volunteer resources sorting , pricing , filling shelves etc. Selling less at a higher prices can raise more funds and use less resources , and less ends up at a car-boot sales and on Ebay.

I agree some volunteers have a problem with prices especially when supermarket clothes are very cheap and even the quality chains are offering >40% discounts at times.
But some limited supply supermarket clothing does sell for more than the original selling price - do a Ebay completed sales search on 1 or 2 brands and sort by price (highest first) you may be surprised !

Of course we all want a bargain and where there is a choice will buy from the cheapest shop but this doesnt make the "expensive" charity shops wrong . Shops not pulling there weight are quickly closed.

I am a "charity shop volunteer" and for those who complain about the quality of volunteers one way to raise it is to volunteer yourself

Hermia

JoolzS wrote: »

I'd also like to suggest to some charity shops that you "fire" the volunteers who aren't useful. One of my local shops has the most ignorant, unfriendly, unhelpful volunteers I have ever come across - I no longer go in there because of them.

Julie

I do agree. I appreciate how hard it is to get volunteers, but it's unpleasant being served by someone who has such appalling customer service skills that they would never be given a paid job in a shop. There is a ghastly woman in a charity shop near me. On one occasion she was loudly slagging off "pakis" when I was in the shop. On another occasion I went in with a black friend and she followed him around the shop and then pretty much accused him of shoplifting! I complained about her and the woman I spoke to just said it was hard getting volunteers. Surely it's better to be a volunteer short than be in danger of having serious complaints made?!