charity ? too fussy by anybodies standards

Ms-Pacman

Iwas a manager for one of the earlier heart foundation furniture shops opened, and I left in 2007.

one of the problems I remember about the house clearances was that we charged approx £150 for it depending on the size of the house, as although BHF wa a charity and recycling, we still got charged business rates for taking the rubbish to the tip, and we had certain standards, eg fire labels, some set by headoffice, some policies for selling furniture did mean that a lot of items couldn't go on the shop floor to sell. I agree that this is a total waste of items that someone could still use but unfortunately we had to follow the procedures

eslick

Ms-Pacman wrote: »

business rates for taking the rubbish to the tip,

but you didnt pay business rates for the property you ran the business from, which in turn resulted and probably not in this case but the shop paying sky high rents and thus forcing other small shop keepers rents up. One of my family lost his business because the landlords of a local shopping centre got in charity shops in on high rents when the other shop keepers rents were up for reviews even after going to a special appeals process it was found in the landlords favour because the market rents had been forced up by the charity shops. Impact was that lots of the smaller traders couldnt survive but guess what the charity shops were still going. Oh and some of these shops were managed by professional managers on high wages.

Why should charities be able to take their rubbish to the tips for free at the end of the day like it or not they are trading as a business and as such shouldnt be treated any different.

sorry rant over.

imajica

I worked for 3 years in a Help The Aged as a paid staff member and this past year as a volunteer in a Scope and there are a few things in this thread that really upset me I've just come in from a totally exhausting day in a shop. My head is spinning and everything aches but i'll go back in tomorrow because I like to raise funds for the charity.

Obviously each shop is different and there are plenty of rude sales staff (and customers), plenty of jobsworths and plenty of people ready to pounce on the slightest mistake. But I can honestly assure you that in the last four years myself and my co-workers have worked SO HARD in our shops! You may get the sleepy little old ladies on the till who don't do anything all day but my typical day runs thus:

1)Climb over 1-20 sacks of clothes in the doorway, left out the previous night before the pubs shut. Probably go and rescue all the now filthy things spread by foxes and drunk people before the neighbouring shop keepers shout at me for "charity shops ruining their high street"

2) Begin sorting through the sacks of puked on baby clothes, weed in men's slacks, knickers and trousers from women who could do with trying the bodyform samples from the freebie thread if you know what I mean, cups with no handles and shoes with holes in the soles.

3)Take delivery of a further 75-100 sacks (depending on space) of clothing collected from doorsteps. This is where you're likely to find an entire bin-liner of used tights, or the scrapings from a teenage girl's floor, including tampon applicators and their old school work. Nice. Meanwhile more is piling in over the door

4) At some point in the afternoon when you're feeling frazzled and have put your hand in at least 6 unidentified wet bits that made you feel ill somebody will come and complain that a top is overpriced. Sometimes they are just being greedy, sometimes they are genuine and you explain that "mistakes happen, we have a lot of different people pricing, we're sorry" etc and reprice it for them. Sometimes this doesn't stop the person telling you exactly what they think of ALL charity shops and how moneygrabbing we are. This person is lucky they don't get their faces rubbed in the skid-marked swimming costume I probably just found.

5) Try and get somebody capable (out of all the well meaning but elderly volunteers or those with sometimes severe learning difficulties) to nicely hang and steam the 100/200 items I got out of the delivery. Then correct all the mistakes without upsetting them and price the most valuable ones, leaving the rest of the pricing to one or two trusted volunteers.

6)All the clothes/shoes/bags/books must be weighed, recorded and piled up well over 8 feet high in a pen for collection. Most clothes bags are over 10kg, shoe bags are running to 15 and book bags are the weight of a baby elephant. This is tiring

7) Bribe our refuse company to take away almost twice the rubbish we pay for without complaining. Our shop would spend almost four thousand pounds a year on having our bins emptied of all the broken toys and electricals that people hid under a t shirt in a box after being told we weren't allowed to take them.

All this while keeping customers happy, making volunteers feel valued because we need them so badly, all the normal till procedures and shop floor jobs, manning the phones of people with enquiries about benefits, handyvan services and all the other things the charity provide.

We're all a bit battered from bags falling on our heads and our hands have chemical burns from all the scrubbing you do after a putting your hand in nappies and things :P But we still love it will do the exact same thing the next day and put all the extra hours in for no pay or thanks because we believe in the charity aspect!

Please don't judge all shops the same!

And on a lighter note after my mammoth rant: to all those charity shop workers - what is the worst thing you've had donated? My own personal favourite is a hamster cage with the dead hamster still in it.

Amanita_2

GiveItBack wrote: »

In this example, I'd complain to the charity's head office -
.

I tried that with one of the local charities around here.

I staggered in with a heavy box of stuff - all good (including a working clarinet!). I had to manage the door by myself although the woman there could see I was struggling)

I was greeted with a curt "put it over there". No acknowledgement, no nothing..

To add insult to injury that was the second time she had acted that way but I had decided to give her the benefit of the doubt incase she was just havig a bad day. I really wish I had just turned around and taken it home again

I did write to the head office to complain but didn't recieve a response. Needless to say I neither donate or buy from that charity anymore.

lynzpower

Great post!

I saw the Mary QWueen of Shops thing last night. Did anyone else?

I must admit Ive taken junk to the charity shop before. Ill be honest I cant bear to see it in landfill.

So yes, Ive sent some dodgy old cassettes and frayed books, but Ive also bought stuff like that from there too.

There is one I wont name ( had some good bargains there mind) I boguht a load of clothes from a french connection warehouse sale that I couldnt take back, everything BNWT.a Jacket, 2 pairs of womens trousers marked at 70 quid, sun tops marked about 20.00.

I went back in the shop a week later to find them all on the pound rail, meanwhile seeing a horrible 70s style padded cardigan which was filthy and stank but with sequins all over at a tenner. It makes you want to shake the volunteers, they could have made much more. Howeve,r Ive bought bargains there too.

Totally agree about geranium being cheap and its always busy . the thing is at a chairty ship you are not looking for perfect books, you are looking for cheap books. Geranium always have boxes outside 5 for a pound, its the first place I look and I always buy. So therefore Its the guarnateed low prices that creates the space in your stockroom.

Would love to volunteer in a charity shop and deffo will do one day, but work full time at the mo and definately would struggle to fit it in

Wings_of_Ambition

imajica wrote: »

Sometimes this doesn't stop the person telling you exactly what they think of ALL charity shops and how moneygrabbing we are. This person is lucky they don't get their faces rubbed in the skid-marked swimming costume I probably just found.

Ewwwww!

My two cents on some of the topics raised is that charity shops which aren't part of a chain will probably be more accepting of your stuff. I volunteer with London's Air Ambulance, doing random things from shaking a bucket (without the shaking, obviously), to collecting donation pots, to driving our supporters around if they need it. One of my jobs is also to collect donated goods from houses across London, and drop them off at our charity shop in Bromley. This shop isn't run or owned by the charity, but by two women who decided to set it up and run it for us, and at the end of the year, they donate the profits to us. As the people working in the shop are the ones that set it up, I always find they're extremely friendly, and will welcome donations with big smiles and repeated 'thank you's. I recently took an entire large car's worth of stuff there, and one of the owner's sons was out helping me to bring it all in. There was bag after bag after bag of stuff, and the owner was thankful of every one, stashing it all just out of sight so it could be sorted later. I really appreciate that sort of attitude, and am planning to offer my help with any redecorating/maintenance work in the shop, as it's made me keen to see it do really well.

Clearly, the chain charity shops have more rules and guidelines to follow, but they also have a lot more staff to employ at their Head Offices, so I'd strongly recommend considering your smaller one-off charity shop occasionally.

Savvy_Sue

imajica, I take my hat off to you!

I LOVE charity shops, and always try to browse whenever I pass one. However I know what I'm after: men's silk shirts and below the knee skirts with pockets, both in larger sizes. (Guess what I'm wearing now?) So I flick through them, then skim the books and the bric a brac, and I'm on my way.

tomstickland

I know someone who had some involvement with some small charities. There are good and bad examples, but the bad charities carry on because they have are assumed to occupy the moral high ground by dint of what they do.

marvin

imajica wrote: »

I worked for 3 years in a Help The Aged as a paid staff member and this past year as a volunteer in a Scope and there are a few things in this thread that really upset me I've just come in from a totally exhausting day in a shop. My head is spinning and everything aches but i'll go back in tomorrow because I like to raise funds for the charity.

snip
QUOTE]

Don't work for Break do you?

mumoftwins

My StepMum volunteers in our local hospice shop, most of the women there are really nice and friendly, so for that reason I take my unwanted items for them to sell.

A few months ago I was having a clearout and took 3 bin liners of good, clean, weell looked after womens clothes to the shop. I felt quite pleased with myself as the items were nice and I felt that the shop could do with some more 'modern' clothing on their rails.

A few days later I called back in again and there was one item of mine on the rails, all the rest had completely disappeared! StepMum checked out the back and they weren't there either. She said that one of the volunteers regularly goes into the shop after hours (she has a key) and will look through the items and take the good stuff for her and her family! Apparently, there is nothing that can be done about it, its such a shame as my clothing (and I don't doubt a lot of other donations) would sell well and make the charity a decent amount of money.