charity ? too fussy by anybodies standards

k2tog

Went past my local Barnados earlier and saw big posters up saying ALL CLOTHING 99p. Was in the car and shop was shut but will investigate further. Seems some are going for the sell it cheap philosophy. The local cancer charity shop tried being a greetings card shop and reverted to clothes and some new things but always seems wierdly empty.

The other week, we had donation bags put through the door for a charity (can't remember which one) to collect later in the week. This was followed by donation bags from one of those other organisations which are not a charity and was due to be collected on the same day. I've heard that often the charity bags get diverted into the van alongside them so didn't leave anything out.

GiveItBack

daveybea wrote: »

i don't know if its just me but if i see a charity shop with lots of rubbish near the doors for the bin men to collect it makes me feel dead cross cos some of the stuff ie toys suitcases aren't rubbish...surely if they hired a cheap hall/room for a couple of hours n have an old fashioned jumble sale to get rid of their so called rubbish they would raise a few more quid for the cause! i never give to shops with tons of rubbish waiting in principle
talking about over-pricing..it gets me so mad when they are asking £20 for a well used pair of shoes because they are branded (I am not talking jimmy shoo!!) esp when u can get brand new for less half of that from primark!!

fairly sure that legally toys need to have certain labels in order to be sold. it's impossible to please everyone with pricing. one person will say branded goods should be sold for more, others say they should be cheap.

Savvy_Sue

Most of the shops I frequent have a bargain rail, so I always check that out. And they also seem to have good stock control: labels have a 'Week N' label in so they know how long something's been hanging around for.

1sue23

The oddest thing that I found was 2 bags of wallpaper freshly stripped off the walls ,also a very worried man returning to claim his partners dry cleaning accidently donated by him in the morning trouble is we had sold it later that day.
The saddest thing donated was a memory box that came in from a deceased estate it contained a lock of hair from a child and some children's paintings and hand made cards sent to his mum for mothering sunday dated from around the 50s also included was the cards from his funeral I went home in tears could not believe that anyone would part with such things in that way.

imajica

daveybea wrote: »

surely if they hired a cheap hall/room for a couple of hours n have an old fashioned jumble sale to get rid of their so called rubbish they would raise a few more quid for the cause!

If everybody who thought this gave us a saturday for free to run the jumble sale perhaps we could Using my own past shops as examples if we did this we'd only have a jumble of bad quality childrens' toys and broken/unsaleable bric-c-brac. Yes, there would be an entire hall of is but it would be tat and we'd have had to close the charity shop to store it all! I've been to hundreds of jumble sales and the junk that is left at the end is exactly what goes in the bins. We'd make no money at all and have spent loads of precious man hours.

And the pile it high price it cheap thing that people have mentioned also comes down to a similar problem. If you are really pushed for time and space it makes far more sense to try and get £5 for a nice top than struggle to sort, hang, steam, price and rotate five slightly crappy tops for a £1 each.

And that dead puppy beats my dead hamster hands down. How awful

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Some people clearly dont know what there talking about.

The vast majority of charities large enough to have shops are of a large scale and have insurance etc as well as being a suable legal entity. Therefore they need to minimise risk and many things donated carry risks that make them unsuitable donations.

As for the legacy stuff yes poorly worded letters dont help anyone but charities do need to sometimes fight for what they are due as some people will try to hide the cash or not seek out the rightful owner.

mumoftwins

My s-i-l has just come back from America. Whilst she was there her friend took her to a charity shop (Goodwill) and she said she could have bought enough to fill a suitcase!

All the items were in excellent condition as one of the rules is that the person who is donating the items has to have washed and pressed the item, or had it drycleaned before handing it in.

She said that the shop was laid out in such a way that it was easy to see where trousers, cropped trousers, skirts, short sleeved tops, no sleeved tops etc were - then they were put into colour order and finally in size order.

It was so easy to get around and to see what was available.

And to top all that - the prices were incredibly cheap! She bought 10 items, all of which were like new, and paid about £22!!!!

Pennylane

"Mary Queen of Charity Shops" Part 2 is on BBC2 at 9pm tonight.

Bogof_Babe

Thanks, missed it last week and missed the first 15 minutes tonight :rolleyes:.

I'm not keen on the way she is telling them to sell everything for much higher prices.

TizzyDizzy

I thought is was interesting that Mary was suggesting that the Charity increase their prices considering the comments on this thread to the contrary.

We have a wonderful independent charity shop in our small village and they always change the displays and make a real effort. Most things there is around the 50p mark and the other day I went in there with my 3 year old and she got to choose 2 seashells and I gave her 50p to give to the ladies and they were thrilled that we were giving them 50p for 2 tiny shells.

I think having the right volunteers behind the desk makes a huge difference to whether or not you choose to shop there, bargain or not.