Thrift shop

Helsbells_3

Hope this is in the right section.

When I was younger and at school we had a shop in an old class room that sold school uniform and items of clothing, toys etc. Parents used to take the items to be sold in, and then if an item of there's were sold a percentage would be given to parent and rest to school. Any one know how this type of shop works. School needs to raise funds. Any help would be much appreciated.

fannyadams

My son's school have this - The uniform sale is held twice a year and all the money raised goes back to the school. I think it is predominantly unclaimed lost property. The PTA run it and sometimes you can end up buying back the uniform that you thought was lost! - specially if you have a DS like mine!! rotfl
I have a load of uniform from his previous school that I will probably advertise in the newsagents window nearest that school.

Sweet_Pea_2

My OH is on the parents association at our DD's school, at their meeting recently one of the reception mums suggested a second hand uniform sale and was pooh poohed. Theres "no call for it" apparently. :mad:
The head is always complaining about the phonemenal amount of unclaimed unnamed lost property, including winter coats, and umberellas and wellies, school fleeces (£17 a throw!) :eek: . When I went back in to collect my DD2's cardigan from the floor under her desk where she had left it :rolleyes: , the caretaker told me that she puts all the lost property in the skip when there is too much to handle. :mad:
I was aghast, and said I cant believe that you dont ring one of the numerous charity shops just up the road, Im sure one of them would be happy to collect it, but its too much hassle according to her.
I am severely tempted to go and have a rummage in the lost property box which is outside my daughters classroom door, and "claim" a couple of (new) school cardies for next year, (only unnamed ones of course!)
I give the uniform that my two have grown out of to a couple of friends who have daughters younger than mine, and a friend passes her daughters stuff on to me.

kittiwoz

There used to be a second hand uniform sale a couple of times a year when I was in primary school but we didn't have it in secondary school. Odd really since the uniform was more expensive and apart from the sixth, who didn't have to wear uniform anyway, we were still growing, albeit not as fast.

I think the school sent out letters a few weeks before hand giving notice and asking parents to wash and dry any old uniform before bringing in to the school nurses office when they picked up or dropped off their kids. When they had the sale it was after school and ran for a week. I seem to recall that the clothes were all kept behind a desk which was against the doorway. It had all been sorted and listed according to the type of item and size. You went and asked if they had an age 8 grey jumper or whatever and one of the people running the stall (there would be two members of the PTA) would fetch you what they had. I remember it always being very busy and I think that was the only way they could keep a handle on what they had and stop it descending into a bun fight.

I've no idea how they priced things since I wouldn't have been old enough to take any interest but as a general fule of thumb anything second hand is automatically worth half what it was worth new. The amount is then further reduced according to condition.

1012donna

I live on a RAF camp and all camps have thrift shops which do well. We can put 12 items per week into the shop and you receive 80% of the sale price and they keep 20% which they give to charity since it is a volunteer run shop. These shops are a great success and ours sells loads including pushchairs, toys, clothes, books, dvd's, anything apart from electrical goods. If you have a good group of willing volunteers (and customers) then you should do well.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

toozie_2

I live near an RAF Thrift Shop, which is open 2 days a week. fantastic bargains to be had, especially when the items have been there some weeks, they lower the price again. I am not associated with the RAF, but I think some of the Officers wives buy some pretty expensive gear and get fed up quickly!

The only problem I have is that I work on the days its open (20 miles in the other direction) so I can only go when I remember, and I'm on leave.

I think its a great idea for the school. I live near the primary which is a big school (450 heads) and it would have been a God send as far as uniform was concerned. I don't know if a 10/11 year old girl would want to wear second hand stuff from the school thrift shop tho?? I know when they're little they don't care, or don't know where their uniform comes from.

apple_mint

York used to have a thrift shop run by volunteers and the proceeds went to charity. It closed long ago though. There are one or two dress shops in the area but they mainly sell 'dressier' ladies clothes - they are not really thrift shops but 'dress agencies'. My mum used to take me along to an RAF Thrift Shop (she worked on the camp) and I used to get some fantastic bargains.

I love the idea of thrift shops as two parties benefit .. you and the charity. I suspect car boot sales made it difficult for the general ones to continue.

Lillibet_2

My Mum used to run my primary schools uniform "shop" (25 years ago!). She used a raffle ticket system to identify suppliers of clothes, the school got 30% of the selling price & the seller got the rest. She had a standard list of tarrifs but used judgement where condition varied. There were also brand new hand knitted hats, gloves & scraves and I think socks(!) in the school colours, and you could order name tags, blazer badges etc. Mum used to open the shop twice a week after school in a room at the back of the libriary, I guess that would not be possible now as most parents work/have other commitments etc so a twice termly sale would seem to be a sensible option.

HTH;)

black-saturn

My DD2's school has a jumble sale every now and again where they sell unclaimed lost property which includes loads of uniform. In fact it was yesterday and I bought a school sweatshirt for 10p.

filigree_2

When I went to High School there was a thriving second hand uniform sale. In the summer the (very expensive) uniform suppliers used to set up shop in the school hall, and at the same time Matron would run the second hand sale. I can't remember the precise details but for everything that was sold, the parent would get something back. I only had new blouses, everything else was second hand. This school was in an affluent area but the bargains were still popular.

My son's primary school didn't have any such system. When I was Chair of the PTA I tried to set one up but I was inevitably faced with apathy and lack of practical support - either I did it single-handedly or it didn't happen. Sorry about the rant but it still rankles!

There was a HUGE box of lost property in the reception office. If I had time I used to return stuff with a name tag, and the Head got the older children to run a stall just for reclaiming lost property (not paying for it) but parents still didn't seem to claim anything. We did run a stall at the Christmas Fayre where lost property was sold off at £1 per item and still no-one was interested, for the few quid we made it wasn't worth the volunteer's time when we were short-handed. I did OK though, when my son outgrew his uniform I would put it in the box and take something out in the larger size! When he left I put all his uniform in the box. It's probably still there.

When he started high school we went to the uniform sale and I asked about second hand sales, and there is still no interest. It cost £200 to kit him out! Parents with school uniform grants only get about £40 and have to buy the rest themselves. The school has a high proportion of families on low incomes but there seems to be no call for second hand uniforms. I can't ask the PTA, there isn't one - the school has repeatedly tried to set one up but there is no interest.

We had to pay £5 for a locker key so my son can lock his PE kit away, otherwise it gets stolen. The parents of the thieves must know that their children are wearing stolen clothes :mad: I've given up bothering about the school community, I can afford my son's uniform and everyone else can get stuffed.

Skintmama

I used to sell Nearly New clothing (for charity) like this:

All items prepared by the owner, clean and ironed, price label showing a code personal to them and safety pinned to the garment. When the item was sold I kept the label and checked the code against my list. I then worked out how much the owner was owed and paid them in cash. This system absolutely depends on the label being removed and retained when a garment is sold.

These sales are sadly not immune to people pinching stuff, so security is also important.