charity shops

16011996

mmm. i'm off up the back streets looking for some. I find that any outside of town centres are good, which is kind of the same thing, but they have cheaper rental i think, so less overheads.

Sarahsaver

they dont seem to be aware enough of trends etc. They would make more money if they knew what they were selling!
However one near me is reasonable, i think bcos its a local charity not a national 'chain' Animal rescue in Leicester. All trousers are £1.50 and kids clothes 50p for example.
Also theres a great second hand stall on the market where I got a pair of FCUK jeans and a pair of KILLAH jeans, plus a NEXT jumper for my son, all at 50p each! It IS worth looking out for designer or more expensive stuff because people dont seem to wear it so much anyway. I live in a very working class part of town quite near a posh area, so the posh people bring their stuff to the charity shops here, to avoid the emarassment of seeing their old stuff in the window perhaps ;D

tk

well my local shops are really cheap! i got a gameboy colour and 2 games for my kids for £3 and a louis vuitton bag for a quid, and guess what? it was brand new

Fatboy_NSS

Oh come on, cut your whining! Charity shops are about raising money for charity, not providing you with bargains. Yes the majority of stuff they sell is donated so they could make a profit selling it for peanuts but they have a duty to sell everything for as much as they can to raise as much as possible for the cause. If you think you can get it cheaper elsewhere then feel free to buy it there.

svmitche

We're not whining about bargains, we're talking about reality.

With all of these cheap clothes shops listed above, charity shops will cease to be attractive to shoppers and will disappear, so where then will the charities that rely on them be?

Although charity shops do have a duty to raise as much money as possible, they must price items competitively to remain open and profitable.

In Cathy's example, £400 for a 3 piece suite is dear when you consider that there are loads in the AdTrader paper for much less.

Books are often unrealistically priced, but if you are interested in a specific genre, there are still a few bargains to be had!!

16011996

>:( fatboy, please note this is the Vent board, to vent your annoyance at things. maybe it sounds like whinging to you, but it strikes me its what its here for. the whole point of charity shops is the fact that they are selling second hand stuff, so how can they justify selling it for more than it originally cost? thats just madness. i love buying from charity shops because i like helping the cause as much as finding a bargain, but i don't want to pay £10 for something that costs a fiver new. we wouldn't take being ripped off like that in normal shops.

Sarahsaver

ditto
im not whining either ;D

16011996

oh and tk, you lucky so and so.

philc_2

IMHO, prices for clothes certainly seem to have increased massively over the last 10 years or so in many charity shops.

Remember the 'charity' sector has undergone massive transformation in that time. Most of these charity or 'not-for-profit' operations, certainly the larger ones, are run on well-proven business principles now, rather than the old 'grass roots' or 'community' feel they used to have.

I always tend to think this is a shame because although the charity must do better (got to pay for all those people with degrees in squeezing pennies and managing volunteers somehow ) they lose a little bit of the humanity I feel should be part of their values.

And whilst I firmly think there is a place for shops like this, remember they do also get 80-100% off their Business Rates which (for whatever benefit there once was) I think is now stifling a great many town centres across the country.

Peace,

Phil

16011996

sorry to be slow but what does IMHO stand for.