Charity shops

Farway

Seraphim wrote: »

My local village shop has just setup a small corner dedicated to books for charity. She has quite a lot now but the turnover of the books is pretty high because it's only £1/book. Plus everything tends to reappear after a few weeks as people give them back after they've been read, so really each book is making much more than £1

My local Age Concern centre does this, not a shop, but has table with used books, no fixed donation asked, and may possibly be abused at times, but works well for fund raising.

elisamoose

I justvwish they could get rid of the smell! I find it really off-putting and tend to just use one near me that does not do clothes just books and household stuff.

Reverbe

Starstream wrote: »

Does it annoy anyone else that lots of the BIG CS's sell new stock,and almost make the donations second fiddle?

not just the big ones.. our local hospice charity shop sells new items now and ppl just dont buy them.. saw a guy today pick up some Burtons shoes that must have been donated by Burtons and they wanted 18 quid for them. Would you like me to get the other one Sir?? of course he said NO. I didnt realise they were doing this til the other week I picked up a bag and said how much is this , it has no price on.. to which I got the reply 36 pounds!!!:eek::eek: it's still languishing in the window...:cool:

LV_Sue

I was looking for some duvet covers or pillowcases to make bunting a few weeks ago. We have about 9 or 10 charity shops in our local high street and most wanted £15 or more for a double duvet cover & pillowcases :eek:. If I wanted to pay that price I'd go up the road & buy a new one in Wilkos - it's cheaper .
I found one, brand new, for £3 in a local charity shop :j.

I very seldom buy in charity shops nowadays. Gone are the days when you could always find a bargain .

leathersofa

I am pretty mystified at people complaining about a book being priced at £2 or £2.50. Where, other than other charity shops, can you get a book even that cheap? Asda charge £3.94, Tesco about £4 and WH Smith a lot more. If you buy it from ebay or Amazon you pay more than that in postage even if it's priced at 1p. And at the end of the day the shops are there to make money for their charities so you'd expect them to get what they can for stuff. The people donate it to benefit the charity, after all! I am very happy indeed to pay £2 for books and see it as benefiting me, because I get a book a lot cheaper than I otherwise would, the charity, because they get the money, and the person who donated it, who will get their reward in heaven. Sounds like win/win/win to me!

valk_scot

One of our local charity shops sell books, videos and cds at 3 for £1. They have one entire room and two long shelved corridors full of the above so plenty of choice. They even keep it roughly sorted into themes...it's great.

Hobsons_Choice

I often find that Charity Shops sell hardback books cheaper than paperbacks. I got the latest Lee Childs book in hardback last week at a CS in Worcester for £1.00, older paperbacks were £1.75. Strange.

Seraphim

leathersofa wrote: »

I am pretty mystified at people complaining about a book being priced at £2 or £2.50. Where, other than other charity shops, can you get a book even that cheap? Asda charge £3.94, Tesco about £4 and WH Smith a lot more. If you buy it from ebay or Amazon you pay more than that in postage even if it's priced at 1p. And at the end of the day the shops are there to make money for their charities so you'd expect them to get what they can for stuff. The people donate it to benefit the charity, after all! I am very happy indeed to pay £2 for books and see it as benefiting me, because I get a book a lot cheaper than I otherwise would, the charity, because they get the money, and the person who donated it, who will get their reward in heaven. Sounds like win/win/win to me!

If you are referring to my post and the ones after it, you didn't read the posts properly.

If books were at £2, I'd be happy. However most of the charity shops around here price them at £6/£7, which I think is silly high.

I think the point most of us are trying to make (at least regarding books) is that if they were cheaper, we'd buy more AND give the books back so they could resell thus making even more money per book. At high prices, I won't even buy once - I'll get them new instead as the cost is virtually the same.

THIRZAH

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

I often find that Charity Shops sell hardback books cheaper than paperbacks. I got the latest Lee Childs book in hardback last week at a CS in Worcester for £1.00, older paperbacks were £1.75. Strange.

I work in a charity shop and price most of the books. Hardback fiction just doesn't sell very well unless it has just been published and isn't avaliable in paperback yet.

Jariya

I love charity shops and have used them a lot the past few years.

We have 6 pretty good ones in my town and I go for a look every couple of weeks.

I go with the attitude that if I vaguely like something clothes wise and it isn't drastically too big or small in size I go and try it on.
It's the trying on bit which has made me go from very unsure about an item to it looking lovely on and me spending a couple of quid on it.

Some of my great finds have been:
A Marks and Spencer long flowy black gypsy type skirt with a few sequins dotted about which was two sizes too big for me - but it sits nicely on my hips. That was £2.50 and on the sale rail in the charity shop.

Many many Jane Norman tops and dresses ranging from £1.50 to a staggering £3.50.

A gorgeous sleeveless crotched black tunic with lining which has to be hand washed cold (which my washing machine can do). The size said 'large'. It looked tiny on teh hanger. It fits beautifully and was £4.

..hmm..might have to go have a little look this afternoon...see what's about and try some things on..