Charity shops

tiff

Also try Emmaus for books, the one in Bristol charges 30p for paperbacks and 10p for childrens books.

[Deleted User]

I like to take our things to oxfam as the clothes are ones that grew too small for me and are hardly worn. I know they will ask a good price for them. Same as when we moved, I gave a pristine royal albert tea set to them as I really did want to get best amount for the work they do.

Dh got a great winter shirt there last week, £4.50 but new and worth a lot more and I got a toddler dress for £2.99

funkycat06

i love charity shops, most near me are very reasonably priced, think its just the british heart foundation i would class as a bit pricey

lizzyb1812

Once every couple of months I visit a town off my normal shopping route and check out the charity shops. Went on Saturday and was shocked at the prices/lack of quality of the items. I did get 4 Lock & Lock food storers, brand new with labels for £2 total which was an excellent bargain, but the clothing offerings were terrible - very worn, stained, more than P*imark prices. No wonder there didn't seem to be many buyers.

Contrast that with a local charity's chain of shops - they have about 5 I think. Clothes nearly all in good condition and for reasonable prices - even the £1 sale rail stuff is in good nick. My favourite CS are all connected to local charities. Almost no new or charity shop brand stuff - just good quality local donations at reasonable prices.

Local bargain of the week - 2 poach pods for 20p - they work a treat too :T

Cotr

meritaten

I have to say that The smaller the charity - the more reasonably they price things!
we used to have a BHF charity shop (until the unit they were using sold) and tbh - I found them expensive for clothes! eg - they must have been given a stack of George kids red/white gingham school dresses - which they priced at £1 ABOVE what Asda were charging! same with some Next Tshirts - they charged £1 more than the new price (which was displayed on the paper tags with them!). they seemed to think that people would pay more for new items 'its for charidee!', then wondered why they were left on the rails!
Barnardo's used to be great - good quality clothes reasonably priced and shoes etc - but the only prob with them is that for some reason (which totally escapes me) they group items by colour! all the black things then all the orange - and the sizes are all jumbled up! sorry, but I cannot be arrised to search every black item in the hope I can find a 10 or 12 and that I will like it! not only that at least half the shop is now dedicated to 'new' items! and way overpriced! I mean over a pound for one card!!! and we have at least TWO discount card shops in the same street!!!!
Mary, Queen of Shops - where are you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! these places need your expertise! or they could ask me.............over 40 years of retail experience and I DO know where they are going wrong!

JesaRose

The colour blocking concept is simple - it looks smarter and results in better sales. Tried and tested by the chain I run:

Two weeks in a row - takings £500 up on the colour blocked week rather than by size. We do size after the colours. Market research shows a large percentage of customers preffered the look of the stores too. I love a good rummage, thats all part of the fun. I understand not everyone wants to but I love it

I bought an amazing pair of 1960s shoes in my local Save the Children for £4 this weekend. Wore them to work this morning and got three compliments on how nice I looked today. Those are the best bargains

lizzyb1812

"We do size after the colours." (JesaRose)

That makes a big difference. But I really don't like colour blocking in a charity shop - there is only one of each style of item, several shades of the same colour, etc. The range of styles and colours in a charity shop is actually greater than in a regular shop as virtually every single item is different. Colour blocking, unless it's black, does not produce a proper "block" in these circumstances.

Not sure if your chain is a CS chain or not. Just my twopennorth.

Hobsons_Choice

I don't like the colour blocking either. I like to pop in for a mooch when I have a few minutes, I really don't have time to faff around different colour stands. I can't say I've noticed these shops looking any tidier either imho. Another pet moan: when they don't put books in alphabetic order of author's name but just pile 'em on the bookstand....better still is when they divide them into categories (Crime fiction, romance etc) but I realise this takes time that maybe the staff don't have.
Pricing: I don't even look at it if it's a George or Primark. I just know the new price won't be too different from the cs price.

Gemmy_2

I refuse to buy 'new' books because i just can't afford them. I've recently found a new author i love, and i've managed to pick up all but.. i think 4 (currently out) now that i still need to get... all within 2 months?

This has cost me probabley a little over 1 book at the original price... so thats 9 for a little over £7.00?

spiddy100

Another one here who can't be bothered with the colour blocking - and I love browsing through charity shops. I like it when they sort things by type - so you have a rack of skirts, a rack of dresses, a rack of jumpers etc. Then by size within each category. So you can quickly rifle through the stuff in your size and see if a colour or print jumps out at you. I don't go into a charity shop looking for "an orange shirt", I go in to see if they have something nice that fits me.

Really surprised to hear they sell more when they do the colour blocking!

We have a local community centre who have shelves and shelves of books for 10p each. They encourage people to return the books for resale when they've finished, and I am happy to do so at that price and to encourage them to keep running the book sale. I hate paying more than 10p for a book now!