Charity shops

meritaten

I seem to have found an alternative to charity shops for my beloved books. a very small greengrocers!
they sell books (hardcover or paperback) for 20p!!!!!!!!!!!! in aid of the Alzhiemers Society (a cause very dear to my heart!
so - I donated a huge bin liner of books and bought ten!
I was happy - they were happy - and the donation jar was so full we couldnt get my £2 in! so the charity will be happy!
I was so chuffed with my books - I got all the way home before I remembered that I HAD meant to have bought carrots!

edenbank6

After 20 years of practice I reckon to "do" the 11 charity shops in my local town in about an hour - Sue Ryder and Shelter never have much - too much new stock which I do object to buying from a charity shop as they can unfairly undercut proper shops owing to the rates rebate. But Cancer research, Barnados and BHF have some fantastic bargains - Kurt Geiger handbag for £3, Max Mara winter coat for £10 and 10 pieces of Imperial Blue Denby for £15 are some of my recent finds. The only really bad purchase I made was a Louis Vuitton bag for £30, expensive but that shape was over £1k new, sadly after a bit of googling I realised it was a fake so it's now a rather expensive glove bag. Still at least the money went to charity rather than some dodgy sweat-shop owner and I don't for a moment think there was a deliberate intention to mislead.


I do have one friend who goes "charity shops, ugh!" but my view is she is the one missing out.

tiff

There is no rates rebate, not in the charity shop I work in anyway. £24,000 a year plus £7,000 service charge is our annual charge.

Austin_Allegro

meritaten wrote: »

I seem to have found an alternative to charity shops for my beloved books. a very small greengrocers!
they sell books (hardcover or paperback) for 20p!!!!!!!!!!!! in aid of the Alzhiemers Society (a cause very dear to my heart!
so - I donated a huge bin liner of books and bought ten!
I was happy - they were happy - and the donation jar was so full we couldnt get my £2 in! so the charity will be happy!
I was so chuffed with my books - I got all the way home before I remembered that I HAD meant to have bought carrots!

It sounds like an episode of 'Open All Hours'....'clean up the-these p-p-p-p-paperbacks, Granville....' etc. :rotfl:

Hobsons_Choice

Few bargains in the charity shops I went in today. Followed a lady round who was obviously buying to sell (lots of different sizes).

weekend_2

Yes they are a charity but of late the prices and descriptions of goods as 'as new' vgc seems often way off the mark . £9 for a vgc t shirt that quite honestly belonged in the jumble.I think they can over optismic about quality and if not careful will lose sales .

Pooky

I've had some great buys this week in some not so local charity shops. Clarkes wedge sandals, never worn £3 - they fit amazingly. Brushed cotton jimjams for DH - still in pack - £3, a couple of tops and a pair of new jeans for me too.

Best find was a Lakeland apple worktop compost crock with a pack of filters in the box too (had Christmas wrapping paper stuck to the side so someone obviously didn't appreciate their present) it was still in its polystyrene too - £7. They still sell for £20 on the website plus £4 for the pack of filters! My DDs brought me a large apple ornament for the kitchen for Xmas and this matches perfectly.

sandraroffey

i visit the charity shops in my town lots, but some are just so expensive. the sue ryder charity shop has 2 in the town, the new one is very big (they took over the empty 'game' shop) and yes, it looks amazing. looks just like a 'proper' shop, but boy are the prices to match!!!!

the best one is the charity shop for something to do with roumania. it looks like a charity shop always used to look like, everything in a muddle, stuff all over the place, but the prices are fantastic. our local salvation army shop is also very good.

i have stopped going into the ones that sell mostly new stuff. i also object to that from a charity shop.

we have a charity shop here, for a local hospice, that sells just furniture, furnishings etc, and the prices are just extortionate. the cancer charity shop is also very expensive: for what they want for a t-shirt, i could get a new one in look.

Pitlanepiglet

It's funny the way shops change from town to town, the Sue Ryder I use is really well priced - I bought 3 x tops (2 x m&s, 1 x next), 1 x wallis jacket and a pair of next wool trousers for £20 last week. They are well stocked and staff are fab.

Just down the road was another charity shop selling a Country Casuals jacket for.....£30! I nearly fell over, it wasn't even very nice!

I'm changing offices in a few weeks to a town which has a number of charity shops - at the moment I'm on an out of town development so barely get to a shop!