Local Charity Shop Volunteers Etiquette....

fitzmum

Hi,

I'm not sure if this normal - or a problem - or just me being nitpicky.

We have a local charity shop which donates heavily to community causes. It is very well patronised by the people in the village and there is always a large selection of toys, clothes, shoes, books etc donated by lots of people.

My bugbear is this. I always donate very good quality items - mostly things myself & my children have hardly worn, household items that are often like new - stuff that I could probably get good money for by selling on eBay etc but I'd rather support the local community.

Now, there seems to be many, many 'older women' that 'volunteer' to run the shop and whenever I've taken bags of things down I usually hang around to browse the books etc.

Now they don't even wait until I've left and they're like vultures delving into the bags - 'ohh this would be lovely for so & so' they'll exclaim, 'I'll try this for my holiday' another one will say - 'oh, my granddaughter would be glad of this' etc.

They'll empty the bags - stack half of the stuff behind the counter for themselves and leave the slightly less appealing stuff to put out on the shelves.

This really gets my goat and now I'm not keen on donating there which is a shame.

Should I complain? Is it a common occurence in shops? I suppose if they are volunteering then they should get the 'pick' of the bits brought in and as long as they are paying for them whats the problem...

I dunno - thoughts anyone?

minnie123

I think as long as they pay for them it should be fine - but if it's a really good item that they could get £5 for and they want it so price it at 50p say then it's a bit of a cheek.

fitzmum

Yes, I wish I could find out if they actually pay for any of the stuff.....:(

Haarlem

Is the shop a stand alone charity, or does it donate money to a selection of charities?

What is the name of the organisation that runs the shop?

If it is properly set up (even if its not a registered charity in its own right) it should have a constitution and a group of trustees who run it. It would be hoped this sets out any rules for sales to staff / volunteers, and how the income is spent and distributed. If the organisation is properly run, a copy of the constitution should be availabe to anyone who donates.

It should produce an annual report not only reporting the financial position, but also giving details of the donations over the year. Copies of of the report should be available to the community at large.

Make some discrete enquiries to answer the above points. If your concerns are not answered then there could be grounds for concern, more than your initial concerns. If it is "loosely" run then I would be concerned - does the income collected end up being used for the purposes donors think it is.

Savvy_Sue

As for the etiquette, I think they should wait until you are out of the door before they dive like vultures!

rarrarrar

As a minimum volunteers shouldn't buy items they have priced themselves and all purchases should be recorded in a book at the till.

Some charity shops have rules such as "items must have been out in the shop for at least ###hours/days" before volunteers can purchase them.


However it is a matter of a balance between not disadvantaging volunteers and making sure that the best price for an item is obtained.

Worth remembering that :
A volunteers money is as good as anyone else's.
Having good well priced items on display in a charity shop attracts similar donations
One large charity shop group offer ( or used to offer) a 25% discount to volunteers on all purchases !

alec_eiffel

I think it is unacceptable for any members of staff to go through donations on the shop floor, especially when the donor is still in the shop!

It is a balance between price and keeping vols sweet as the pp says. I have always given a discount to volunteers but only if the item has been in the shop for a minimum of one full day. If it's something they really want then and there then they pay full price for it.

lincroft1710

I certainly know of occasions when volunteers cherry pick donations when shop manager isn't present.

I suppose it could be argued that it's the volunteers' "perks".

cherub1965

yes but if you are giving stuff to charity it should go to charity,not volunteers perks.i used to donate lots of practically new stuff until i saw the volunteers doing the same with stuff i had taken in.i now sell what i dont want on ebay and buy dog food,blankets etc and take them to a local animal shelter i support.i also recently donated to a hospital fund after selling.the only stuff i would give to charity shops now is stuff not good enough to sell myself.

lincroft1710

I'm not sure how charities allot their various incomes, but there is a possibility that a percentage of what is realised from goods sold in shops goes to pay the salaries/wages of paid employees.

I forgot to mention in previous post that volunteers didn't just take these items, but did put some money in the till, however I don't know if it would have been the same amounts the items would have sold for.

coldstar

I am a volunteer in a charity shop. We have very strict rules on staff buying items from the shop but they are difficult to enforce. We have about 35 volunteers in total working 1/2 or 1 day a week at the shop and like any similar sized organisations it has a fairly standard distribution of saints and sinners. Im not a manager, just a volunteer. You get to know who is trustworthy and who isnt. Its true that some volunteers do tuck away nice things for themselves but equallly some volunteers bring in their own really nice goods on a regular basis to sell for the charity.

On balance I would say that the great majority of the volunteers are truely decent honest people, working hard to raise money for the charity, but some arent! The bad ones almost always eventually get asked to leave.

On the other hand the general public visiting the shop can also be super, good , average or bad people. We get our fair share of shoplifters, people changing the prices on items, serial complainers etc but most customers are also truely nice decent people.

On average about 60% of all donations are unsellable (or worse, much worse sometimes) and go into the recycling or rubbish. One of the reasons it sometimes seems we dive into the sacks of donations is that we need to sort goods quickly to get the sellable stuff out on the shop floor quickly and the rubbish disposed of, if this wasnt done promptly the shop would be overrun with bags in a very short time.

To be honest the people doing the sorting sometimes forget the donor may still be in the shop and chat amongst themselves about the goods. Comments like "this is nice, wouldnt mind this" or "Aunty Mary wants one of these" dont usually mean the items are going into their pockets, its just chit chat. Comments like "Euuuugh, this is disgusting" or "why would anyone think we could sell a rusty kettle with a hole in it" can be unfortunate if the donor is still around.

A box of goods going behind the counter is almost always put their to be priced and labelled before its put out on the shop floor. If Im working on the till its also my job to price items so boxes are placed behind the counter for me to price when no customers need serving.