Slim Pickings in the Charity Shops

mrbrightside842

I took some baby bath seats in, you know the kind that sucker to the bottom of the bath. She asked me what they were, and I told her that they were bath seats, and she handed me them back and said they weren't allowed to sell them. I've no idea why. She did say something that made me think that she thought it was a car seat, but she can't surely have thought that.

patricia50

I do a lot of charity shop shopping and I too have noticed a lot of shops asking for donations. Probably e bay etc is partly to blame for this. However I have also noticed that a lot of shops have raised their prices considerably. The shops are a lot nicer now and they have proper managers which is good for the charities but not so good for us bargain hunters. But this has had an effect on the donations they are given. One near me had a cardigan over a t shirt all in one type top (if you know what I mean.) It wasnt any particularly smart brand and was £6. A short while ago this would have been £2.50 - £3.99. Also in another shop, they have a cabinet where they put pricier items. There were two designer handbags in it, one for £50 and a small Coach bag for £35. Now while I understand the charity wants to make as much money as possible your average bargain hunter doesnt go into a charity shop to spend that sort of money. It will be someone who knows their brands and may buy it for themselves but are more likely to be going to sell it on e bay for much more. The staff seem to be clued up on the designer brands and what they may get for them but they are hopeless about the cheaper brands such as Primark and often mark them up as dearer than they would be to but new in store. All in all slimmer pickings these days for those of us who dont have too much to spend and still want to look nice!

Softstuff

I go charity shopping pretty regularly, but finding anything is getting less and less regular. Prices have gone up and quality has shot down, I'm not going to pay $6 for a t-shirt in good condition, let alone one with a stain down the front.

Saw a lamp the other day which had a nice base but needed a new shade - $35. I wouldn't pay that for one new with a shade. Chances are it'll still be in there in a month at the same price.

lessonlearned

I volunteer for a charity shop which is part of a national chain. I get exasperated at the pricing structure.

Our head office is based in London and they set a minimum rate - problem is this doesn't take into account the difference in locality - some shops are in more affluent areas than others. And it also doesn't take into account the manufacturer - so that Primark etc new tops can be bought cheaper than we sell them for.

I think this happens with a lot of the chains.

Yes do take rags, keep them separate and mark them clearly as rags and your cs shop will be glad to accept them because they do get rag money.

Yes we do have targets too, and the new "special purchase" items that cs shops now stock don't get counted in the figures.

I shop in other CS shops as well as the one I volunteer in and I agree it's getting harder to find real bargains.

TravellingAbuela

Is this a sign of the times or does this sort of thing happen regularly? I was in a charity shop the other day and there was a chap in there trying to barter for a raincoat! This is the first time I have come across this in a charity shop and it kind of sickened me off a bit. I felt like butting in and telling him to get his money out and pay what they were asking as the proceeds go to cancer research. (If you are interested in the outcome, however, the assistant was having none of it and he paid what they were asking!)

TravellingAbuela

mrbrightside842 wrote: »

I took some baby bath seats in, you know the kind that sucker to the bottom of the bath. She asked me what they were, and I told her that they were bath seats, and she handed me them back and said they weren't allowed to sell them. I've no idea why. She did say something that made me think that she thought it was a car seat, but she can't surely have thought that.

My DD took a childs car seat in and they said they weren't allowed to sell it as they didn't know if it was "fit for purpose".

angeltreats

I've seen cookbooks on sale in a couple of charity shops priced at £10 each! They would have been cheaper to buy new from Amazon.

The charity shops around here seem to be doing ok though, most of the pricing is realistic and they seem to have plenty of good-quality stock. I do live in an affluent area (unfortunately I'm a LOT poorer than the average resident here!) so perhaps that's why they don't seem to be suffering.

GreyQueen

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

Is this a sign of the times or does this sort of thing happen regularly? I was in a charity shop the other day and there was a chap in there trying to barter for a raincoat! This is the first time I have come across this in a charity shop and it kind of sickened me off a bit. I felt like butting in and telling him to get his money out and pay what they were asking as the proceeds go to cancer research. (If you are interested in the outcome, however, the assistant was having none of it and he paid what they were asking!)

I've seen bartering attempts several times in several different charity shops and it is obviously a significant problem in my city because some shops have notices near the till to remind customers that they do NOT barter. At the risk of getting my head bitten off, I can say that of all the bartering attempts I have personally witnessed, in each case the would-be barterer was not British, so it's probably a cultural thing. The best response was a lovely lady volunteer who explained to the wannabe-bartering gentleman, very kindly, that the money was for the charity, that she donated her time for free and the price was the price, take it or leave it. He paid the asking price.

Re rags, if I have an utterly worn-out garment and it's something like cotton which will make a good wiping rag, I cannibalise it for that at home, with buttons etc saved for possible re-use. If it's not suitable, I would put it, clean and folded and bagged, into a textile bank labelled as "rag". I've always been a bit sheepish at the idea of giving my rag-worthy cast-offs to the shops but if, as you assure me, they can make money off them, I shall change my habits in future.

Overall, I don't have a lot to turn-out because I don't buy a lot in the first place and I'm pretty careful with my stuff, mending as necessary.

I totally agree with the people who've remarked that the c.s can often charge more for clothing than the retailer originally asked for it new, and this is true for bric-a-brac also. I often find better deals at boot sales, when I can reach them, and a good jumble sale is a joy which is increasingly hard to find.

anguk

The charity shops in my area are always asking for donations. I live in quite a poor area and the quality of stuff isn't really very good, I've never come across anything "designer" and most of the stuff is quite old fashioned. The pricing is often way out too, charging more than you can buy brand new in the shops. I do get all my knitting needles from them though as there's nowhere else in town that sells them, their wool is quite good value too.

In my experience it's the chain charity shops who are too expensive, the smaller independent ones are much more reasonable.

FatVonD

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

Is this a sign of the times or does this sort of thing happen regularly? I was in a charity shop the other day and there was a chap in there trying to barter for a raincoat! This is the first time I have come across this in a charity shop and it kind of sickened me off a bit. I felt like butting in and telling him to get his money out and pay what they were asking as the proceeds go to cancer research. (If you are interested in the outcome, however, the assistant was having none of it and he paid what they were asking!)

I barter wherever I can but even I'd draw the line at bartering in a charity shop, if you don't want to pay the price put it back on the shelf!

One of our local shops used to have a designated bridal shop downstairs so they have quite a lot of smart clothes (I imagine they sent them all there from their other shops.) It's been remodelled lately and now they have menswear downstairs, still with lots of designer/expensive items. A couple of months ago I went in there and somebody had stolen a coat that had been priced at about £65! I could actually forgive somebody that was destitute stealing a coat to wear but to target a designer item makes me think it's much more likely it was stolen to sell on ebay.

Incidentally, do the charity shops also sell on ebay nowadays? I know I offered some cookware to a local doggy charity as a prize for a fund raiser (it was something I'd got at work that didn't need returning but morally I didn't feel right selling) and they said they'd love it but would sell it on ebay as they'd make more money that way.