Slim Pickings in the Charity Shops

alec_eiffel

ginnyknit wrote: »

As an ex Cs manager I analyse every shop I go in and yes they are all struggling. Donations are down and poor quality, I guess people are saving stuff or selling it. When the first news came of a recession approaching many charities began planning to diversify especially in London. The charity I worked for talked of opening reading rooms with coffee shops in, dress agencies and using ex- offenders to act as unpaid assistant managers. It was around then I decided to retire due to Oh's poor health and I am so glad I did ad the pressure to make your targets will be terrible. When I handed my notice in it was getting harder and harder to achieve and I was physically and mentally exhausted. However nothing can replace the feeling I used to get of a good job done and I miss the wonderful people I met.

I agree. The recession plus targets have really hurt some charity shops. On the one hand so much donated stock is what's left over from a car boot it's the stuff that no-one wanted at rock bottom prices so why would they pay cs prices. Couple that with having a pricing structure and it makes it really tough to get enough stock to fill a shop, let alone fill a shop with the quality needed to make it worthwhile. Minimum prices for books has been a big negative for lots of people and bric a brac donations are nowhere near the quality they used to be - I think things like Flog It have had an influence there.

MaggieBaking wrote: »

Don't be daft. You have to realise that some people do donate what should be rubbish or rags and she's trying to disuade that practice as it's so costly for charities to dispose of it.

If you own an item of clothing and love it and wear it to death - when it is no longer fit to wear just don't donate it to a charity shop - your local recycling bank will have a bin for textiles.

However, if you own something that is in good condition - perhaps it's out of style, too big, too small, or you're the type who wont wear the same outfit to the same place then charity shop it rather than throw it away. Same with children's toys and the same with other bric-a-brac.

She's not saying if it's not expensive don't bother - what she's saying is, if it's crusty, or stained, and you know that no one else will want it - don't take it to the charity shop. Did you see the state of that suede jacket someone had offered? Yuk!

It might not be in your circle of friends but I know people who have brand new or nearly new clothes who just bin them and she is trying to encourage those fashionistas to charity shop - not dissuade people who already do it to stop.

I agree with this too. I have to say for about 5 weeks during and after the Mary Portas show donations were up, and they were quality donations too. I think that show made a positive difference to some people who may not have donated before hand. The effect didn't last long and pretty quickly it was back to low donation levels and lower quality too. The rag man was happy though.

alec_eiffel

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!)

It's happened for at least the past 10 years that I've worked in charity retail, as has shoplifting, donating dirty nappies, used condoms, unwashed chip pans, bloodstained clothing and using the changing rooms as places to discharge bodily fluids.

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

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".

CS are not meant to sell annything classed as "safety equipment", so things like helmets, car seats etc are a no-no, the car/bike/horse in question could have been in an accident and even if the item looks ok may not be as up to the job as they were before.

sb44

One of our charity shops sells everything for £1 except for kids clothes which are 40p each, ALL books are 10p each, pc games, dvds are £1. They put a lot of their videos outside in a box so people can take them for free. After saying all of that, they still get shoplifters! :mad:

BitterAndTwisted

I would agree that bartering in charity shops appears to be a cultural thing. The overwhelming majority of shoppers in my local one are eastern Europeans and they all seem to think it's OK to make an offer. Mind you, the only person who I saw shoplifting in a CS was what appeared to be a rather well-heeled local in Barnes. That was a shocker! Mind you, he'd been caught doing before on a regular basis. It was quite fun ganging up on him with the other shoppers but the man had no shame.

As to asking for donations: every single charity-shop I have been in (lots and lots and in very different neighbourhoods) has had a notice in the window requesting them. I'm still finding that going to much more well-heeled areas in London means that the quality of items is still very high, so maybe their donors can't be bothered with ebay. Good for the CS and lucky for me.

£35 for a Coach bag? I think that's an excellent price. Those things cost a mint new.

zippybungle

I always like to have a look at the Childrens books in charity Shops, last week I bought a like new 'Jolly Phonics' Dictionary for 50p (£7 on Amazon), I am always on the lookout for 'Read it Yourself' Ladybird books, which I pick up for a few pence each.

Zippy x

FatVonD

zippybungle wrote: »

I always like to have a look at the Childrens books in charity Shops, last week I bought a like new 'Jolly Phonics' Dictionary for 50p (£7 on Amazon), I am always on the lookout for 'Read it Yourself' Ladybird books, which I pick up for a few pence each.

Zippy x

I used to buy my son books that had been retired from the library, they were very cheap and always had a better selection of books (presumably chosen by people that know about books rather than people that know what will sell by the bucketload) than the standard ones that crop up everywhere. I know we could have just borrowed books at the library but you know what kids are like when they find a favourite, I wasn't taking any chances!

zara*elise

Oxfam is so pricey when it comes to clothes. Saw a corset from Coast for sale for £30 yesterday! I know that they're a good cause, but it's pretty much all second hand that they've got for free, so prices don't need to be overly expensive. The woman who runs it is extremely snobby too, the branch won't sell Primark clothes.

Confuzzled

Rage_in_Eden wrote: »

I think it depends on the charity shop itself. I approached one with a huge collection of Cross Stitch magazines most of which had their kits on the front - simply didn't have the time to e-bay them as they take ages to shift. They bluntly told me "well you can give them to us but we'll probably bin them".....rang another charity shop who practically bit my hand off and even offered to come and collect them as they "can't get enough craft stuff" - made an entire window display out of them and the next time I went in they told me they'd made loads from them..... incidentally the first shop I've also heard turned away a couple who had found a couple of boxes of first edition paperbacks of Dan Dare type stuff from the 70s in their loft in perfect condition and they went to another shop who practically fainted with delight and were unpacking the boxes as they came in! All of them were in the window within 24-hours ....and they all went... But yeah sometimes I do see things in local charity shops which are priced higher than they would have been originally. But I'm getting wise to those ones now - suprisingly they seem to be the ones that always have notices up asking for donations....I wonder why that might be.....:rotfl:

this makes me wonder, do charity shops ever give things to each other? i know we have several shops in my area that don't sell childrens clothing but surely they must received donations of childrens clothing, wouldn't it make more sense for them to do a swap of sorts for things they do manage to sell regularly?

alec_eiffel

Confuzzled wrote: »

this makes me wonder, do charity shops ever give things to each other? i know we have several shops in my area that don't sell childrens clothing but surely they must received donations of childrens clothing, wouldn't it make more sense for them to do a swap of sorts for things they do manage to sell regularly?

Some will do that.

The last place I worked at didn't take electrical items but the place across the road did so we did them a swap as we sold loads of clothes and they didn't. But that was just an informal thing. The first couple of shops I worked at would rotate stock between shops within the same charity. Either things that were really too good to go to the ragman but hadn't sold in one town or if one shop sold lots of something and another didn't they'd do a swap.

BitterAndTwisted

zara*elise wrote: »

Oxfam is so pricey when it comes to clothes. Saw a corset from Coast for sale for £30 yesterday! I know that they're a good cause, but it's pretty much all second hand that they've got for free, so prices don't need to be overly expensive. The woman who runs it is extremely snobby too, the branch won't sell Primark clothes.

How much would that corset from Coast cost new? Twice, three times that £30, more? To be fair, I think that they should charge as much as they think the market will stand and still be good value. That's the nature of fund-raising, surely?

And I really don't blame that lady for declining Primark clothes. They really are such poor quality I'm surprised that they survive a wash or two. I'm almost penniless and I won't buy them: new or second-hand. Mind you, if it's Oxfam or the like they could be declining Primark on the basis of the sweated child-labour that's used to manufacture them so I'm glad that someone is taking a stand.