Slim Pickings in the Charity Shops

zippychick

As this has dropped down the board and is more related to how the shops themselves are ran, I've moved this to the Charity organisers board as you may get some more useful insight over here

Zip

alec_eiffel

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

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.

I wouldn't put Primark stuff in the shops I worked at either, it's just not worth it at all. Well, if it was new, still with tags on we would, but stuff that had been worn was just not worth putting out. The quality is terrible, the supermarket stuff is lots better and is occasionally broadly feasible to resell (I've never been into a Primark store so I don't know what it's like when new).

XxXfashionqueenXxX

We always donate nearly new items. But I do notice that they always have rooms full of bags that never really go down..

PasturesNew

I was 'a bit lost' yesterday, having gone down a road I'm not familiar with ... and I ended up in Poshland... where everybody's "terribly nice and super". I spotted a small charity shop and thought I'd give it a go ... and they had stuff at £2!! So I came away with a couple of things. Shame the shop's so small though, about 12' square.

People were in there almost fighting over some DVDs. A chap brought in a big handful of DVDs and as he handed them over a customer said "oh DVDs" and lunged politely... and the other person in the shop also perked up and said "Oh DVDs... what's there...?"

I'll definitely be going in there again next time I'm in the area, but it is a 60 mile round trip so won't go specially.

Horace

I tend to take things to one local charity shop - the staff are quite pleasant too. I have taken a Jaeger Jacket that was a size 8 (I am now a size 14) I had only worn it a few times and had it dry cleaned before I donated it to the shop.

More recently I took a Zara silk evening dress (purchased by ex b/f in UK), a pure wool Zara jacket (again purchased by ex b/f in Spain) and a few other designer bits and bits that I have bought from other shops that still had tags on them because I realised that they didnt fit particularly well or I didnt like them. I even took my old Edina Ronay suit to the charity shop. They don't get much really decent stuff so they were delighted.

They tend to ask for carrier bags so I save them all up and take them in.

I buy stuff from the shop too - mainly glass items (I collect antique glass), some books (managed to pick up some first edition !!!!!! Francis ones for 50p recently), I have been known to buy furniture as well.

There is one CS near me that I went into once and vowed never to set foot in there again - it stunk of wee, the carpetted floor was sticky and the items on the shelves were filthy, I didnt dare look at the clothes:eek: I got the feeling that they really didnt care - it made me wonder if they actually cared about the animals that they were trying to raise money for.

Admittedly there are some cs that I won't use at all and there are others that I support either by buying stuff and/or donating stuff to them.

wintersunshine

alec_eiffel wrote: »

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.

OMG!!! That is so Gross and I never knew...:(

wintersunshine

sb44 wrote: »

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:

People used to steal stuff from my kids school summer fete and the stuff was dirt cheap How sad is that? :cool:

wintersunshine

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

School fetes are really good for children's books

lincroft1710

A lot of clothing must end up in the (non) charity clothing collection bags which get pushed through the letterbox on too regular intervals. Very little seems to make its way into charity shops (unless there's one called Eastern Europe).

Barnabylovesicecream

I live in a town with a hospice, they have 4 or 5 shops across the town. They also sell on eBay but often get less than they would in the shop I think.

The one near my house is in the poshest area but it's tiny- all there stuff gets taken to their central warehouse. It does have nice china.

One is a bit less posh but bigger and really high volume. It has some great bargains.

The least posh area is the one with the best parking and so often has really nice stuff. It tends to sell what it gets in as it has space. Very good books all 50 p each. Very fair price on collectables (which they have had valued but charge a few quid less than eBay going price and no postage). Clothes vary - it does sell supermarket at a cheap price but has lots of gap, next, white stuff, Laura Ashley. Almost all less than £5.

Barbados have opened next to one of them. Their prices are really steep-some stuff has been in for 4 months.