What is your charity shop bargain of the week?

silvasava

Only very small things - a length of ribbon & some thread to change the 'spaghetti' straps on a dress for DGD - perfect match to the electric blue for 80p.
Our local hospice has a craft shop - if you sew anything its a little Aladins Cave so I have to severly restrain myself

bobsa1

a lovely padded jacket from joules with a nice hood fantastic for dd for school £12.99

patricia50

I am wondering if the charity shop that some people have alluded to in being rude about taking donations, not saying thank you and not taking things out of the window has been Oxfam. I have heard staff in Oxfam say they can't take an item out of the window. Also a well known high street store donates clothes to them and I know someone who works in a branch of this store and has taken donations to Oxfam and has said they are rude and don't even say thankyou

kboss2010

Patricia, for me it was the BHF furniture shop in Aberdeen.

sparrer

Found a sweet little red leather clutch to match my red shoes, only 50p in the bargain basket.

Pollycat

patricia50 wrote: »

I am wondering if the charity shop that some people have alluded to in being rude about taking donations, not saying thank you and not taking things out of the window has been Oxfam. I have heard staff in Oxfam say they can't take an item out of the window. Also a well known high street store donates clothes to them and I know someone who works in a branch of this store and has taken donations to Oxfam and has said they are rude and don't even say thankyou

Also BHF for me.

The same person used to stand outside on Valentine's Day and rattle a tin under your nose as you went in the shop - something guaranteed to rile me.

I don't know if this was on her own initiative or as a request from the manager.

kboss2010

I think it depends on who you get on the day. Most times when I've been in that particular shop in the past, the staff were quite abrupt. Yet the last time I went in, they had a new young guy working in there and he couldn't do enough to help me when I was looking for something specific.

Pollycat

kboss2010 wrote: »

I think it depends on who you get on the day. Most times when I've been in that particular shop in the past, the staff were quite abrupt. Yet the last time I went in, they had a new young guy working in there and he couldn't do enough to help me when I was looking for something specific.

But manners cost nothing and I would have thought in a 50+ woman, courtesy would have come naturally - especially in a situation where a customer is doing you a favour by choosing your charity for their unwanted items.
Once I'd made a decision to take my donations elsewhere, that was it.

Sadly (for BHF), that one incident lost them my donations forever - and I've given loads of very good stuff away since then.

kboss2010

Pollycat wrote: »

But manners cost nothing and I would have thought in a 50+ woman, courtesy would have come naturally - especially in a situation where a customer is doing you a favour by choosing your charity for their unwanted items.
Once I'd made a decision to take my donations elsewhere, that was it.

Sadly (for BHF), that one incident lost them my donations forever - and I've given loads of very good stuff away since then.

I couldn't agree more.

One thing I used to love was the Chest, Heart and Stroke chain used to give you a gift aid card if you were a regular. Everything you donated would be logged and when it was all sold you would get a text to tell you how much your items had raised for them. Sadly they don't seem to do this anymore.

Pollycat

kboss2010 wrote: »

I couldn't agree more.

One thing I used to love was the Chest, Heart and Stroke chain used to give you a gift aid card if you were a regular. Everything you donated would be logged and when it was all sold you would get a text to tell you how much your items had raised for them. Sadly they don't seem to do this anymore.

My local hospice shop used to do this, they sent me a number of letters telling me how much my stuff had raised (tbh, I was sometimes gob-smacked at the amount) but they've stopped that.
I don't mind really, as I'd rather they used the money raised to help people rather than thank the donors.

As I've already said, a smile and a 'Ooh, that's lovely, thanks for thinking of us' is more than enough for me.