Is it ok to haggle in charity shops

s_b

theres a right evil manager in our local one
shes on £20,000 a year
i wont feather her nest

Taadaa

I was in one yesterday and l noticed they have put a 'no haggling' sign up. In your case l would say that's okay, but generally it isn't. If you think something is overpriced, leave it there it will get marked down eventually if it really is over priced.

Edwardia

I buy books in charity shops and the occasional tshirt and I'd never dream of haggling. Even someone on benefits in the UK is better off than a kid in Africa or a refugee in Palestine.

mandragora_2

I have done it in the past, when I thought they'd overpriced an item; I offered them what I thought it was worth along with two pieces of Poole pottery that I was prepared to donate, and that I knew they'd price up at more than the difference. They were happy, I was happy.

londonTiger

Spend a week in Tunisia or Egypt (or any other ME/Asian country for that matter).

You will learn that you have to haggle for everything, you can do the same in most family run businesses. More common on high ticket price items like cars, sofas, beds, computers.. You can haggle in currys if you have the cheek to ask, but only for high value items of when you're buying lots of small priced items.

Charity shops just price the items whatever, most of their stuff comes from donations anyway. So there's no real logic to it.

Good on you for asking, to others who said "no don't haggle", good on you too. You're always welcome in my shop.

European_Citizen

I'm astonished to see how many people see haggling in charity shops as morally wrong. Most charities do a decent job but a great part of what you pay goes into paying their running costs (it could be as high as 80%). Thinking that by haggling for a discount you are depriving a poor child in Africa from their rice/vaccine is far from reality.
I've been offered a discount at a charity shop due to a stain on the dress I was looking at (I didn't ask for it).

wookie_2

londonTiger wrote: »

Spend a week in Tunisia or Egypt (or any other ME/Asian country for that matter).

You will learn that you have to haggle for everything, you can do the same in most family run businesses. More common on high ticket price items like cars, sofas, beds, computers.. You can haggle in currys if you have the cheek to ask, but only for high value items of when you're buying lots of small priced items.

Charity shops just price the items whatever, most of their stuff comes from donations anyway. So there's no real logic to it.

Good on you for asking, to others who said "no don't haggle", good on you too. You're always welcome in my shop.

The trouble is we are far to British to haggling and you are right go abroad and its expected for you to haggle. I think in future I will offer what I think the item is worth. These charitys get huge donations from wealthy people to avoid paying tax, so getting a few pence off an item is ok in my book.

Enterprise_1701C

Why not? The Charity Shops round here are horifically overpriced and because of this I will only use them for books. I have seen things priced higher than the original price.

They are GIVEN the items, if they priced them to sell then they would make more money because they would have a greater turnover. Most of the charity shops I see are empty. If they were not overpriced I would buy more from them, instead I go to places like Primark and occasionally Matalan to save money.

upsadaisy

A few months ago I went into a charity shop and they had a play phone for £3.99 and I knew ASDA were selling one for £5, I asked to pay £2 and was refused. I'm a teacher and I buy a lot for my classroom role play areas etc and see a lot of stuff that is ridiculously priced in charity shops.

Blether

upsadaisy wrote: »

A few months ago I went into a charity shop and they had a play phone for £3.99 and I knew ASDA were selling one for £5, I asked to pay £2 and was refused. I'm a teacher and I buy a lot for my classroom role play areas etc and see a lot of stuff that is ridiculously priced in charity shops.

Know a lot of teachers that go early to the car boot because the charity shops are getting so dear.