'supporting each other through really tough times'

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

Think washing machine with terminal rabies GQ ...

:eek::eek::eek:

You've done it for real?!

maryb

The charity shops around my part of London are very much about fund raising for whatever chain they are part of ie British Heart Foundation or Oxfam etc and they get very defensive if challenged on their pricing. They seem to think that customers ought to be glad of the opportunity to overpay for something that is cheaper new and certainly don't think it is any part of their role to help their local community in a broader sense by offering bargains for struggling families. It's almost as if they think that everyone locally is affluent and is being a cheapskate or - worse - "uncaring" if they expect low prices.

That said, there are one or two that are not part of nationwide chains tucked away in the smaller shopping parades away from the high street which do price sensibly. And they'll take anything. I took a whole load of stuff to one recently including some good stuff together with some old textiles and said they were no good for selling in the shop but if they could get any money for recycling them they were welcome otherwise I wouldn't land them with them. They seemed really pleased

Maybe I am cynical, but part of me suspects that the pricing policy is to pay for high head office salaries - because they have to compete with the private sector for talent, don't they? It's certainly the case round here that the worst offenders are the ones who spend the highest percentage of what they raise on admin

GreyQueen

I hear ya, maryb.

I'm not prepared to shell out £4.50 for a secondhand book which is almost certainly in the library system, and can be ordered for less that £1 if not in this city but elsewhere in the county.

BUT, if it's only a quid, or less, I might just buy it on a whim, read and re-donate later that same month.

I do find the chain chazzers the worst (take a bow, BHF) and the small local chains, those with about 5 or fewer shops particular to this city or this region the most realistic. My favourite shopping places are a local cancer charity, a local hospice, a local disabled persons' charity, a local animal shelter, you get the picture.

I feel it keeps money in our community and helps us rather than being fed up the line to keep office fauna.

One of my most favourite chazzers takes everything and wastes nowt, taking stuff apart to resell or recycle its components, even. You know that naught will be wasted there and the needy children they support will get every iota of value they can wring out of stuff which other chazzers might just bin as too much trouble.

[Deleted User]

MAR I wish there was the facility to thank posters more than once, just love your washing machine quote so very much!!!!! Brilliant, Cheers Lyn xxx.

SQ Big congratulations to the youngest Master SQ for being so good at his swimming lesson, you must be one proud Mummy, good stuff eh?

ginnyknit

I tried the CS's in the poorer part of round my way and they were very poor quality, nothing on the pound rails even.

I could tell you all about charities but wont bore you to death. The worst moment, though, has to be when I found out that only a few quid of the many thousands I took through sheer hard work and determination was the profit for the year. I was told that the shops were merely the public face of a charity.

I think the higher management have no idea of reality where prices are concerned and a good manager should be able to work on her own initiative. Some of them used to be good but gradually over the years its become all about profit and targets.

Mar love it :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

GINNY I'm getting to the point with most of the CSs here where I'm just not bothering to go in, and most boot fairs are the same, even our regular Sea Scouts Jumble sale is so much smaller than it used to be, but that I shall continue to support because it is such a useful service for the whole village as they come on the evening before the sale and knock to see if anyone has anything to give, saves so much time going to the tip, and it gives them much needed funding for our youngsters, goodness knows there is very little else for them to do here that doesn't cost several limbs!!!

Softstuff

I volunteer in a charity shop here and often think the items are overpriced. I don't know how it is in England now, but over here there's a pretty good reason for the pricing, we have to pay the same market rent and rates as any other shop. This means in order to break even we're looking at takings of around 500 quid a day.

The stock we get in, about 30% can actually be sold in the shop directly. Of the remaining 70% about 20% will be fine when it's washed (you wouldn't believe what comes in), about 20% will go off to be sold as rags and about 30% is pure rubbish (half a jigsaw anyone? half a book? shoes with holes?). So we then have to pay for warehousing and transport to deal with this and we also have to pay for any rubbish to be collected.

So, you have to make the most of the decent donations you get in. We press it, hang it nicely and display it well (we're all volunteers aside from the manager). It's priced for more than I'd pay in a lot of cases, but the point is, it still sells. I quite often think "sheesh, who'd pay that for that" and the same day I'm ringing it up on the tills.

There's another charity shop locally, just closing its doors. It was a fair bit cheaper priced, but it turns out that they'd been making a loss for the charity for a couple of years.

I think at least here, until rents become more manageable, prices in charity shops will be higher. It's just what it takes to survive.

kidcat

Evening toughies

In my area most charity shops are awful way overpriced junk, I havent seen anything worth having in a very long time. What is worse is that they are for the main part based in unused shops - the council offer them a short term lease for free in order to keep the shops looking full, used etc and then when they rent out the charity moves into the next unit that is vacant.

Its been a long day, OH will receive formal redundancy offer tomorrow and from there I have no idea, we have never experienced this before so I have no idea what to expect.

Other than that I have been racing about and am exhausted so off to bed early now.

ginnyknit

Aww kidcat lifes a !!!!!! isnt it? :grouphug: dodgy group hug from all of us in my house.

Possession

So sorry to hear about DH's redundancy Kidcat. Fingers crossed for a decent package.
Byatt I don't suppose that Shakespeare is up by me is it. The RSC quite often do £10 tickets.