Charity shops?

jetplane

OP I very much doubt that you could evidence this as it is hearsay, unless you volunteer of course. I also agree that there seems to be a shortage of good stock in charity shops and wondered if more people were selling rather than donating due to the economic downturn.

I give a lot to charity and I have always disagreed with the whole back of shop selling. It didn't even occur to me that this happened until a friend volunteered to work in a national charity store and told me that all of the bags were rifled through and the staff paid a nominal amount for stuff they wanted, which was always less than the floor price. Her family suddenly became noticeably more well dressed.

I believe that all stock should be priced and put on the shop floor, if the staff or contractors wish to buy it then they pay the ticket price. When I asked 2 main charities whether my items would be available for sale I was told that the manager or head office sort the stuff and it is then distributed to various branches. I now only donate to 2 local charity shops who always put the stock on the floor.

lindseykim13

pulliptears wrote: »

How do you know how much she is selling the sacks for? How do you know how much is being made out of the sacks? If you don't then to be honest I don't think it's any of your business.

It's quite feasible she's selling the sacks for more than they could get in the shop as an individual item but leaving profit in it for the buyer.

Lets be honest the majority of us wouldn't know a vintage dress from any other and probably wouldn't pay more than say £4. They may be paying her £5 for the dress and then selling it for £10 but the charity isn't missing out at all.

Because i overheard what she was selling them for, and yes it is my business i have given stuff to this charity shop myself and quite recently a lot of it! I won't be again.
I know for a fact they used to sell these vintage items in the shop for £6-£8 a dress and they knew they were vintage as they wrote it on the ticket. They have now stoped putting it out in the shop and selling/giving it away to their 'friends'

I very much doubt i will waste my time reporting it i'll just choose not to use that one again.

Blether

We were talking about this at work the other day. There is a lot of stealing goes on by people in charity shops. I used to work in one of the larger shops and one of the staff told me she had a wardrobe at home with stuff for her son and it was crammed full. I think it is something that needs to be brought out in the open and discussed. They know about the problem but as they are mostly staffed by volunteers kind of see it as a necessary cost.

perfect10

My husband was accused of stealing his own jacket from a charity shop!!! a couple of spotty young volunteers ran after him and physically grabbed him in the street - they were lucky they didn't get punched as he thought he was being mugged!! He went back to the shop with them and they realised their mistake when they saw the similar jacket they thought had been stolen had been put back in a different place!! They didn't have the decency to properly apologise and left him feeling embarassed as so many people had seen him be accused! He wrote to the company to complain and suggested they train staff to correctly deal with this situation - they rudely never responded - never been in there since!

porto_bello

As jetplane has touched on earlier in this thread, charity shops supporting local charities tend to be run and staffed by local people (and attract local volunteers) who have a genuine charitable motivation for working there (such as a local hospice).

In contrast, countrywide national charities are chains, which less likely to attract staff with a personal commitment and more likely to attract staff who do it as a job, for the money or other 'off radar' perks.

It's become apparent to me that where I live, high quality items only appear in charity shops supporting local charities - never in the national ones. Aside from the above reason, this is likely to be because (given the choice) local residents (including myself) are more likely to be motivated to donate and support local charities.

cestlavie

interesting comments, jetplane and portobello, i'd tend to agree. i visit my locals regularly and donate often - family and friends give me their stuff to drop into the shops as i'm both donor registered and able to get to the shops during opening hours. given my regular visits i now am very particular about which shops i donate certain items too. i used to like to give to them all, but it was clear a lot of the stuff i donated never saw the light of day in some shops (- and i never had any notification about moneys rasied via the donor id number, if further proof were needed). the stuff donated was all excellent (- and in some cases, as new with tags,) quality..
consequently i am even more picky about which charity shop gets what. even though i'd prefer to give books to other charity causes, i now only give books to oxfam as i know they price properly. when i gave several boxes of valuable books to a local hospice charity, the manger said she'd be sure they were properly sold, but i later learnt they were sold to a dealer for about £1 a box because they didn't fit the profile for that shop. the books were worth in excess of £300. the shame of it was is that i directly asked her if she could sell them "otherwise i'd prefer to give to oxfam", she promised me they would. they weren't. so the moral of my story is check out your shops, see for yourselves how they are run and choose who you give to wisely!

bartelbe

porto_bello wrote: »

As jetplane has touched on earlier in this thread, charity shops supporting local charities tend to be run and staffed by local people (and attract local volunteers) who have a genuine charitable motivation for working there (such as a local hospice).

In contrast, countrywide national charities are chains, which less likely to attract staff with a personal commitment and more likely to attract staff who do it as a job, for the money or other 'off radar' perks.

It's become apparent to me that where I live, high quality items only appear in charity shops supporting local charities - never in the national ones. Aside from the above reason, this is likely to be because (given the choice) local residents (including myself) are more likely to be motivated to donate and support local charities.

Complete non-sense, the reason why you don't see your 'high quality' stock in national chains is because most charity shops sort their donations before they put them on the shop floor.

The best stuff is saved for online selling like ebay and auctions. For perfectly reasonable reason that charity shops don't want to sell something for a couple of quid, that they could get £50 for on the internet.

It isn't some conspiracy by evil shop volunteers. I have no doubt that theft occurs, but I doubt it is that common. Don't believe me, do an ebay search and you will find online charity shop listings.

soolin

Charity shops now get run like mini businesses. Our local hospice shop for instance sells books and bags of clothes to dealers- but lists unusual ornaments, vintage items etc on ebay and they have an ebay team (all volunteers) to do that for them.

gravitytolls

pulliptears wrote: »

How do you know how much she is selling the sacks for? How do you know how much is being made out of the sacks? If you don't then to be honest I don't think it's any of your business.

It's quite feasible she's selling the sacks for more than they could get in the shop as an individual item but leaving profit in it for the buyer.

Lets be honest the majority of us wouldn't know a vintage dress from any other and probably wouldn't pay more than say £4. They may be paying her £5 for the dress and then selling it for £10 but the charity isn't missing out at all.

If only, most charity shop chains charge at least double that for a frock now. It really grinds my gears. (I gotta stop conversing with my teens, I'm starting to sound like wannabe cool mum)

pulliptears

gravitytolls wrote: »

If only, most charity shop chains charge at least double that for a frock now. It really grinds my gears. (I gotta stop conversing with my teens, I'm starting to sound like wannabe cool mum)

A lot depends on area, you wouldn't pay anywhere near that round my local town but in the next town you probably would. My local Cancer Research is everything a pound and has been for some years, this is regardless of age or brand. The British Heart is just as good, I bought DD a £40 Criminal Damage hoodie that looked brand new for £2 last week.

More affluent areas charge more, though Oxfam I find charge stupid prices regardless.