Is it right to Moan about Charity shop prices.

luvchocolate

I have been a manager in a Hospice charity shop for around 15 years and we are certainly not well paid, just above minimum wage and we have targets to reach as we have to keep the hospice going, we try to be fair to both donors and customers on pricing but its not always easy!
I once applied to Oxfam but declined when they told me they would run a shop at a loss to be in the best position on the high street, therefore I could not support them.
I agree BHF are too expensive.
We relay greatly on a wonderful team of volunteers who do a great job but as said before pricing is not always consistent
Times are hard for us as people now sell a lot of their belongings and take rags in to be weighed, so donations are not as plentiful, but we do our best please continue to support us. as we really do appreciate it....xx

georgiesmum

Hermia wrote: »

The price of paperback books in some shops annoys me. One charity shop near me prices all their paperback books at £2.99 even if they are in bad condition or if they cost less than that new (for example, I saw a few of the Wordsworth £1 classics in there). The book selection never seems to change in there so obviously no one is buying. I think some charity shop staff think that people should be prepared to pay more because it's for charity. But, the town I live in is not well-off so I think they need to be realistic and look to the other non-charity shops in the town to get an idea how to price things. We have three bargain book shops in our town that sell new paperbacks for 3 for £5 so why would anyone pay £3 for a knackered old paperback.

this really p****S me off to. I get mine from Amazon (cheaper ) and donate them to the charity shops when i have finished with them. When i go in they are always dearer than the price i paid. These places should remember that a lot of elderly people shop in their shop from nesscesity and it's nasty to be ripping them off.

Dave_C_2

I now think twice about giving stuff to some charity charity shops. I don't want to donate to somewhere that charges rip-off prices to needy customers.

Maybe they are shooting themselves in the foot.
High prices means folks like me don't donate. High prices also mean loss of customers who can't afford the prices of second hand stuff that they can get cheaper brand new.
Net result is an empty shop with stale stock.

Don't forget us council tax payers are indirectly paying to keep these shops open and so I consider moaning about their prices fair game - I pay for it!

Dave

pulliptears

I am quite picky myself where I donate. Mostly my goods go to Douglas Macmillan, it's a charity close to my heart anyway but they are realistic.

Items in their shop are never overpriced, everything is priced so that the charity gets a good donation but the customer still gets a bargain. I also like the idea that they take the more expensive items like Radley Bags and auction them to raise their maximum potential.
It would be pointless putting a Radley Bag on the shelf at £50 as people in the area don't have that kind of money to spend on a bag, so rather than it sitting on the shelf for months they auction it on eBay and get the money they need quickly.

I think the key to a successful shop is knowing your area and knowing your customers well enough to price realistically.

Pollycat

I think some charity shops have lost the plot on pricing, especially 'cheap' stuff from Primark and books.

I donate all my unwanted items to our local hospice shop.
They are very reasonable with pricing - books are 25p each or 5 for £1.

cattie

BHF is one charity shop I refuse to go into in my high st as I've always found their pricing absolutely ott. They also have a furniture shop in Sidcup and while, very occasionally, you'll see a piece of reasonably priced furniture, most of it is up for silly money and every now and again they will have a sale 25% day off of sofas and suites as they are just not shifting the stock to make way for new donations. As far as electrical items go, they seem to pluck figures out of the air, battered looking washing machines with yellowing plastic up for £180 & the fridge freezers look as if they have had 20 rounds with a heavyweight and lost.

My favourite charity shops are the small independents, who price very reasonably. Indeed, the local Cat's protection shop believe that even something sold for 5p is 5p more toward their cause. Paperback books are sold at an incredible 8 for £1.

Any unwanted items of mine go either to the Cat's protection shop or to the local Hospice shop, both of whom have the sense to price very reasonably and ensure a much quicker turnover of donated goods.

caitieface

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this...I'm quite lucky, my area still has one or two charity shops where it's still possible to get a bargain, but the rest are just ridiculously priced, especially when you consider they're all staffed by volunteers. I don't know who these people are who are buying used Primark stuff for twice the cost new, and I don't know about anyone else but the reason I shop in charity shops (aside from it being a good cause yadda yadda) is because it's all I can afford, unless I get really lucky on eBay.

bottleredhead

My friend and I used to regularly go to a local charity shop; on average spending about £20 a time. They have put the prices up so stupidly high now that we don't bother; where we could get half a dozen good bits of clothing before, now you would be lucky to get a dress for less than a tenner.

System

I don't use these sort of stores myself but surely prices are dictated by demand. If people are prepared to pay the prices then they should keep them at that level. If you can sell a mirror for £25 why sell it for £8? They are not there to provide bargains for customers. They are there to raise the maximum amount of revenue for the charity.

I am sure if something sits in the shop for a few weeks without selling they will just reduce the price.

Ynayesta

worked in a Debra shop for a very short time (had to close because the rent and leccy bills were far too high) we used to decide between each other what prices were reasonable, and had a £1 rail for clothes that didn't sell that rotation. Of course everything's haggleable.

However there was a market just across the way, and the stall workers there used to come into the shop, scan around and then under sell us. So while we got a lot of traffic most savvy shoppers would sod off over to the market instead.

We had this hideous designer shirt we couldn't sell once.
me and a few of the other volunteers decided to put it out on the shop floor for £8,000. For a joke ofc. Can you believe some people gave it a good luck? i suppose they were looking for where the gold was stitched in xD

if things don't sell for some time, they get priced down. When we rotate stock anything that doesn't sell either goes onto the £1 rail for clothes, and we were a furniture store, so a lot of that would be marked down too, to make space for new donations.