Charity Shops!!!!!! bah humbug

durham_girl

I used to work in a charity shop, and I think that the SAs attitude was disgusting. I was lovely to people bringing things in - I even once emptied a suitcase full of stuff for someone because he wanted to keep it. I would maybe think about emailing their HO to point out that they were losing valuable donations due to the SAs stroppy attitude. They will certainly thank you for it!

I would think that charity shops would be begging for any donations, especially now that people seem to ebay most of their tat!!

MoaningMyrtle

Ours often have signs in the windows saying 'no more books', I think they are overun with them. The good thing about this as a buyer is that they sell then for 20p each or three harbacks for £1.00 .

If some of the books are first editions etc, Oxfam have specialist Charity shops exclusively for books, I presume they are staffed by volunteers who know about books. Maybe try there?

veruccasalt

I have had similar experiences. As you say, you are not asking for a medal for making donations, but a smile and a thank you doesnt hurt anyone.

It also means you are less likely to make donations in the future as you will have such bad memeories, so everyone loses out because of one grumpy attitude.

And can I just say I would be very interested in your Graham Greene book-I have never owned a first edition before and would love to. I would be really grateful if you would send me a pm, letting me know how much you would like for it.

TIA!

rose_sparky

My wonderful local charity shop has a really quick turnaround because they are very realistic with their prices <especially books> which means the items fly out of the door.

cat64

I volunteer in a charity shop and certainly think this SAs attitude was out of order. Rose-Sparky, I find it really frustrating that prices in charity shops are so high, think they are given guidelines they have to follow (the high street ones anyway). If the items havent sold after a certain number of weeks they get sent to another branch, whereas surely if they were more reasonably priced they would sell?

poorbutrich

veruccasalt wrote: »

a smile and a thank you doesnt hurt anyone.

Exactly! I always get "put it over there" in my local charity shop. I've since switched to freecycle....

arthur_dent_2

I have in my time come across some really rude charity shop workers and attitudes towards donations, but I think the worst was a notice on the door of a charity shop that said something like We do not want the remainder of your car boot items, if you can't sell it then neither can we. I understand that the charity shops do not want any old rubbish but if someone has a genuine car boot sale and then wishes to give the rest away that surely is their choice.

arthur_dent_2

Freecycle IS the best thing ever.

rose_sparky

I think the high street charity shops need a major re-think on their prices.

Some of their items are dearer than the shops, for example T shirts which are available at Primark etc for about £2/£3 and they're NEW!!

poorbutrich

rose_sparky wrote: »

I think the high street charity shops need a major re-think on their prices.

Some of their items are dearer than the shops, for example T shirts which are available at Primark etc for about £2/£3 and they're NEW!!

You're right - I think this is part of the problem. As everyone can get new clothes at relatively cheap prices, there's no point people buying second hand Primark clothes from a charity shop. This means they've got too much stock.

You'd think they'd still be pleased to sell the OP's two boxes of books though!