Lightbulb moment re charity shop prices!

maman

adonis wrote: »

Unfortunately people don't always realise the shops are there to make money for the charity, not for the customer to buy it for a pittance because the charity got it for nothing.

You cannot blame the shops for trying to get the best prices they can when with a few clicks of the mouse they can get an idea of what things sell for although I agree sometimes they can get it wrong.

It doesn't help when people gloat about buying something cheap and then sell it on ebay for a lot more without going back to the shop to give them a cut.

REMEMBER YOU MAY NEED THAT CHARITIES HELP ONE DAY.

I do understand your point but I can't wholly agree. I think by overpricing many charities are 'cutting of their nose to spite their face'. If overpriced goods don't sell then they're not making anything for the charity concerned.

I've noticed that some shops have lists of 'labels' in the sorting areas to help them price things. The trouble is they don't seem to realise that things like Tu or George are hardly designer! Also they don't seem to make allowances for the worn nature of many things.

These days I use a charity shop that is local for a special school or look at the £1 rails. That's where they end up putting the stuff they don't sell!:rotfl:

quailpower

Oxfam got me at christmas!

I went in to buy some cheap paperback books for an arts a crafts club I run. Now this club is funded entirely by donations, so we have practically no money and Id seen a lovely craft using paperback books to make angel figures. So I need to buy about 20. The last time I bought dog-eared paperbacks they were 50p each, when I went in Oxfam they were £4 MINIMUM! I was stunned. Ended up going in BHF and getting a great deal instead!

NoGoodNamesLeft

There is a charity shop near me that used to have a nice, welcoming atmosphere with reasonable prices and plenty of stock.

Unfortunately, the charity owner's daughter seems to have decided their money is best spent on new CCTV (despite never having had a break in) and a swanky new look which she "designed". The whole shop feels like a snobby boutique now with stupid prices, constantly changing displays and hardly any stock. Shame really as it's put me off donating anything in case it's not good enough.

-taff

I've shopped in charity shops for years also, and surprisingly, in the more affluent areas, the prices seem more reasonable [I'm not including the large charity that rhymes with boxpam because their prices are always ridiculous].
I spend more money in cheaper chairty shops than I do in epxensive ones, because I'm getting a bargain, therefore, it's win-win.

Asking the same price for a secondhand item which sells for the same price new is a problem in all chairty shops. I don't know who sets the pricing structure but they may benefit form touring a few shops that their donations come from to see the difference in price.

tayforth

Interesting thread.

I have also noticed prices creeping up. It's counter-productive. Charity shops should price stuff cheaply, they would have greater stock turnover and would make more money that way!

I tend to favour charity shops that do this. I know that they'll always have something new at a reasonable price, and that keeps me coming back. The overpriced ones have the same old stuff hanging around for ages - I avoid them.

Agree about Oxfam - I don't even go into my local Oxfam bookshop any more! :eek:

GreyQueen wrote: »

I spend a lot of time in charity shops and have done for about 30 years, so have seen some changes in that time.

Far too many charity shops have a poor grasp on prices and thus have stock hanging around. Only a small fraction of their stock is going to be a collectible/ antique-in-mufti. Most of it is pretty standard everyday stuff.

Will I pay £1.50 for a part-used tube of handcream when I can buy a whole one, of the same brand, next door in the pound store? No, I won't, no matter how good the cause. Ditto with Primarche or supermarket brand clothing. I'm not paying more for a used example of this than I would for a new one.

Charity shops are there to make money for charities but they do have to understand that they are also selling things in the real world, where many of their customers will have very low incomes. If you price at/ above new prices, your stock will sit on the shelves. Surely a smaller take and a regular turnover is better than having stuff unsold and eventually junked?

I've seen plenty of books sit on charity shop bookshelves for months at a time at £2.99 only to sell like hot cakes for £1 when they have a periodic sale. That same book is almost certainly available for free in the library, and I'd get it from there rather than pay £2.99 but for £1 I'd buy it, read it, and re-donate it, often to the same or adjacent store within weeks.

Several charity shops around here are now pricing stock far more realistically, such as a block price for a hardback or a paperback, and they're doing the business. Some others, I have given up on entirely because they never have anything worth buying at a reasonable price. I watched a national cancer charity shop nearby go out of business because it figured every donated mass-market hardback novel was "worth" £4.50. Even the commercial secondhand booksellers in town, who buy their stock, don't charge so much.

Exactly. I tend to buy more from, and re-donate to, charity shops that are reasonably priced.

When will they learn????

tori.k wrote: »

I would say charity shops need a wake up call, we had a lovely dusty independent cat charity shop filled to the rafter's with everything and anything you could think off, the hoarder lady that ran it out of love anything that wasn't good enough for re-sale buttons came off and fabric was cut down for the local quilters for a donation, she had a fab buy and return offer on the books where you got the next book for half price it wasn't only a charity shop but the smallest unofficial meeting room/tea shop/classroom you could find there was a real love about the place, with the arrival of the mainstream charity shops with their thousands of pounds earning managers and shop refit every couple of year's the owners of the charity decided to move with the times and retired off the old volunteer manager for a new sleeker cleaner look the shop ran for 6 more months before it closed they didn't get it it wasn't just the bargains but the whole ambiance of the place.

Oh my goodness, the previous incarnation of that CS sounded absolutely lovely. What a shame that it was ruined!

miss_scrooge

Charity shops have put their prices up because people aren't donating things as much to charity shops so they have less to sell.
People seem to sell all their stuff nowadays instead of donating the some charity shop donate to ebay because they aren't getting much in donations so it's their last resort.

If people donated more this wouldn't be happening only been like this the last few years.

kezlou

We regularly donate to charity shops. This could be from bric abrac through, to washing machines etc

One time we went to bhf donated a large high rise bed complete with desks and, shelves. At the, same time we bought a single matress and, bed. They didn't even knock any money off it. we didn't ask but it would, have, been nice

I tend to avoid chains, and prefer independenT stores instead.
But, then I, feel that, way about everything.

GreyQueen

I'm registered for Gift Aid at my local Oxf'm and donate there; I figure they're pretty expensive so will get maximum value for my stuff. They've gone thru cycles in this city of being beyond-extortionate then falling back to reasonable levels.

I do find many national chains want to charge silly-money and thru a process of experimentation have ended up shopping almost exclusively from a small group of local charities serving human and animal good causes.

They're untidy and friendly, run by lovely ladies and diamond geezers, and great for a chat as well as a browse. I'd rather have a cluttered shabby shop where you rootle for stuff in boxes than a designer-y place all poshed up.

kezlou, after I went offline last night, all indignant on your behalf, I recalled something which happened to me, many years ago. It wasn't a charity shop, but it was a high street chain. I'd saved hard and carefully researched my purchase, and was in the shop trying to attract the attention of a sales assistant.

Alas and alack, I must have donned my invisibility cloak by mistake that day, because I couldn't get the sales lass to stop gossiping and giggling with her friends. After many minutes of this, I got p'd off and approached a suited bloke and said I wanted to speak to the manager.

He identified himself as that person. So I discreetly opened my wallet and showed him several hundred pounds in crisp notes and pointed out that if his staff weren't so rude and incompetant, that money would be in his till by now. As was, I was walking out the door with it and going to a rival business.

He looked a bit ill at that point, tbh. And I sailed out in high dudgeon. Very satisfying.......:rotfl:

kitschkitty

I totally agree with pretty much everything said above. My mum regularly buys and re-donates books as she says with her bad memory she'd pay as much in library fines for forgetting to return them on time!

Popped in a shop that had a couple of these priced at £2.50 each, they're currently £1.25 in Asda etc, and used to be just 99p!

When it comes to donating my stuff I choose charity shops that I know sell the the kinds of things I'm donating (by selling them at a decent price), e.g I don't donate clothes to the shop that sells everything for £1.99 (good or bad) nor to Oxfam, who charge more than new!

maman

NoGoodNamesLeft wrote: »

There is a charity shop near me that used to have a nice, welcoming atmosphere with reasonable prices and plenty of stock.

Unfortunately, the charity owner's daughter seems to have decided their money is best spent on new CCTV (despite never having had a break in) and a swanky new look which she "designed". The whole shop feels like a snobby boutique now with stupid prices, constantly changing displays and hardly any stock. Shame really as it's put me off donating anything in case it's not good enough.

Mary Portas has a lot to answer for!:)

miss_scrooge wrote: »

Charity shops have put their prices up because people aren't donating things as much to charity shops so they have less to sell.
People seem to sell all their stuff nowadays instead of donating the some charity shop donate to ebay because they aren't getting much in donations so it's their last resort.

If people donated more this wouldn't be happening only been like this the last few years.

The trouble is that the people that are selling do it because they're short of money. If CSs sold their donations cheaply then those same skint people might buy from them.