Lightbulb moment re charity shop prices!

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

My OH once dropped off a piece of furniture we'd bought from IKEA for about £10. We saw it in the window a couple of days later priced about £40 :eek: He popped back into the shop to kindly let them know we'd only paid a few bob for it and they were horrified. Cue two little old ladies rushing to rip the price tag off it - they were very old school and were mortified that they thought they were ripping off folk. Bless them.

As for Oxfam in Keswick :eek: I'm surprised it's still there, it's so expensive. Someone donated an upright piano once and they put at £350 price tag on it!!!!

cyclingyorkie

my daughter volunteers in a shop which raises money for our local hospice - most books are priced at 60p each - like others I buy, read and return.

They do use the internet as a guide, but only as a guide. A lot of the pricing is done by volunteers, and the managers are trained, but they are not an expert in everything that comes through the door.... how could they be? So it is inevitable that mistakes happen.

But they do get customers who want a discount (!!!!) and last week they found a couple of price tags in the changing room - they think someone has stolen some of the stock. I mean how low can you get - stealing from a charity shop?

thriftwizard

When the shop I volunteered at closed down, another charity took it over; my trainee-daughter-in-law volunteers there now & her sister is the assistant manager. We're in a fairly affluent & increasingly elderly area (mostly because young people can't afford to live here any more) and they will tell you that far from dropping off, donations here have skyrocketed. Nine-tenths of what they get doesn't go out onto the shop floor at all, but straight to the ragman, other shops (they don't have a PAT tester but another local charity does, so they hand over all the electricals) other branches, or even into the bins, which are collected twice weekly & are always full. Things only go to other branches if they have put out a specific request for them, because most other shops round here have the same problem - not enough floor or storage space for the amount of stuff that comes flooding in on a Monday morning. So although Monday is usually a "quiet" day from the sales point of view, it's all hands to the pump out back, to at least maintain safe walkways through the stockroom.

And sad to say, there are quite a few donors who don't realise that no, they don't wash everything that comes in any more, and that a "good" label doesn't mean that something torn or dirty is going to be saleable. Just as some volunteers don't recognise, say, really exclusive designer labels or superb styling from bygone eras, or won't put out "homemade" clothes. Luckily the ragmen have upped their game, and don't send everything for J-cloths any more, but sort it first & sell on the decent stuff.

So it's never going to be a perfect system, but they do their best & I for one am glad of it, even when they don't get it right; I haven't bought any new clothes (except underwear) for years now! I'm always astonished by the number of people who seem to believe they don't pay rent or rates; they do pay full retail rent, but usually get a small rebate on the business rate, and most pay their managers though it's only just over minimum wage & pro rata, hardly a fortune. But agreeing with cyclingyorkie, stealing from them, no matter how desperate you are or how "greedy" you think they're being, really is beneath contempt.

GreyQueen

Well-said, thriftwizard.

I spend a lot of my (retail) time in a run-down shopping centre of the kind which would be a poster child for urban blight. I encounter some people who profess themselves scared to go to Scruffy Centre, which shows that there are some nervous nellies in this city. It isn't that bad; I only saw the armed polis with the submachines down there the once.

Anyway, I digress............ I talk to my Magic Greengrocer down there and he tells me that the chazzers in the centre junk a lot of donated stuff out the back. He thinks it's shocking and that donors would be horrified if they knew.

I try to be realistic with my donations; most of my clothes weren't new when I had them, and I tend to wear favourites until they are worn out. Very worn clothing, perhaps with a stain or bleach-splash or two isn't going to be offered for sale. So, with it clean, I strip out buttons and trimmings, label it clearly as Rag Only and put it into textile recycling. If it's an ordinary glass item with a ding, I put it in the glass bank, and similar.

I've several friends who are/ were c.s vols and they can tell some tales, such as a very very grande dame who sailed in one day with the air of Madam Bountiful bestowing her treasures on the peasants. They weren't enamoured of her attitude but figured that at least they'd have some good stuff in the bags.

Major error. It was chiefly her stained, stretched-out and UNWASHED knickers._pale_

lazer

My mum manages a charity shop and it is hard to get the balance right
one one hand, the shop is there to make money for the charity and on the other hand, the shop is there to sell affordable stuff for those who need it.

The answer they have fiund is to price the clothes from primark, supermarkets etc at really lo prices, but that good makes are sold at prices which can be higher than primark prices.
The staff and volunteers are quit knowledgable about brands.

They use the interent to research some items that come in - such as possible antiques, designer handbags and even perfume.

You would be amazed at some of the stuff that is donated, I have even got a radley handbag!

Also - my mum also says that people an donate clothes that are worn as the rag man pays them for it - although if you want to be really nice - have the rags sorted seperately before donating!

amancalledmartin

I see both sides of the charity shop game. Oxfam employ their own "antiques" experts now, but most other charities will make use of their local auction house or antique centre to ask for help either to sell high ticket items or with regard to pricing. However, they have to recognise that the item might have value in the first place and that can be difficult. Fair play to them though - a hospice in Bristol recently identified a bamboo brushpot that they thought might be worth more than a few bob, took it to auction and got £360,000 for it! Likewise, I also see a fair few valuable items that have been purchased for a few quid at a charity shop and go on to sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds. I would guess it mostly evens out. The only one I have a problem with is the Oxfam Bookshop because their prices are often stupid.

cjez_2

I avoid British heart foundation due to their stuff usually being pretty pricey but still find a few good things. Same for cancer research. Basically any charity shop that's colour co-ordinated is usually overpriced in my experience.
I love our local charity shop (mary's meals)- lovely staff and a few good buys- not too cheap, not too pricey. One thing bothers me a tad about charity shops though- which is that they often give things away to friends or people who help out. My in-laws get tons of stuff held back and given to them for doing work there which is fine as my father in law doesn't charge but they give him lots and top notch stuff that they could get a bit for. Not such a big deal as he does work for them for free but think they get a bit carried away.
We donated a ton of stuff last month and then my OH saw some whisky glasses he liked and asked how much- she said £2 for the lot and he told her that was way under priced and tried to offer more but she wouldn't take it because we'd donated. That makes them lovely kind people but you've got to get what you can when it's a charity- that's how I see it. I think there needs to be more of a balance.

tina_malteser

The OP reminds me of the days i was assistant manager in retail and i had to go over to Cancer Research and tell them an item in their window was actually dearer than our full price!!

thriftwizard

my OH saw some whisky glasses he liked and asked how much- she said £2 for the lot and he told her that was way under priced and tried to offer more but she wouldn't take it because we'd donated. That makes them lovely kind people but you've got to get what you can when it's a charity- that's how I see it. I think there needs to be more of a balance.

To balance your experience , cjez, back when I volunteered, I "rescued" a stained 70s maxi-dress that was going into the ragbag - no good as a garment any longer, but lovely fabric (and back then, 4 years ago, rags did go for ragging) - and had to pay full shop-floor price for it (£12.99) as it was a full-length dress & the national pricing structure was completely inflexible, with no "staff" discount whatsoever. I think a lot depends on which charity, and probably also on the individual shop manager!

I've tried to do that too, tina malteser; one shop was selling a plastic sock drier for £2.50 when they were £1 in the local equivalent of £land just down the same street. To my utter amazement, the lady behind the till indignantly told me that, "When people shop in a charity shop, what they actually want to do is give money to the charity; the goods are just a token in exchange for that gift & the price of them is immaterial." My jaw must have hit the ground with a loud thunk; that was a very new concept for me.

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

I've tried to do that too, tina malteser; one shop was selling a plastic sock drier for £2.50 when they were £1 in the local equivalent of £land just down the same street. To my utter amazement, the lady behind the till indignantly told me that, "When people shop in a charity shop, what they actually want to do is give money to the charity; the goods are just a token in exchange for that gift & the price of them is immaterial." My jaw must have hit the ground with a loud thunk; that was a very new concept for me.

Ooohhhh, priceless, can someone execute that in needlepoint and frame it somewhere..........?

If I just wanted to give money to a particular charity, I'd donate via card over the phone from the comfort of my own sofa. If I want something to read/ wear/ eat from/ cook in, I head to the c.s. They're much-needed items not bliddy tokens.

Today I saw a twin pack of bottlebrushes for cleaning babies' bottles for £1. They have them in that same packaging right now in the 99p Store. Which was about 30 steps away from the chazzer. Not worth diverting to save a penny but plenty of times I've seen chazzers want 1.5 or 2.5 x current retail.