Charity shops - expensive?

Ballymackeonan

Some charity shops are definitely pricing themselves out of the market - one of our local ones has taken over former garage premises (is this a trend?), and so has lots of room for furniture. They put a date sticker on all items, the good stuff goes out quickly, but some rubbish has been there since they moved in - over a year - and the price has never been reduced!

Against that, some others are really reasonable - one local Barnardo's sold all clothes at £2 for a while, and still has regular ½ price sales, the one 5 miles away is really expensive, so the stock sits a lot longer..

If the managers have retail experience, they recognise the importance of rotating stock, keeping it seasonal, having special offers. So where the manager is on a salary, I'd expect this!

lucy*locket

I love charity shops but they're no longer the place to pick up a bargain IMO.

BHF charge £2 each for paparbacks, £3.99 for Primark tops, £3-£4 for tacky ornaments.
I agree the local charity shops are generally more affordable. The local Rotary club opened a charity bookshop for 6 weeks recently in my town, paperbacks 50p each, hardbacks £1 so I bought 10 books...surely this makes more sense, I'll be taking them back when I've read them anyway so they could make 50p several times over.
I'll be sticking to boot sales, I can pick up an item of clothing for 50p, often brand new. Would love to see more jumble sales, I went to one last week for the first time in several years, I bought 40 pieces of ladies' clothing, all named (M&S, Monsoon, Boden), around 15 brand new, for £15 the lot. Loads of new work clothes for me. That's more like it!

jcr16

were over run with chairty shop's. but there is one i refuse to use now. not becuase of the cause it supports but how rude they were to us. mum and i took loads of stuff down. about 3 black bags of toy's. the lady said in a really snobby voice ' oh we don't take those , we will just take them to the tip if you leave them here'. we walked out with all our stuff and took it somewhere else and they were so grateful. the place where we took it to never sells anything for more than about £10. and that was for an almost brand new double bugggy. it fantastic. i got nearly all my baby clothes there. 10p an item. it a very small shop but they have loads of storage out back so if your looking for somethign they bring out big plastic tub's with certain items in and let u go through it.

TheDoolallyDilly

We have a Sue Ryder charity shop near us which is fabulous. It has the most amazing window displays, they always display seasonal items, and try to hang things in 'colours' so it looks really inviting. The prices are very reasonable, and they always say thank you when you donate things. Like jcr16 above, it's shocking how rude some people can be.

BilberryCharlotte

kittie wrote: »

They sometimes ask silly prices though. Paperback books for example. I`ll easily buy six, read them and hand them back for re-sale but I won`t pay more than 50p each. If a charity shop asks for £1 each then I walk out

I regularly send books (always in immaculate condition) to the shop set up by a local animal sanctuary.

Sorry, but if I find that the charity shop I send my books to is only selling them for 50p, I would rather give the books to family members and give 50p per book to the charity myself.

I realise most of us like a bargain, but `thrift` can be carried too far.

*niptuckfan*

i live in small town and we have 6 charity shops...i get loads of bargains but i do find the key is to visit regularly. I pay anwhere from £2-£5 for a pair of jeans (normaly next or dottyps) and i would pay much more on ebay...plus can try them on before hand....i normally go to the shops every sat and spend a few quid and come up the road very hapy with my bargains...i have found that some of the shops are looking for £3-£4 for a primark top which prob only cost up to £6...i am not prepared to pay that but would pay £3-4 for a next or orther branded top. Recent bargains include brand new knee highs £4 (still with £30 sticker) next suit 99p and dottyps body warmer 99p!

i am regulary commented on my clothes (noone but close pals know where i shop:rotfl:)

OrkneyStar

Bargain of the day...drum for DS (a 'Little Tikes' one) for 5p from Salvation Army shop
I have noticed not so much the shops getting more expensive (well maybe Red X has) but less stuff worth buying in them!
I like to support charity but won't pay silly prices for Primark etc stuff, I'd rather just make a donation.

toozie_2

In our area, it seem's to be "local" charity shops that are the cheapest, eg the local hospice etc. Thses shops are streets ahead of BHF, Oxfam etc, much cheaper, and better quality stuff, and to be honest I prefer to donate to the 'local' charity, either by buying or taking goods in.

Bogof_Babe

Our local Hospice shop is the best in town for prices, but even they are struggling for anything decent these days.

One thing I think they could do better to make themselves more dosh - when items have not sold for a certain period (couple of weeks I think) they are moved onto the "everything £1" rail. I've had things off there that were originally priced at £4, £5 or more. I think what they should do is have another rail where things go on at half original price for another week, and only if they haven't sold by then should they go on the £1 rail.

I hesitate to suggest it, as obviously the bargains are better for the customers, but I kind of wish they would work it out for themselves!

ryandj

Hapless wrote: »

Registered charities are exempt from the business rates.

I was just going to say that! Don't they also have reduced rents as well, or sometimes free?

I think the point of charity shops is to raise as much money as they can for the charity itself! They are not shops for giving charity to the customers.

I think that the pricing is a bit random at times. I got a pasta making machine, brand new in the box, never used, for £5 - the same thing, used, was selling on ebay for about £20 or £30. They are really good places to get cheap books, as long as you are not after something in particular.

The clothes never particularly tempt me, mainly because I am slightly worried that someone might have died in them, and also they tend to smell of moth balls.