Charity shops - expensive?

Lakelady_2

Last week in our local Oxfam shop they had a pair of men`s Bally shoes for £9.99 - not too bad I suppose - maybe a bit expensive - but this pair had a hole in the sole that went right through!

DitaBombita

When I worked in a Criminal Justice style role in Leeds I encountered lots of people who stole from Charity shops, its kind of up to your own judgement if they were desperate as they were addicted to alcohol or Herion, they said it was because they have rubbish security and that in places like PDSA they often get things like M&S trousers donated with original tags still on saying £29.99 which they could then sell on in the pub.

I do find Charity shops over priced however - My friends Mam used to work in one and said that the ladies who ran it had no idea about high street brands and would often chuck stuff that was from decent places as they had never heard of Bannana republic etc.

Dobie

TheDoolallyDilly wrote: »

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.

You don't live near Ashby-de-la-Zouche do you? I visit the Sue Ryder shop there & have found some really good quality things very reasonably priced. The staff are really friendly too & when I put a few coins in the donations box they always say thank you. The window displays are awesome - they look like they've been done professionally. This year some of their Christmas decorations (new) were stunning, really unusual

N9eav

Some are more consistent than others. A freind who was manager in the Cancer research shop was on a £14,000 yr salary. The shop had to make a large profit like any other business. So they were told to price accordingly. I guess Oxfam must be doing the same as they professionally price things. Hence why some clothes are silly money. Some one must pay it though. Is that you????
The best shops are the ones where everyone is volunteer and they just want to turn over stock and get rid of it.
There is a tie I like that has been in the BHF shop in Truro for over a year now. I won't pay £4 for it and obviously niether will anyone else!

Best find ever. A Hermes tie in Save the children shop 50p. Sold it for £27 on e-bay.

Now are you all going to shout at me for making a profit out of charity shops??

Austin_Allegro

DitaBombita wrote: »

I do find Charity shops over priced however - My friends Mam used to work in one and said that the ladies who ran it had no idea about high street brands and would often chuck stuff that was from decent places as they had never heard of Bannana republic etc.

'Ere, Ethel, these jeans say Diesel on them'
'Chuck 'em out Lil. We don't want stuff smelling of petrol in the shop'.

Reverbe

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Churchmouse

N9eav wrote: »

Some are more consistent than others. A freind who was manager in the Cancer research shop was on a £14,000 yr salary. The shop had to make a large profit like any other business. So they were told to price accordingly. I guess Oxfam must be doing the same as they professionally price things. Hence why some clothes are silly money. Some one must pay it though. Is that you????
The best shops are the ones where everyone is volunteer and they just want to turn over stock and get rid of it.
There is a tie I like that has been in the BHF shop in Truro for over a year now. I won't pay £4 for it and obviously niether will anyone else!

Best find ever. A Hermes tie in Save the children shop 50p. Sold it for £27 on e-bay.

Now are you all going to shout at me for making a profit out of charity shops??

Well as nobody else has, I will! I'm sorry, but I find this despicable. If you had wanted it for yourself it would be bad enough, but to buy it with the intention of making a huge profit on ebay, well words almost fail me. Obviously you've missed the bit in Church about compassion and charity, or maybe your Church is very different to mine. Still please don't give a thought to the lives that could have been saved by the enormous profit you made. Hell it would only have bought 130 sachets of rehydration salts, or 5 mosquito nets, or even vaccinated 5 children against killer childhood diseases. What a shining example of a Christian, and a policeman you are.

Jack's_mummy

N9eav wrote: »

Best find ever. A Hermes tie in Save the children shop 50p. Sold it for £27 on e-bay.

Now are you all going to shout at me for making a profit out of charity shops??

Actually I'm not going to shout at you. If the staff at the shop don't know what they have then they need better training. Even as a volunteer we have training on the kind of labels to look out for and anything we aren't sure on we put to one side for the manager to price up. Well done on spotting a bargain. Of course you could have pointed it out to the staff but I honestly don't know that very many people would.

As for pricing according to ebay etc values that's where slightly younger volunteers are a bonus. The "older" ladies leave bits to one side for me to check on ebay prices and then we price them about 50% lower.

Bogof_Babe

That's a bit pompous Churchmouse. He didn't know it would make £27 on Ebay. Anyway the charity shop only wanted 50p for it, and that's what they got.

If they'd priced it at £27 they would be waiting a long time for a sale!

Churchmouse

I didn't mean to come across as pompous, sorry:o But I still find it wrong. He bought it knowing it was grossly underpriced, and intending to make a profit. I just don't find that nice behaviour towards a charity in the business of saving children's lives As I say, if he intended to keep it for personal use I would still expect him to say " no it's worth a load more than that, have a few quid" When my DH nipped into a charity shop on a freezing cold day to try and find some gloves, they had brand new ones at £1 a pair. He insisted they take £2, but maybe that's just us. You don't have to take advantage just because the opportunity is there. Perhaps that's why I'll never be rich;)