Charity Shops getting cocky with their prices.

Idiophreak

Peter333 wrote: »

Charity shop people always seemed nice; mostly sweet old ladies, but now there is a new wave of younger people who I am sure are there so they can have first dibs on the goods LOL.

Have to say, I find people in charity shops invariably rude, miserable so-and-sos.

The Mrs and I keep quite a tidy house, so frequently sort through everything and put some stuff in a pile for charity - barely worn clothes, new board games that we never play etc...books in good condition. All stuff that should be easy to sell on again....but you take it to any of our local charity shops and they look at you like you're scum, giving them more work to do. Not a thank you, not a smile...

Honestly, it's a much nicer experience going to the tip, so mighty tempted to just start sticking it all in landfill.

Pollycat

hollydays wrote: »

Yes I really do think a lot of people think " charity shop, a shop that dispenses charity to the needy" as though they believe this is the definition , lol.
A charity shop is a shop run by a charity to make a decent amount of money for , for example, children in other countries who have no water to drink.
Sometimes they get prices way out- of course they are run by unskilled volunteers .
Freely giving their time .

How rude to say " you got it for free"! I do find it's the over sixty generation who still think like this, but they need to get some manners!

I'm not sure that many people think that about charity shops.
I've been a charity shopper (and donor of my unwanted items) for many years and I've always understood them to be places where mainly second-hand clothes and bric-a-brac are sold after being donated by other people so they can make a profit to fund the wages of salaried staff and any remainder to go to the charity they are helping.

Am I wrong?

Although it is true that charity shops do get things for free, I am not of the opinion that they should give things away.

I do however believe they should price things at a level that they will sell at.
And - as per my earlier post - a worn Primark vest for £2.50 is just not going to sell.

It would make more sense to price it at 99p instead of it sitting on the rail for a month then being 'ragged'.

I sometimes see items I've donated (always to my local Hospice shop) on the 'reduced £1' rail after not selling at £3.
I always think 'I'd rather they get £1 for it than sell it for rags by the kilo'.

hollydays wrote: »

As to those who are experts on what things are worth, perhaps they could volunteer themselves and offer their expert services?

Thanks but I'll spend my spare time as I choose to.
It's my prerogative to decide if an item in a charity shop is worth the price.
If it is and I want it, I'll buy it.
If - imho - it's too expensive, I'll leave it.

trukdiver

Pollycat wrote: »

It depends what make the shoes in the charity shop were.
You may not have been able to buy an identical pair brand new for £17 in Wynsors.

If they were Jimmy Choo and in very good condition, I'd have snatched their hand off even at £25.50 (although it's doubtful that an 80 year old would be buying Jimmy Choo - unless she was an ebay seller).


I've never asked 'what's your best price' in a charity shop as I know that's not how they work.
I do, however, ask if they would reduce something if thee is a fault with the item that I think I can repair/rectify e.g. mark or trailing hem.



I think the 'new' thing is that there are lots of so-called designer items about now - such as Superdry, all the 'designers at Debenhams', Radley handbags etc.
Charity shops are aware of these and realise that some things can be priced high or even sold on ebay.

What you say is true but we often used to get people saying "but I can get a new one for less than that" then quote some cheap place when the item in question would be a high end one!

If something was faulty, we would have to take it to the back room and have it repriced. We couldn't just knock something off at the till... We did usually give them a reduction though but we had to follow the right procedure!

Even 20+ years ago they had at least three bands for pricing, eg Asda at the bottom, M&S middle and Next at the top. Then all the "designer" stuff was priced individually. Whether you would agree with what they considered to be "designer" or high end is another matter!

When it came to non fiction books or collectables, they didn't have a clue!

lazer

I love charity shops - and do volunteer in one occassionally.

They have a guide to setting prices and the shop committee and staff see that there is a two fold reason for the shop

1) To make money for the charity to support those in need.
2) To enable those in need (Who don't ask for help) to be able to clothe their family at reasonable prices.

If anything is from Primark, Tesco, Asda etc its probably priced around the £1 mark or so, so that there is is stuff in the shop cheap for those that need it.

The remainder of the stuff is priced to get the highest price possible to make money for the charity.

zaax

The larger charity shop chains have grown greedy
'many charity shops are more expensive than Primark'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2550595/Have-charity-shops-grown-greedy.html

viscachaz

Oxfam is exceptionally bad round here.. if they over-price everything to the point no-one will buy it, then they'll make "nothing" for charity, as opposed to "less than the item was 'worth'".. surely a little profit is better than none!

Pollycat

zaax wrote: »

The larger charity shop chains have grown greedy
'many charity shops are more expensive than Primark'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2550595/Have-charity-shops-grown-greedy.html

A couple of comments from the article:

But it does seem ironic that at a time when we are all feeling the pinch, many charity shops are more expensive than Primark.

I don't see anything wrong with charity shops selling items at higher prices than Primark.
It wouldn't make sense (logically or financially) to price a Laura Ashley dress that cost £150 new the same as a Primark dress that cost £10 new.

It's the comment below that I agree with.

In a Central London Oxfam, a white Primark cardigan is £12, the same price it was new.

Who - in their right mind - would buy a worn cardigan for the same price you could buy it new?

That's where charity shops have lost the plot - imho - pricing items realistically, based on their original price.

whodathunkit

Horseunderwater wrote: »

This over pricing has been going on for a long long time. Time was when my daughter was 8-10 years old I could go into BHF & get her a whole large lot of clothing for around £10 ish - that has not been possible for ages now. Yes you can still find bits priced reasonably here & there. We used to sell books on line - mostly obtained at boots or auction gen sales, but if we were in a town, we would do a little CS browsing to see if there were any good+ conditiom books to sell. Sometimes we would get lucky on the books in the get rid of bin/table or we'd find a couple not too expensive. But last time I was able to go look - there were as some have said some odd pricing methods. Cookson books no matter how tatty were at least £2 - belva plain too - then there are the chic lit ones often £2.45+ sell for 1p on line. Then of course there's the agents who collect anything unsold placed in the bins to pulp/recycle & pay by the kilo. Not only that a CS gets to pay no business rates in lots of cases for prime high street/ high footfall areas. I could go on..

If items are being sold for these prices then they're not overpriced. You sound like someone else who's missed the point.

Charityworker

I'm the manager of a charity shop. We sell all our items at 50p or £1.00 and if they have been on the shelves a while we put them in a "fill a carrier bag for £1" section. Hardly anything goes to be recycled. We have 1 paid member of staff (by law) who gets the minimum wage of £6.31 an hour for just 16 hours a week. The rest of the staff are volunteers. We have no other paid staff at all. All charities have some paid staff. Volunteers are not reliable or knowledgeable enough which is why the majority cant get paid jobs. We pay £12,000 a year rent and we get no reductions on utility bills.

hollydays

Pollycat wrote: »

I'm not sure that many people think that about charity shops.
I've been a charity shopper (and donor of my unwanted items) for many years and I've always understood them to be places where mainly second-hand clothes and bric-a-brac are sold after being donated by other people so they can make a profit to fund the wages of salaried staff and any remainder to go to the charity they are helping.

Am I wrong?

Although it is true that charity shops do get things for free, I am not of the opinion that they should give things away.

I do however believe they should price things at a level that they will sell at.
And - as per my earlier post - a worn Primark vest for £2.50 is just not going to sell.

It would make more sense to price it at 99p instead of it sitting on the rail for a month then being 'ragged'.

I sometimes see items I've donated (always to my local Hospice shop) on the 'reduced £1' rail after not selling at £3.
I always think 'I'd rather they get £1 for it than sell it for rags by the kilo'.


Thanks but I'll spend my spare time as I choose to.
It's my prerogative to decide if an item in a charity shop is worth the price.
If it is and I want it, I'll buy it.
If - imho - it's too expensive, I'll leave it.

Some staff are not sufficiently au fait with brands or haven't been trained to think this wY. I too agree primark should be priced fairly low but saying that some primark prints eg dresses and tops are fabulous, why should the charity necessarily sell these pretty desirable items at 1.99 if they will fetch 3.99. I have a couple of friends who volunteer in them and the way they work and price are totally different, with one shop having so few volunteers and so much stock to get through, it's left to the discretion of whoever is available to do the pricing. One shop is pristine , the other is on the grubby side , but both say random volunteers have to price because there are not enough staff. One if works at a charity shop totally run by volunteers btw- no paid management running the shop day to day.