Charity shops. Their noses are turned upwards

Wednesday2000

Pollycat wrote: »

I once took 2 bags full of decent makes of clothes to BHF, smiled at the woman behind the counter and said 'where shall I leave these?'.
She grunted and snarled 'there'.
I picked both bags up, replied 'Tell you what, I'll take them to Save the Children across the road.'
I walked out & they never got another donation from me.

I don't blame you! How rude.

Hermia wrote: »

I have frequently wondered whether they are volunteering simply because no one would employ them! I once bought a bag full of bags as the shop had a BOGOF offer on books. The woman in the shop said I must be very lazy if I have that much time to read. Another time the two women at the counter were having a loud conversation about whether they were allowed to ban Asian people from the shop because "p**** are always thieves"!

:eek:

FinancialController wrote: »

I read with dismay your post about your treatment by staff in charity shops.

Just over three years ago my wife died after a long illness and I decided to donate her clothing and jewellery to good causes.

I had struggled with the bereavement and was perhaps not taking as much care of myself as I ought to have done. I approached the local Oxfam shop carrying a large box and announced that I had a donation.

You would have thought from the reaction of the troika of witches behind the counter that I was wasting their time and the statement, "We are closing in twenty minutes, there's no time for further donations today" was delivered in such a horrible manner that I just turned around and walked out.

The single volunteer as the Sue Ryder shop was the exact opposite and took the time to look through the items with me. She actually offered to return some valuable items to me just in case I'd not realised what they were. The items were all of good quality with a lot of designer labels.

The lasting memory is though of someone who saw through the fact that a somewhat scruffy man who could have been donating nothing of value was treated with the utmost respect.

I now volunteer myself to help out and it amazes me the number of "do-gooders" who treat the charity work as a "badge" rather than actually wishing to do good.

That being said; all of the charities need the donations as much as ever.

How horrible, at least you had a better experience with Sue Ryder.

I've not always had a bad experience with charity shops, but I certainly know which local shops I avoid if I do have any donations.

Pollycat

A slightly different anecdote about charity shop workers:
Many years ago, we had a Cancer Research shop which I used to go into regularly.
Staffed by several elderly ladies - waaay before working in charity shops was used as 'retail experience'.

The ladies were lovely, greeted everybody as they came into the shop, always ready to offer an opinion if I asked.

One day I was in the changing rooms and there was a woman clearly from head office.
She was dressing the ladies down like naughty schoolchildren - something to do with displaying goods on shelves.

I came out of the changing room like a Greek Fury and tore into her, telling her how rude she was and if she had any issues with staff the appropriate way to deal with it was to take them somewhere private, not chastise them in full view and hearing of customers.
I said how the ladies were an asset to the charity and ended with an assertion that I'd be writing to head office about her appalling personnel skills - and I did just that.

The ladies stood open-mouthed whilst this was going on.
They always made even more of a fuss of me after that.
Bless them.

lessonlearned

Well done Pollycat. :T:T:T

Excellent intervention..

Gingernutty

Clothes, toys, CDs, DVDs, shoes in good condition, pots and pans with their lids, complete cutlery sets, mugs, plates and bowls in matching sets.

Most charity shops have no truck with video cassettes, audio cassettes or most 'bric a brac' as it simply doesn't sell.

The contents of granny's old china cabinet like teasets, sherry glasses and 'good' champagne flutes, the 40th wedding anniversary commemorative plate or the souvenirs from someone else's holiday are not selling.

Good quality books sell if they're signed or limited edition, fiction is okay, but old reference books, text books or 'how to' books are useless.

And clean.

Everything has to be clean. It's no use pulling junk out of the shed or loft if it's been stuck there for years, isn't saleable or missing bits.

Look at it objectively. If you wouldn't buy it, why would anyone else?

Charity shops don't have the facility to restore old things, count jigsaw pieces or launder old clothes.

Even clothes sent to rag traders need to be clean.

VintageHistorian

Gingernutty wrote: »

The contents of granny's old china cabinet like teasets, sherry glasses and 'good' champagne flutes....

That must be entirely dependent on area then, or on the type of teaset. There's a big market now for brides who are looking for nice vintage teasets for DIY bridal showers/baby showers/wedding receptions. I was one of them until April (for the reception), when we actually had the wedding, and me, my Mum, my MIL, my manager at work and a hole host of my DH's extended family were scouring charity shops for all the china and glasses that we needed. My MIL was over the moon to buy a box of 100 perfectly good champagne flutes for £5! We had so many problems getting good teapots that we had to buy some from eBay.

So many charity shops that we went in to around the Southend area told us that they get companies coming across from London once a week to buy the best stuff and take it back to flog online for £££ as there's such a big demand for it now.

Obviously anything in 1970's "chocolate and avocado" isn't going to sell well, but any china that's white or pastel with a pretty little floral pattern around the rim will probably be in demand!

Farway

Pollycat wrote: »

A slightly different anecdote about charity shop workers:
Many years ago, we had a Cancer Research shop which I used to go into regularly.
Staffed by several elderly ladies - waaay before working in charity shops was used as 'retail experience'.

The ladies were lovely, greeted everybody as they came into the shop, always ready to offer an opinion if I asked.

One day I was in the changing rooms and there was a woman clearly from head office.
She was dressing the ladies down like naughty schoolchildren - something to do with displaying goods on shelves.

I came out of the changing room like a Greek Fury and tore into her, telling her how rude she was and if she had any issues with staff the appropriate way to deal with it was to take them somewhere private, not chastise them in full view and hearing of customers.)

Well done Polly. I am a volunteer, but not in a shop and TBH if anyone spoke to me rudely or ticking off then I would just walk out never to return. That is one thing unpaid volunteers can do that paid staff can't

Luckily we are a happy bunch where I am so never arises

thriftwizard

Ahem!

Obviously anything in 1970's "chocolate and avocado" isn't going to sell well,

Unless it's got a "Hornsea" stamp on it...!

I'm the one who does "do stuff up" for sale, and rescue the things that no-one around here wants, and takes it to somewhere where people do want it, to sell on. (Which they are often doing too; we often say, "that'll be in Covent Garden before the week's out!")

I wish more charity shops would have the nous to offer such things to their local traders before dumping them, as one of our local charities does. They get much more out of me than they would from the ragman, and I do pretty well out of most of the stuff I buy from them by taking it to other areas or appropriate festivities - for example, old "Mechanical Engineer" magazines to a big vintage car show, where they sold (at 50p each) like hot cakes. Anything I can't use goes straight to the Scrapstore or onto Freecycle; I don't often have to dump anything, though it does happen from time to time.

Only too often volunteers have neither the training nor the expertise to realise what does actually have value. When were volunteering, ten years ago now, we were appalled to see lovely vintage designer clothing in good condition going straight into the ragbag, because the sorters didn't recognise the labels. So a Marks & Sparks top would go onto the floor at £6, but an Oscar de la Renta ballgown in good nick, straight into the ragbag. Heartbreaking! But to be fair, the ballgown might well not have sold within two weeks in a sleepy little rural market town, and might have ended up taking up rail-space that we could have got 10 tops into, which would have sold. Value is where your customers find it...

But still - politeness costs nothing and doesn't take up any space at all...

Pollycat

VintageHistorian wrote: »

That must be entirely dependent on area then, or on the type of teaset. There's a big market now for brides who are looking for nice vintage teasets for DIY bridal showers/baby showers/wedding receptions. I was one of them until April (for the reception), when we actually had the wedding, and me, my Mum, my MIL, my manager at work and a hole host of my DH's extended family were scouring charity shops for all the china and glasses that we needed. My MIL was over the moon to buy a box of 100 perfectly good champagne flutes for £5! We had so many problems getting good teapots that we had to buy some from eBay.

So many charity shops that we went in to around the Southend area told us that they get companies coming across from London once a week to buy the best stuff and take it back to flog online for £££ as there's such a big demand for it now.

Obviously anything in 1970's "chocolate and avocado" isn't going to sell well, but any china that's white or pastel with a pretty little floral pattern around the rim will probably be in demand!

And with the popularity of cup-cakes and afternoon tea generally, I'd guess that cake stands are really popular too.

VintageHistorian

Oh yes, don't get me started on how difficult it was to find cake stands! That was another thing we had to buy off eBay.

GreyQueen

:eek: Horrible experiences some of you are reporting.

I've not encountered anything of that nature, and would have spun on my heel and walked away if I had done so, but I do hear the other side of the tale from people who are volunteers and even one chazzer manager pal (national chain, won't say which).

On many occasions, I've propped up the doorway for a few minutes whilst chatting to volunteer pals and been astonished by the dirty, worn-out clothes which some people have seen fit to give them. A washable anorak which no one could be bothered to wash, despite it being almost black with dirt? Fifty bags of damp-stained household linens, bags and bags of clothes crawling with moths? Been there, seen that. Yes, many of these things can go for ragging but a bit of self-respect, and compassion for those handling the goods, by making sure they were clean first wouldn't be a huge ask, imo.

My pal hates waste but there are some things which she isn't allowed to even though they would serve a purpose. They are accidentally left somewhere outside the building where they can be seen from the street but not from inside the shop. Even chipped crockery walks in minutes.;)