Charity shops. Their noses are turned upwards

thriftwizard

Why on earth would people not want them in their houses anymore??

Oh I totally agree! My books are almost like old friends, to me... But friends selling houses have been told this by estate agents... "Get rid of" this that & the other "if you want to sell - it's not to modern tastes."

VfM4meplse

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oh I totally agree! My books are almost like old friends, to me... But friends selling houses have been told this by estate agents... "Get rid of" this that & the other "if you want to sell - it's not to modern tastes."

Tasteless tat, yes - but books? Never!

Hermia

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oh I totally agree! My books are almost like old friends, to me... But friends selling houses have been told this by estate agents... "Get rid of" this that & the other "if you want to sell - it's not to modern tastes."

What??? I admit I am not very good at visualising how a home would look like, but surely there aren't people so dim they cannot imagine what a room would look like without the bookcase?! I am all for decluttering, tidying up and putting stuff away that is very distracting, but that is it!

GaleSF63

thriftwizard wrote: »

? No-one wants to see a wall lined with books any more, now you can "keep" them all on your Kindle; a primary teacher friend told me a few months ago that when they go round to new pupil's homes now, they never see books anywhere, even in the homes where kids obviously do get read a story at bedtime.

kboss2010 wrote: »

:eek: A well-stocked bookshelf is a thing of beauty, especially if you organise them by colour of sleeves! Why on earth would people not want them in their houses anymore?? I'm in my twenties & I can't believe people think like this!

A few months ago someone came into my flat and said "Oh it's so nice to see all your books! You don't see it often. " It was the 20-year-old (about that) online grocery delivery driver.

It was as refreshing to me to hear him say it as the books were for him to see.

seatbeltnoob

If you beleive in charity and want to help them, then give it to them to profit on and help their causes. it is clear that you are using it as a means to get rid of stuff that you cant ebay and you want them to kiss your feet for it.

if you beleive in charity you would not let the salesman's bad people skills get in the way.

VfM4meplse

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

If you beleive in charity and want to help them, then give it to them to profit on and help their causes. it is clear that you are using it as a means to get rid of stuff that you cant ebay and you want them to kiss your feet for it.

if you beleive in charity you would not let the salesman's bad people skills get in the way.

Do you have difficulty in reading and empathising with people? This is a serious question, because I assume that you have not written this to be deliberately antagonistic.

I think many people can identify with the blow having all good intentions thrown back in your face for no apparent reason. Some of us live our lives in a kind and generous way, and find that the world reciprocates in kind.

Pollycat

kboss2010 wrote: »

:eek: A well-stocked bookshelf is a thing of beauty, especially if you organise them by colour of sleeves!

No!!!!!
By author! It has to be by author.
When I'm in a charity shop I have a very strong urge to start sorting the fiction books by author order.

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

If you beleive in charity and want to help them, then give it to them to profit on and help their causes. it is clear that you are using it as a means to get rid of stuff that you cant ebay and you want them to kiss your feet for it.

if you beleive in charity you would not let the salesman's bad people skills get in the way.

I disagree with this.

Have you read the OP's post? (I assume your post is aimed at them).
The first charity shop accepted his goods (after rifling through them)

I believe in charity - I donate to several on a monthly basis and have done for years and I donate all my unwanted clothes, shoes, bags, bric-a-brac to my local hospice shop who are very grateful and accept items without pawing through them - but how can you 'not let the salesman's bad people skills get in the way' when charity shops won't accept your donations?
And are rude about refusing.

cherie1122

I take stuff to two different charity shops and the staff in both of them are lovely. The Salvation Army has a car park attached to the building and they help me get the stuff in from the car. The other shop is in our local town and they are always really pleased to get my bags

Sometimes I Freegle things (I run the local Freegle Group) - that's been a good experience too.

My husband died three years ago and was a bit of a hoarder and I've been slowly finding new homes for a lot of his things. It's been quite an experience but so far nobody has been rude to me.

GreenBitterfly

I was put off donating to our local Hospice charity shop, after I was grunted/mumbled at by the manager, when I asked where to put some donations. They were far nicer a couple of years later when I took some of my mum's books down there when she was having a clearout. But it still put me off to the extent, I buy from there but don't donate.

I usually give and buy from the local branch of Scope, the volunteers have been there for years, and have good customer service skills. They seem to put 'their money where their mouth is' in terms of using volunteers who have a disability.

I don't like the local Shelter charity shop, after I overheard one of the volunteers about the 'right tat/crap' they get given, I don't doubt that they do get given some rubbish, but maybe best not discussing this on the shop floor? Combined with the fact that Shelter routinely use chuggers, really puts me off the charity.

Ditto the British Heart Foundation, the prices they charge for books especially is ridiculous, £1.99 for a paperback, in a rundown Northern town? They're dreaming! I noticed the other day, that they had Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD boxsets for £9.99 each, who is going to pay that? That said, their book and DVD section is organised far better than any other of the local charity shops.

The local Cancer Research shop is also quite friendly, and always welcoming to me when I'm donating, but their prices are just a bit too much for me.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I can't remember the last time I could go into a charity shop and get crockery or kitchen paraphernalia. It was how I kitted out my kitchen for minimal cost - proper tablespoon sized tablespoons, mixing bowl, rolling pin, tea plates, jugs, even my scales (a very well used set of ones with Imperial weights to counterbalance the flour - except the 1oz weight was missing, so that was replaced with four 2p coins) came from a charity shop; cost me £3. And you couldn't get a butter dish anywhere else (50p IIRC).

I'd get recipe books that were old and tatty, but had instructions on almost everything you could ever imagine, gardening books about actually growing stuff, books about repairing things, caring for livestock, and all the time, not one glossy photo of a glossy haired 24 year old who is concealing her eating disorder very effectively with a team of stylists doing all the work whilst she perches on a table and glows with [strike]Photoshop[/strike] youth in the glowy show kitchen of the glowy show house and the glowy sky and the glowy food (with steam made for the purposes of the photo by the photographer/stylist microwaving tampons and tucking them underneath because real steam from real hot food doesn't look as glowy as real steam from real microwaved tampons :cool:).


Going into a charity shop nowdays seems to be a whole less pleasant - there are Fleabayers barging you out of the way to harvest the entire contents of the bookcases (except the obligatory five copies each of Cathy Reichs, James Patterson and Trudi Canavan), there's not a pile of mismatched teaplates and saucers to be seen for miles, the cheap costume jewellery box has disappeared - the only way I was ever going to have jewellery - and all you're left with are £2 Primark tops priced up at £4.95 and Size 6 shorts and jeans.


If I need to replace anything, I'm just going to have to buy it new, rather than making use of recycled items and not a penny will go to charity.