Charity shops. Their noses are turned upwards

Pollycat

Hermia wrote: »

I find a lot of the big charity shops are like this now. One near me has several shelves of new cheap-looking bags all priced at £15. The thing is there is a TK Maxx opposite where you can buy a considerably higher quality brand name bag for around the same price.

I guess this is down to being managed at national level.
Location and surrounding shops are not taken into account when selling new goods (which might sell in one town but not yours - or probably mine which also has a TKMaxx) or pricing donated goods.

Hermia

Pollycat wrote: »

I guess this is down to being managed at national level.
Location and surrounding shops are not taken into account when selling new goods (which might sell in one town but not yours - or probably mine which also has a TKMaxx) or pricing donated goods.

I agree. I think individual shops should have a bit more autonomy. One charity shop near me sells paperbacks at £2.00, but there are two excellent bargain bookshops on the same street where new books are cheaper. Whenever I go in there I see the same books every time. The manager said she is not allowed to reduce the price. I wonder if they have to catalogue how many donations they get and therefore cannot go behind the HQ's back. I think I would be inclined to offer a BOGOF on the books and tell HQ the donations were half so the figures tally.

Farway

Hermia wrote: »

I wonder if they have to catalogue how many donations they get and therefore cannot go behind the HQ's back. I think I would be inclined to offer a BOGOF on the books and tell HQ the donations were half so the figures tally.

A local cat charity here does just that, books outside, spines & title up, all reading one way. Kiddies and all sorts, 3 for a quid, or 50p each

I often buy some for the grandchildren, both of their parents are teachers BTW and have loads of books on display, a house of reading, kids with noses stuck in them.

dontone

sairy2010 wrote: »

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with donations to charity shops. I work in a charity shop and we are grateful for all donations.
However we are in a town which has a lot of such shops (7 I think in a very small area). Most of them are better known than us so they get the pick.
We always except every thing (apart from baby car seats which we are not allowed to sell, and records which don't seem to sell).
If the clothes are not suitable for the shop we get money from a rag man, not much, but we are glad of any thing. Unsold bric a brac goes to another man. Books can be a problem because we can't really get rid of them if they don't sell. I put them in the paper recycling.
There is a way of saying no thank you without being rude, but we don't often turn any thing away.
Try one of the lesser known charities like us who don't get so many donations. I am sure they will be happy to take them.

Sounds just like Barnsley. It's full of them. I've had nasty experiences with 2 of them. The others might be getting donations next time (and the homeless place that are always grateful for bits & pieces)

Art_Deco

A lot of these big name charities dont seem to want donations as they have too much stock due to the fact that their prices are far too high and no body is buying it, surely by reducing the goods its more money for the charity ,this is one of the reasons why i only donate to the small local charity shops who are grateful for everything and sell cheap.

Gem-gem

Mojisola wrote: »

There's no need for anyone to be rude but it would be foolish of them to accept donations if they know things don't sell or their storeroom is full.

They are there to make money for the charity - not to provide a clearance service for the public.

You could offer everything you have left on Freegle or on a local FB page or contact Social Services and ask if you can pass the children's stuff onto a local women's refuge.

I haven't read to the end of the threads, so I don't know if anyone else has suggest this. You could also donate the childen's toys to a local nursery or school. They love dressing up clothes. Reception will have role play areas. Unused materials, games and buttons are great too.

dontone

Art_Deco wrote: »

A lot of these big name charities dont seem to want donations as they have too much stock due to the fact that their prices are far too high and no body is buying it, surely by reducing the goods its more money for the charity ,this is one of the reasons why i only donate to the small local charity shops who are grateful for everything and sell cheap.

This is very true. I was in one of them a while back having a nosy, and there was a very nice looking glass vase displayed on the top shelf. It was priced at £20, and a couple of old ladies were interested, but one asked why the price was so high. The volunteer at the till said it was 'because they have someone come in every week and they do valuations on certain items and price them up'.
One of the ladies tried to haggle, but the shop wasn't having it. They have become very pushy in some of the shops as well. I saw a nice little ornament that was way over priced at a fiver and the bloke was practically shoving it into my hand trying to get me to buy it. I walked out empty handed. They have gotten too greedy for my liking.

Floss

Pollycat, Vfm4me & Prinzess as one of 4 children of 2 librarians, fiction books (even our own books) were ordered by author and non-fiction by Dewey Decimal...it made life easy when eventually we all had Saturday jobs in the local libraries cos we knew the system (and can all still hold an armful of books for shelving!)

Pollycat

Floss wrote: »

Pollycat, Vfm4me & Prinzess as one of 4 children of 2 librarians, fiction books (even our own books) were ordered by author and non-fiction by Dewey Decimal...it made life easy when eventually we all had Saturday jobs in the local libraries cos we knew the system (and can all still hold an armful of books for shelving!)

I think that's where I've got my idea from:

Pollycat wrote: »

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.

jackyann

I think that there is a huge difference between something that might, genuinely be very valuable (the occasional book or ornament and even more occasional piece of clothing) and something that is just a bargain.

I think it good that people do help to sift the odd valuable piece - we found out that a couple of books we donated had fetched 'collectors' prices' and were very glad. But if I wanted to spend, say £20 on a vase, I wouldn't be looking in a charity shop.
It seems that in their anxiety not to miss the odd valuable piece, they are missing a lot of sales.