Charity shop question.

lindos90

I have two questions about charity shops, I hope I have found the right board for some advice 🙂

Firstly what's the best way to find out about the locations of charity 'clearance' stores? (Where items that have not sold within a certain period get moved to and reduced, often all items are the same set price across the store)

Secondly how do I find out about smaller charities who might only have one or two shops in a local area, rather than a national charity?

Thankyou, and hope someone can suggest a few ideas 🤞

bargainbetty

I would suggest looking online for the clearance stores of larger chains - they are more likely to have details on their main charity websites. 

For smaller local shops, you could call them and ask for details of other branches. If you are searching in general for smaller charity shops, then once again, Google is your friend.  

Savvy_Sue

lindos90 said:

Secondly how do I find out about smaller charities who might only have one or two shops in a local area, rather than a national charity?

Worth noting that charity shops generally co-locate: where there's one, there's usually more than one.

And this would be particularly true of shops which aren't a chain

MalMonroe

Google is a good place to start. Even most small, so-called independent charities have an address online. If they don't, I'd be a bit wary of using them, since they're all supposed to be registered.

When charity shops in my area have difficulty selling items they reduce the prices to rock bottom to get rid of them, they don't have a separate 'clearance site'. That'd just cost more money. 

lindos90

Thanks for your replies. I have tried to Google but without knowing the names of the small charities it's a bit difficult. Searching for 'charity shops' in an area usually just brings up the big national charities 🙁. 
I wasn't even aware that charities had clearance shops till the Air Ambulance opened one in my town, all items £1 (recently changed to £2)
When visiting my son at Uni in Lancaster I also discovered a clearance shop for their local hospice, again everything was as £1. 
I've found some great items, often when they have been initially 'over priced' and don't sell within a few weeks.
I'll keep on searching, especially for the smaller charities that are often overlooked when it comes to support, as they can't invest so much in advertising x 

Savvy_Sue

lindos90 said:

Thanks for your replies. I have tried to Google but without knowing the names of the small charities it's a bit difficult. Searching for 'charity shops' in an area usually just brings up the big national charities 🙁. 

Try opening Google Maps, then from your location (or a location of your choice) click on 'Nearby' - I've just done this and it's turned up a few options I wasn't aware of!

lindos90

Savvy_Sue said:

Try opening Google Maps, then from your location (or a location of your choice) click on 'Nearby' - I've just done this and it's turned up a few options I wasn't aware of!

Thank you, I will give that a try too. 

elsien

You could try Googling by sector, so hospice or dogs home charity shop. That might bring up some smaller options. 

Brie

The only "charities" that I am wary of are the ones that distribute collection bags.  We get at least 1 a week and normally I've never heard of the charities they are collecting for although the often sound a bit like something familiar.  British Lung Foundation instead of British Heart Foundation - that sort of thing.  They may be completely legit but rather than spending too much time worrying about it I simply use the bag to fill with things that I can then drop off at one of the places I am sure of.   Never had the donations refused for being in the wrong bag.

Silvertabby

Brie said:

The only "charities" that I am wary of are the ones that distribute collection bags.  We get at least 1 a week and normally I've never heard of the charities they are collecting for although the often sound a bit like something familiar.  British Lung Foundation instead of British Heart Foundation - that sort of thing.  They may be completely legit but rather than spending too much time worrying about it I simply use the bag to fill with things that I can then drop off at one of the places I am sure of.   Never had the donations refused for being in the wrong bag.

Same here.  British Heart Foundation used to drop off bags for collection later, but they stopped because thieves were collecting the bags first. 

I either do as you do - turn the unknown bag inside out, fill it and then drop it off at our local BHF shop - or I ring BHF to request a collection.