St Barnados Chairty Shops - bargains (children/baby clothes)

JesaRose

I'm absolutely not agreeing with high prices

I'm saying if the charity puts a reasonable price on (a price that the garment is worth second hand) then they should be allowed to know what they are pricing.

If they sell a radley bag at £3 and that buyer goes and sells it on ebay then the charity is missing out on much needed funds.

I am not talking about toys - I'm talking about designer goods, collectables, antiques.

I love a good bargain too but this was about a Radley bag for example - if you don't have much money then why do you want a Radley bag anyway.

Its not just people with little money who shop in charity shops

salena

JesaRose wrote: »

I love a good bargain too but this was about a Radley bag for example - if you don't have much money then why do you want a Radley bag anyway.

I dont have much money after supporting 4 kids but i would love a radley bag! Why cant us little people want expensive things just like the upper and middle class!

mrsv05

you can spot those dealers a mile away cant you, turning items upside down to look for markings. i was in a c/s last week and 3 (quite unsavoury characters) were shouting across the shop about what was doulton or wedgewood and what was 'rubbish'. quite clearly not shopping to cloth/furnish a house. most people are genuine though and we must remember that. not everyone is as fortunate as some of us. i for one do not have much idea about ebay so dont shop on there on get cheaper toys or clothes.

JesaRose

salena wrote: »

I dont have much money after supporting 4 kids but i would love a radley bag! Why cant us little people want expensive things just like the upper and middle class!

I'm not saying you shouldn't have one - what I am trying to explain is that if you cannot afford one then why begrudge the charity for asking a reasonable price for one

A charity should not feel they have to price something so low that everyone can buy it, they have to make money for a very good reason and I would have thought people would want them to do that

garty

charity shops :idea: there is quite a few along our main street who think nothing off charging 5 pounds for a second hand book clothes either adults or children are way overcharged have found a lovely charity shop just off the main street where you get five books for a pound kids clothes 50p each adults clothes between 1-5 pounds kids toys 1.00 at the most books 20 pence each they always having a half price sale the staff are lovely and have said "they get that much stuff donated they need to make room so they sell cheap to get a good turn around" thats the only charity shop l will donate to :T

Chris25

[quote=mrsv05;9717277_There_should_be_no_such_thing_as_"under_priced",_it_was_GIVEN TO THEM, therefore, the money made is profit for the charity. For personal reasons i given to cancer charities directly but i draw the line at some of these prices in shops, Charity is no excuse for greed.[/quote]

but not all the money raised would be classed as profit - I don't know how much they have to pay for heating and lighting but if they have a bag collection service will have to pay petrol presumeably for that I know they usually have reduced rates but it's another consideration.

Another increasing cost, is what they have to pay for collection of items of 'jumble' that people have donated as they're not fit to sell in the shop. Plus more and more often unfortunately, we now hear of people leaving items on the doorstep that should be taken to the dump. Other people think that they are leaving clothes or suchlike but because they've been left on the sop's doorstep, it now becomes their responsibility!

I've seen ridiculously high prices and have commented on them too because like you, I think that affects stock turnover and they need to shift as much as they can as quickly as they can. But I still don't think that's an excuse to mark things up at less than they could raise - like JenaRose I'm talking about designer goods and antiques.

GiveItBack

mrsv05 wrote: »

One shop last year had a Radley handbag and purse priced at just £1.50 for the pair

mrsv05 wrote: »

radley bag?????? is that meant to mean something?

and if people DONATE designer item to the shop (as opposed to selling them on ebay) then they want the item to go to a good home and are not worried about it going for "next to nothing" as you put it. THAT is the greed. it should not matter if something was £5 or £500, the idea is that items are recycled, money goes to charity and it goes to the people in life who cannot afford it regardless of value. most people shop in there because they have to, so to increase price just because it is designer is disgusting and shame on you for telling staff so they can then up the price so some poor mum or pensioner cant afford it.

I’m so glad I don’t work for our charity in one of our shops. It’s a tricky balancing act, I suppose. From my perspective, the shops are there to raise money for our beneficiaries, and ethically their first responsibility is to the beneficiaries, not the buyers. Hopefully people can come in and buy things cheaply, but there are lots of hidden costs running a shop – as someone has mentioned disposing of absolute rubbish that gets handed over (I won’t even use the term donated for some of it).

If something WILL sell for more, it should be priced more, but if it won’t it needs to be less. The trick would be to find the balancing level – in the long term would halfing the prices more than double the amount sold? A lot of the ‘big’ shops are moving more and more towards new goods, which suggests to me that maybe lower prices doesn’t add enough to the turnover, but that’s only my inference.

Here’s a question for you. One of our shops recently had 5 new wedding dresses donated from a shop that closed down. They’re all worth different amounts, but for simplicity let’s say the original shop had them all priced at £750. How much should the charity shop sell them for?

rarrarrar

I agree with the last post - I work (volunteer) in a large charity shop -the aim is to raise as much money for the charity as possible not to provide cheap clothes and goods to the customers.

Pricing is really a matter of what the market will stand which is difficult to do and yes with volunteers it is difficult to get consistency even with guide lines.
With limited space we concentrate on trying to give room for the best -most expensive - stuff and try not to sell the supermarket brands which can be bought very cheaply especially when reduced.
The clothes we dont sell in our shop get sent to a central depot where missed retro/vintgage items are retrieved , others are sent to our discount charity shops and the rest sent to textile recyclers .

We sell somethings on Ebay and on our own online shop .
If we price too cheaply people will buy and resell and donors are unhappy if they see their donated item going for a lot less than they could have got on Ebay for it !

I think selling new Next childrens clothes for only 58p is ridiculous and unethical.

If we price to high we don't sell as much so our turnover is less .

I agree some volunteers are out of touch with fashion labels and prices - the answer is to volunteer yourself . We are quite happy with volunteers offering the occasional 1 or 2 hours when they can (most get addicted and end up doing more).

Most of our turnover is non-clothes.

chaseside

FloFlo wrote: »

I went in a charity shop this week to buy a few old hats for role play for the children in my class and the cheapest was £7.50 - much, much cheaper to buy new from elsewhere.

My local face to face/ymca charity shop (for the homeless) have a huge basket of hats for 30p.Books for 10p,25p,50p
most of the clothes are £1.25 & the childrens 50p-75p
They have a huge selection of good stuff at a fraction of what the high street charity shops charge.
I go there most days & have picked up some great bargain for myself & family.
I personally think that the big charity shops have turned themselves into high street businesses & are charging far too much for most items some of which could be bought new for less money.

JesaRose

One big chain charity shop near me was charging £85 for a second hand pair of hideous mens crocodile shoes! :eek:

A lot of the problems are because those big chains have huge budgets the managers have to meet each month. Its daft