snobby charity shops

I just sent two 'trench coats' of mine to a charity shop, both in good condition. Then I realised that they are very fashionable again

Yes rose they were called "timeless classics" in the M&S ad.

Perhaps I should go and buy them back (if they're still there)

Our charity shops are pretty good on the whole for price and quality . I love rummaging around a charity shop wherever I might be. I agree though with the OP, we have one that is very pricey and I think the manageress is up her own bottom a bit.

I have however mentioned many times my absolute pet hate and charity shops, ' heating on and the door propped open'. grrrr.

This stupidity is a head office diktat and it makes you wonder sometimes who and what mentality lies behind some charities. The staff are for the most part volunteers and they too find it annoying as they give up their time and yet the charity is happy to spend money on heating and yet see it fly out the door!

At the Charity Shop I help at on Tuesdays we have paper backs for sale at 3 x £1.00 and they go very well indeed its the bread & butter of the shop really and we never refuse donations except large electricals as we don't have a lot of space.Our managers do not get paid everything is voluntary making sure every penny goes into the Charity Pot,we are a small shop in a disadvantaged area and price our items accordingly,its pointless charging high prices even if quality named items come in as the clientel just don't have the money to spend, oh and we are very friendly and welcoming and if asked will make you a if you want.

I hunt out the scruffiest shops whenever I move. I take all of our old clothes to that one from then on, and have a rummage after I have handed them by black bin bag. Mary Portas is the reason why they all went colour-co-ordinated and expensive. I used to love the days when you could find things that were wonderful dressing-up outfits. When DD was a young teen and needed bras, I went to a charity shop once I knew her size, and bought up all their smaller bras as I knew she would grow rapidly from size to size. It must have saved me a fortune. They looked brand new, where some other mothers had clearly gone through what I wanted to avoid. Which was, my mother buying me bras that were way too big, so that I had to grow into them!

What I meant to add to my previous post is that the Salvation Army has bins, mainly in supermarket car parks, where you can take bedding. When my aunt and uncle died we found an unusual number of duvets in their house and filled up the bin outside Sainsbury's.

When you consider what charity shops must be spending on rent, rates, energy etc it is hardly surprising they don't sell donated items for "pence". I would rather look through good quality items and pay a fair price for them than face a jumble of old tat, fit for not much more than rags. I hate the charity shop "smell" that can greet you and I salute the brave volunteers who must have to deal with some right shockers! Some people really do have an inflated idea of the value of their crumpled, often even unwashed, donations. If I am unsure about my stuff and am only donating because it is (usually) too tight (!) , I would rather it went for rags. Do you remember jumble sales? They only made money because church halls were usually free along with the volunteer labour -and do you remember the boxes of tat one used to have to shlep to the dump afterwards?
Give me a quality "vintage" charity shop any day -you will still find a bargain.

I currently frequent charity shops in my area to look for toys - like the "as new" bucket of Duplo I pounced on recently for my baby grandson. There is one charity shop on my high street where the women are extremely friendly and welcoming, so I like going there.

What gets my goat is when I see a cheap label (Atmosphere) that probably cost the same new as the price in the charity shop (excepting the latter one of course is second hand).

There is a charity shop near us where the manager is quite hilarious - she puts price tags on with notes "I checked on e-Bay and this is XXX and worth XXX" etc. But she's a bit of a battle-axe too and her shop is mostly the one that has that annoying sign up "No more donations today" when I have just walked there with a heavy bag in each hand (it's the nearest one to where I live). So now my give away clothes go into the clothes bank.

I love those clothes bank bins. Even if my much-loved older clothes would never find a new home, at least I know they will be recycled into something useful.

I always take paperbacks, clothes, etc, to Oxfam or Scope - they have never said they don't want older titles. I do think Oxfam bookshops started to charge rather a lot but I've noticed recently that the prices seem to have gone down - maybe because people can get cheap second hand books from Amazon.

Apparently some people send some awful old tat to charity shops - things that are only fit for the rubbish bin. It can't be a very nice job to sort through dirty, smelly clothes.

Didn't thing change after Mary Portos did those programmes supposedly bringing charity shops into the 21st century?

I prefer to give to smaller local charities. We cleared the garage out recently and donated things that we no longer needed, some boxed and forgotten years ago.

I was very pleased to see the prices put on them by the charity shop and even more pleased to see that everything had gone, a couple of days later. x

Most of the 'tat' goes into the garage to be used for oily rags.

However, I took a very large bagful of clean old stuff that probably wouldn't go out on the shop floor to our Red Cross shop because they get money from the ragman for it. I labelled the bag as suitable for that purpose only.

My DS1 and DiL decided to buy 'vintage' furniture for their Edwardian house and found their nearby Sue Ryder shop a wonderful source. If I wanted or had room for a really nice tea set, there's one charity shop here where I would be sure to find something good - it always looks like (and probably is) somebody's rarely used wedding china from the 30s or 40s.

I volunteer in a charity shop. They are run as businesses with constant targets to be met and they compete with all the others in the same locality. All are short of volunteers. Cancer Research is about to open our eighth charity shop (there were four a year ago) in a prime position and paying £55000 yearly for rent. Charities only pay 20% of the business rates and are grabbing every shop which closes, denying independent traders a look-in.
This is a town very dependent on tourism but who will come to another town full of charity shops?

Our local supermarket has bins in the car park for you to leave clothes and shoes for two local charities. The bin men will take those that are worse for wear to be recycled. Any other stuff I save until a collection from a bona fide local charity comes to collect.
That way I never have to run the gamut of the shop people.

We have an Age UK shop locally where the prices are very reasonable and the people who work there are very nice and seem pleased with anything I take in there.

When my mother died we took boxes and boxes of books and ornaments to a charity shop. The staff seemed quite overcome and kept saying "Oh you shouldn't have" looking back now I suspect they probably meant "NO! You SHOULDN'T have!"

Deeda

POGS, you're quite right about the charity (and other) shops which leave their doors open in the cold, with the heat blasting out. If I'm in a bolshy mood, I go in to tell them that I wouldn't shop there while they keep the doors open, as any money I spent would just be wasted in heating the street. It can't be just a head office thing; I know of 2 British Heart Foundation shops, one with the doors open and the other with them closed - perhaps that one is staffed by more intelligent people!

Have you come across the Close the Door campaign to get this stupid habit stopped? www.closethedoor.org.uk

There are a lot of charity shops going out of business. The charities are usually national ones but each regional division of the charity has to be self supporting.

With central government cuts to local government, the local councils have cut back the grants they issue to local charities, as well as that, local businesses are feeling the pinch and so they aren't supporting local charities either.

Charity shops have become the main source of income for many local charities. The councils have doubled their rents in many places, and increased the business rates. Add this to increased utility bills, telephone and insurance charges and you can begin to see the reason for increased prices in the shops. The usual shop set-up has one paid manager or manageress and a number of unpaid volunteers.

Perhaps we Gransnetters could be more charitable to them.

I know the rents for retail premises are high, but is it really justifiable for a charity to be paying £55,000 p.a. for an outlet to sell second-hand clothes?

No wonder the prices they're charging are increasing! And as you say, Knowsley, managers are usually paid.

I used to love browsing around charity shops. Now many have been cleaned up and turned into fashion boutiques. I blame Mary Portas, she started all this with a tv programme she made. She took the heart out the shops. She didn't want toys and books to be sold, and only high end clothes were for sale. Recently hubby bought an M&S wool sweater in the British Heart Foundation shop for £5.99. When he tried it on at home we noticed it had a tear in the sleeve about 6 inches long. It had been roughly sewn up, and I mean rough! He didn't take it back, just decided never to shop there again. I know of a few small charity shops that sell quirky items, like vintage knitting patterns and yarn. These are the shops I still love.

I don't see why people are blaming Mary Portas for trying to drag some charity shops into the 21st century.
Grouping clothes by colour as well as size helps you to see what is on offer
Making charity shops an attractive place to shop increases footfall therefore profit
Pricing things realistically makes sense -it is heartbreaking to donate a new or nearly new garment which may have cost £50 or much more and see it go for 50p-better to donate the money in the first place.
We all know that we live in a spendthrift society, many people have no idea how to mend clothes/sew on a button/let out a seam/replace a zip , so get rid of an item rather than attempt to mend it. Many young girls will buy something to wear for Saturday night then tire of it and throw it out. So why should charities not benefit by the customer paying a realistic price? It is still a bargain.
So OP, YABU , in my opinion, if by "snobby " you mean bright, well presented, selling quality garments at a heavily discounted, but realistic price. There is a reason they are called charity shops, and that is to raise money for the charity in question, not sell a load of tat for a niggardly amount.

I volunteer for a charity shop which supports a local childrens hospice. It is very well run by a not very well paid manageress who goes to great lengths to keep her volunteers happy.

One of the things that really shocked me is that there are shop lifters who steal from such a charity. If we get anything really good in we have to guard it!

Most of the volunteers are retired nurses or midwives and it is a very friendly shop. I chatted to an old lady one afternoon and after a while she said 'thank you for talking to me' and gave me a donation of £5. I felt really sad for her. She must have been lonely.

We get some well off customers who are really good at picking out the good stuff and are delighted with their bargains. It is a hobby for many people.

I do find some 'chazzers' have gone up market and even over the top. There is one in Edinburgh where very little is priced under £20 (it has been got-at by Ms. Portas) and is invariably empty of customers when I have been there. I take my donations to either the local children's hospice charity shop or to Shelter. The Shelter shop is in quite a disadvantage area and they are always very grateful for donations and sell them for a very reasonable price geared no doubt to the local residents. I have bought some real bargains from the Hospice shop where the goods are better quality and priced accordingly. My best acquisitions are a soft Italian leather coat - brand new for £10 and a pair of new Per Una shorts for £2.50 which I am making good use of here in Oz. My DD only uses charity shops and has some amazing outfits for both her and the children. Long may they continue.