Do they keep donated stuff?

But still very interesting, thank you to all charity shop volunteers, you are all amazing!

Very old thread!

BlueBelle
Oh ,How I completely agree with you here ,bring a recently retired CS Employee. Staff have to put up with all manner of abuse from customers regarding the"Fabulousness" of their donations . All too often we are used a the Tip for the rubbish that has come from the garage /shed or even under the bed . Dirty Worn Clothing including underwear !
Though I will also add that I would of
taken the Dish washer tabs & repackaged them for sale. But then again there are many things that I would ( & did )sell that my Manager would literally "Bin" . For Instance if you remember back to this Summer there was a media outcry re the cost of School Uniform . What made my blood boil was going into work & finding in the outside bin a whole heap of School Uniform (local school -with badges Blazers,Sweatshirts ,Skirts ) Or the endless pairs of trainers that I personally have brought home to wash & taken back in to sell, that were actually in the Rag Bags .To clarify rag bags charities sell on to a third party clothing amongst other things that is no deemed suitable for sale in the shop. However I always made it my business as ASM to spot check on the days I am in & have always been amazed at what I found that was then put out for sale !

I've been volunteering at my local Hospice Shop for several years.

We only every buy things once they're down on the rails, price already marked by a central stock room servicing several shops. I haven't seen any one being dishonest about it. I'm not saying it doesn't happen in other places, just not in ours. We did get the odd shop lifter and label switcher though but they were from among the general public.

I have worked in two charity shops and no-one was allowed to buy anything until it had been on the shop floor for a day.

Sometimes items donated were more suited to another area and would be passed on to another shop.

If you decide to give things away - why such concern about where they go? I'm quite happy that they don't go straight to landfill and if a charity can benefit, all the better. Who buys them is irrelevant.

I volunteered for 3 years in a charity shop. If there was something we wanted to buy, the manager decided the price and we were allowed to buy said item. Ive never seen or heard of volunteers getting anything for nothing. My aunt also volunteered in a different charity shop, not the same charity as I, again she could buy items and the price was set by the manager.

Callistmon
We have one skip a week: that costs £27. Some weeks we have been so inundated with rubbish I’ve had to take it to the council tip.
Do the customers thank me when I ( like BlueBell ) take home stuff to wash like recently 3 wet suits.
We have a manager who won’t say no to any donation. When I’m in charge the people who donate the rubbish they can’t be bothered to take to the tip are in no doubt to my feelings ?

Bluebelle the manager at the shop where we donate said they have to hire a skip to get rid of all the stuff that people send in that is not fit for sale.
That, of course, costs money which is less for the charity.

It's simple enough to wash even the stuff for the 'ragman' before putting it in a labelled bag.

Pilfering happens in all shops, there are dishonest staff and dishonest customers; they are not exclusive to Charity shops.

Many, many years ago I took an unwanted handbag to the charity shop. Unfortunately I forgot to remove two gold half sovereigns from the pocket in the bag (I had three half sovereigns and had taken them all to a jeweller’s in order to get one of them mounted so I could wear it on a chain.) The two that were left I took home in the bag which I later took to a charity shop. When I realised a day or so later, I went back to the shop and told them what had happened. The bag wasn’t in the shop, they looked behind the shop but couldn’t find the bag. The member of staff told me that bags are always gone through in order to remove anything left in the bag before putting it out for sale. Therefore it is highly likely that the sovereigns had been removed by staff. I don’t believe the person who removed them would have paid for them. So whilst I believe that the majority of people working in a charity shop will be honest, not all will be.

threw

A few years ago, I did some volunteer work at one of the many charity shops near me. The women there said they regularly went through the stuff donated and had "first pickings of the good stuff". They also through away any supermarket clothes (George at Asda, Fred & Florence at Tesco, etc) as they can be bought new for not much more than the charity wanted to price them at.

BlueBelle

I work (volunteer) in a charity shop and I would like to totally defend them We can BUY things just like the customers can but that’s what we do BUY them and I would say nine times out of ten they are already on the shop floor
There are some things we are not allowed to sell but maybe a member of staff will buy, so often the staff may add money that otherwise the item would not have raised
I can’t comment on your charity shop nanasam or your vicars wife Panache I only know we work very hard doing a job lots of people wouldn’t want to do (handling other people used often not washed clothes and goods) and do it happily,b no one cheats the customer or donator as money is raised for everything that goes out the doors
I can completely turn it on it’s head and say have you every thought about what we get given often large broken items that people don’t have room for in their bin, bags of dirty smelly unwashed clothes often totally unusable items we ve had dirty underwear, used condoms still in the sheets! Last week I had a baby’s bottle complete with yucky milk still in it but we also have many many bags of magnificent donations from fantastic donators
Please don’t stop donating to your local shop because of one grumpy bad apple and also if you feel strongly send an email to the head office they will soon make sure any rules are revisited

I work in a charity shop too, we can buy things at the price they would go on the shop floor for. I also sort through bags of sometimes filthy clothes, wash dirty household items and all sorts of things that others people wouldnt do. There are only two of us working at a time as getting people to volunteer is difficult. Perhaps the op should volunteer then she could monitor what the staff were getting up to ?

I have no problem with volunteers having first pick, after items have been priced. Most jobs have a little perk of some kind - and they are paying for what they take.

Thank you, Jane.
Our money is worth exactly the same value as the public coming through the door.
Without us volunteers there would be no charity shops. Often in the school holidays there are days when we can’t open because volunteers have to be at home with their children.

I think volunteers should have first pick too

A few years back I did a stint of voluntteering to sort out the clothes in a charity shop back room. I had to unpack them, and put them onto hangers. Many were Asian clothers in very beautiful fabrics with embroidery. Every day I went home with half a dozen items like saris and dupattas. However I did buy them according to the price dictated by the manager. I bought them for the fabrics alone and often chose ones that had damage so they could not be worn.

Another charity shop volunteer here - our shop is a lovely friendly place and we receive some quality donations. We wouldn't dream of not sorting through any donated bags and just putting them aside for recycling. Everything donated is checked and sorted and I have taken items home to wash and iron them to spruce them up before they go on the shop floor. Please don't tar all volunteers with the same brush, not all are greedy and dishonest - I have often found money in pockets and always put in the collection box we have next to the till, I even found an open signed cheque for £120 in a man's suit jacket once! We can purchase goods before they go on the shop floor, but they must be priced by another member of staff. I have never seen anyone abusing their position and lots of the volunteers donate goods back to the shop on a regular basis. In reply to people who donate goods, but haven't seen them for sale, we price and store new donations in our upstairs rooms, they then go on the shop floor when space allows - some goods can be upstairs for weeks before being placed on the shop floor.

I was upset that an embroidered picture I had carefully (and I think fairly successfully) made for a fete at The Donkey Sanctuary back in the 70s (long since under different management) was examined and whisked away by the owner, never to be seen again. I was young and didn’t have the guts to speak up. Though I say it myself, it was a nice piece of work. I still wonder what she did with it.

lemongrove

Yes, they do!
I have volunteered in charity shops and can say that some staff do take items, or put a derisory amount in the till for them, it happens all the time.It’s disgraceful.

It probably depends on the " charity" the shop is selling items for . If it is something like the Red Cross ot Cancer research they have strict rules about what the helpers can buy and nothing gets given for free unless it is not fit or safe to sell . I spent years working in a Red Cross shop and people would hand in bags of clothes saying " all they need is a good wash " . Who do they think will wash them ?

This thread is now 3 years old and I m still working at my charity shop I ve been there 7 years and loved every minute of it
We are a very popular shop and very well used a lovely manager great customers (on the whole) and lovely volunteers if all ages youngest is 18 oldest 80 something We have nearly as many men as women volunteering
I do 21 hours a week and get as much out of it as I put into it We are still not hyenas pouncing on every bag of donations that is brought in
We work hard and are dedicated we are a happy band
I bought a back pack today for £3 it had been out on the floor a few days
I ve also bought a big bagful of washing home with me, things too good to throw away but a bit grubby

To anyone getting a letter about how much the charity have made from their donations can I please clarify , that that amount of money is the Gift Aid we can claim from the government via you the tax payer and IS NOT the amount the items sold for
So the person at the beginning of this thread who said their item only sold for £6 that six pound is ‘gift aid’ so your item sold for £24
Please keep donating we love your donations even the grubby ones

My mother worked in an Oxfam shop many decades ago and staff could not buy or even express an interest in anything that came in until it was priced. They then paid full price.

A lot of people seem to think that the purpose of a charity shop is to be charitable to the people BUYING their stuff, by always pricing everything very cheaply and not allowing their workers to buy anything off the shelves/rails. Even the managers and staff of the shops can have this attitude. Suggesting using online sales for better quality stuff, or selling it to specialist pre-owned shops doesn't always go down well - that takes more organising than just putting it on the rail and waiting for it to sell.

The reality is that charity shops are started by the charities they represent, with the object of raising money so that the charity can afford to spend it on the people it was set up to help.

Their obligation is to raise money - the only obligation they have to their customers is to sell them goods that are in good condition, and good value for the price. If their staff will give them as much as any other customer, there is no problem. They should, though, have a definite policy on sales to staff, and make sure that it is kept to.

after reading the thread when it first started I'm afraid I have thought less of Sue Ryder shops, despite supporting the charity, knowing that they do not let their volunteers purchase goods at the full price that anyone else could buy them for. Charity shops are there to make money for the charity to which they are donated, not to give the general public a bargain, and a volunteer's pound is worth as much to them as a random member of the public's pound. And as some have said, some items get moved to a shop in a more affluent area where they can get a readier sale at a higher price, or sold on eBay or similar, thus raising the most money for the charity. And I'd certainly be happier about a volunteer making a payment for something that would otherwise be thrown out because it needed a few minutes work doing on it, than the item went to landfill