Volunteer or Scrounger?

My mum & dad worked for a homeless charity run by a nun, she worked tirelessly for the homeless, anyway in charity shop she opened up, the manager who was there most days would disappear up the stairs with all the charity bags, no other staff members were allowed to go up the stairs, mum said her bag was always fuller going home than when she came in to work. It doesn’t take a brain to work out what was going on!

Grrrn I wish I knew which charity you volunteer for, and I would make a point of avoiding it in future.

I think it is absolutely disgraceful that volunteers feel they have the right to have first pick of anything that is donated, even to the point of not paying. Even if they do pay, nicer items attract more people into the shops. If all the decent stuff is removed, it must affect customer levels.

If people are merely helping out in charity shops so that they can get their hands on free or cheap items, I think that is despicable.

Eloethan, if volunteers were only able to purchase items from the shop, they would just sign out at the end of their session then go into the shop and buy what they want. There is no lack of very good stuff left in the shop. My main grrrrouch is that some volunteers think they should get a discount

I don't understand those who think volunteers in charity shops should get a discount to reward them for their time. Getting first dibs on goods may not be wholly desirable but I think is somewhat inevitable, and should only happen after goods have been priced for shop display, no mates rates. What 'reward' do volunteers in the charity sectors that don't involve retail get? Should NHS volunteers get pushed up the waiting lists as a 'thank you', or are they expected to make do with knowing they've given their time to help others?

Perhaps the shops should be obliged to let people know.
"For every £10 made in your donation, £3 will be deducted to allow volunteers to be rewarded".

when I volunteered in a charity shop (for 15 years) I saw many Managers come and go. Obviously they were paid as was their Deputy who covered her days off plus holidays and days when she had to attend area meetings etc.

We had a young Deputy Manager who was very attractive and also very friendly with male customers especially.

We had men in from all over the town while she worked there. They were falling over themselves to get in with her and many loaned her money when she told them she was a single Mum. Unbeknown to any of us she was doing some sort of fiddle with takings and also with the money we got for rags. Then we noticed the donations of quality bric a brac and antiques was right down. One of the volunteers saw her selling stuff at an antique fair far away from our town but she said she was selling a deceased relatives things.

Finally the Police were involved and she was sent to prison for 2 years. All the Managers were great, very hard working and really appreciated all the volunteers apart from one Manager who was a compulsive liar and used to come in and tell us the most stupid lies and expect us to believe them.

I could write a book about charity shops actually. 🤣

I actually saw a man haggling with an elderly lady over the price of a brand new wet suit in a local cherry shop. It was priced at £30 and he got the poor lady so flustered and she let him have it for £20. So mean.

Sasta

I actually saw a man haggling with an elderly lady over the price of a brand new wet suit in a local cherry shop. It was priced at £30 and he got the poor lady so flustered and she let him have it for £20. So mean.

We had signs up in our charity shop saying “staff are not allowed to engage in bartering.” But often people still tried it on.

There was an incident in the 2009 Mary Portas series where a customer berated her for making the shop “middle-class”, said that he would be shopping there less in future. She retorted that she had clothes priced from £2.

She asked him what was the last item he bought. He said he’d bought a Speedo tennis racket with sleeve for 70p. She asked if he would have been prepared to pay £1.50 for it, the price of a coffee. He said no as he could probably get one in another shop (maybe without a sleeve) for a £1.

A basic Speedo (Head) racket now costs around £40-£50 so probably less than that in 2009. To baulk at £1.50 for a decent, playable racket, proceeds of which would go to saving the lives of children seemed very mean-spirited.

Mt61 That manager is disgusting!! She aught to be reported and investigated. If she is pulling out “treasures” and taking them home… then reselling them elsewhere for her own profit - that is theft ‼️

People like that are despicable. Get someone on the case!

Unfortunately I think the behaviour described is more prevalent in the national charity shops. I work for a small group of shops in aid of a local charity. Many of our volunteers have an emotional attachment to the charity. All goods have to be priced by a Manager or Assistant Manager and we give all volunteers and staff a 20% discount. All goods have to be put through till by a Mgr or AM and are logged on form. If items are ragged again the M or AM would say donation amount. All visible and above board.

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BlueBelle

Not like that in our shop we have a strict policy we can buy with the perk of 20p in the pound off discount It is always adhered too and everything goes through the till with a till receipt
Never have anything under the counter at all there’s at least 30 of us and I would trust every one

We had 25p off in the one I volunteered in.
The thing that annoyed me was the managers assistant. SHE would pick out what she thought would be good bags, empty them out onto the sorting table, go through it and get whatever she thought was worth it then just leave the rest to be sorted by the rest of us.
She was meant to sort and price any items she left, but she never did. And she always disappeared off to 'do something important' when it came to needing an extra pair of hands to do anything. She NEVER cleaned the washrooms, would vacuum if she absolutely had to, but sorting or working the till were below her job and if she ever had to do the till she was very rude to people!
I would love to have seen her having to do the 'menial' jobs the rest of us - even the manager - did!