Charity Shops Making Donations Uncomfortable

Ours are great at the local hospice shop.

Magenta8

I have had mixed responses to donations to charity shops. Mostly they just smile, say thank you and take the goods.

In one Oxfam shop an officious old woman made me take out the items one by one to be inspected. She screwed up her face in disgust at most of the items and said "We don't want that." Then without saying another word, she took the few items that passed her scrutiny into the back room and after an uncomfortable few minutes I realised that she wasn't coming back so I left.

Clearly she only accepted the items she considered good enough to discreetly squirrel away into a bag to take home when she finished her shift......

Sad to say Sago, but I imagine many charity shops are inundated with full dinner services, Royal Doulton or similar.

We shall all have to start hosting dinner parties again (Aagh!)

Anglo Doorstep Collection is a commercial business (part of Anglo Recycling).

They collect unwanted goods for free, sort them at their warehouse, and ^sell them on to commercial buyers worldwide.

I have tried to discover how much they actually donate to the charities but it doesn't seem to be a fixed amount or percentage. Because they are a private company we can't see how much they make or pay themselves either.

They say, after "running costs" ​"Since 2021, we've raised over £467,000 for UK charities and planted more than 62,700 trees."
Of course we don't know about pay and bonuses which are "running costs".

If you can get your items to a charity shop I would do that.
I admit they are an easy option though.

Of course even a tiny percentage is better than nothing for the charities.

GreyDuster
My friend left her managers position at a hospice charity shop after 6 months. Reason being, the constant ( every day sometimes several) dictats from the powers that be from a team of people who have have probable never worked in a charity shop.
When she told her staff she was leaving that weren’t surprised.
They said no manager ( or volunteers) last long here.

Sadly seems like I'm not alone in my charity shop experiences, I fully understand that shops have limited space and that there are items they're not allowed to sell but a simple thank you and an explanation as to why they can't take the items would be absolutely fine. I also realise that the shops are staffed by volunteers but having been a volunteer and volunteer manager myself that is not an excuse to be rude to customers, there's no use volunteering if you end up putting people off the charity. There is an onus on charities to ensure that volunteers are properly trained and they pay volunteer managers to carry out training and monitoring. That said I know there are fantastic volunteers and great charities and they are the ones to support.

I agree. I am now more choosy about where I donate.

I find Oxfam always say thank you when I donate items.

I experienced the same attitude .. I had a clear out of clothes … mostly M&S and Next. The assistant said she would have to inspect them individually! So I looked around the shop … there was a woman about my size there … I asked her to step outside and gave her my items.., she was delighted!!

Cancer Research offer collections

Breast Cancer and Leukaemia Research are two parts of CR who offer this service

We receive an plastic bag with details on the front of the specifics they will accept and some they can't

With a collection Date - usually with 4/5 days notice for collection.
Instructions to leave collections bags outside your house from 8am on the collection day with their collection bag which has the CR logo etc visible for drivers to collect.
We find the collection is usually completed early on the day

I took some good, valuable stuff in cardboard boxes to a local charity warehouse shop which has a donations counter.
The lady who was accepting donations insisted on opening every box, discarding any items which she didn’t want. Her attitude was offensive, treaty every item as though it was dirty although I had made sure everything was clean.
When she had finished I had a pile of stuff that she didn’t want and she declined to give me back one cardboard box to carry it away in.
There was no expression of thanks for the donations, in fact I was made to feel a nuisance for bringing the stuff in. I will NOT be donating to that charity again - there are plenty of others.

not quite finished there, fingers too quick for brain

I checked the first CR bag online and confirmed the Charity Number was authentic.

The collections are usually every 6 weeks, enough time to collect together any worthy of donation items.

My experience is that they are not nice to customers

After receiving a similar negative response to donations, I now put all clothing in the clothing bank at the back of my local Tesco store. The Salvation Army can then decide what they want to do with it. It certainly saves having to experience the superior attitude of some charity shop volunteers. Books are taken to National Trust for their second hand book sales too - after 3 charities told me that no one wants cookery books any more - when I was trying to donate my late Mum's collection of pristine books. I wonder what the next iteration of jumble sales to charity shops will be ...

I thought it was just me!
I too found the ones I have donated to can be rude, or I was just a bother being there.
On one occasion on sorting out my late father's clothes, I phoned a local Salvation Army shop, explaining it was good quality Men's clothes, to be told yes lovely bring them to the back of the shop.
I did as instructed only to be told, by a chap who answered the door, that I can't just turn up, let alone coming around the back.
I suggested to him, that he needs to start communicate with the other workers within the shop, before being so rude.

I don't donate anymore I just give to the people who drop off bags to fill.

I am astonished at the prices charged for what is clearly a well worn second hand piece of clothing £10 plus for tops.

Glenfinnan

I experienced the same attitude .. I had a clear out of clothes … mostly M&S and Next. The assistant said she would have to inspect them individually! So I looked around the shop … there was a woman about my size there … I asked her to step outside and gave her my items.., she was delighted!!

Yay! That's the way to do it.👏👏👏

We have a large charity shop which is definitely staffed by the unfriendly type. I'm afraid I hover until I see them go into the back room then scuttle in leave my bag by the counter and saunter nonchalantly out. Sorry.

I think charity shops used to be homely little places where you could browse and sometime be lucky with "a find"
Now they are anonymous places, very much businesses.

The OP’s experience is sad. Surely charity shops realise if they do not welcome people bringing donations, those people will donate elsewhere?
We donate, with signed Gift Aid forms in place, to two charity shops a bus ride away. We took our donations to them on Monday morning. Both shops were most grateful and kept thanking us.

I only ever donate goods to the a branch in a different town as over the last few years donations have always been my late husbands belongings and would hate to think I might come across someone in my local area wearing them .They are always very polite and friendly at this branch.

Sago

When clearing out last year prior to our move, I went into a cancer charity shop, I explained I had a lot of bags and boxes, (a full Royal Doulton dinner service in one).

I asked if they could wedge the door open for me whilst I lugged it all in.
They said no as it would be draughty, 1 young man and two women watched as I carried the first lot in and didn’t even hold the door open.

I was livid so I took it all back and watched them open mouthed as I left.

I drove to Sue Ryder who directed me round the back to their loading area and got two volunteers to help me.

That’s really bad, I’m glad you took your stuff back and donated it else where

I used to take my older but still wearable clothes to a local charity shop until I realised that they were actually selling much of what they received as rags - I never saw anything I took in on display and a friend who worked in there confirmed this. If they don't want contributions they should say so.
There are quite a few of those big clothes "bins" around here now, the Salvation Army ones have all gone but there is a new collector. It's so much easier to put clothes in them rather than take a 20 minute bus to unwelcoming charity shops.

I always get a ‘thank you for donating’ email from the local hospice shop and Sue Ryder regularly tell me how much they have made from my donations- both of which I appreciate! I have noticed that a number of charity shops never reopened their changing rooms after Covid ,so they really have no reason to complain about returned goods with receipts.