Charity Shop Prices

Yesterday I met up with AngieBaby in Milton Keynes, and she showed me some wonderful things that she`s bought at her local charity shop for unbelievably low prices, definitely better quality stuff than we get in our charity shops here, there must be some very affluent people donating down there!

someone mentioned that new or almost new books could be donated to the local library, well in our area, the library was quite bare in places and I offered them a pile of recent paperbacks all published in the last year.
the girl behind the counter said they were not taking any more and if anyone donated any she would take them to the charity shop. I would have thought that any books would have been welcome to fill the empty spaces as long as they were clean, however not so.
I now donate them to charity shops.

There are 7 charity shops in our small town, all short of volunteers. Cancer Research is the latest, paying low rates in a prime position where the previous shop could not afford a 20% rise in rent plus full business rates.
This is a tourist area but people will not come to a town full of charity shops.
I actually buy all my clothes in charity shops and volunteer in one too but I regret the rapid spread of them.
I only buy good makes in perfect condition so think £5 - £7 for jumpers and trousers and £10 for a coat is very reasonable.

And in colder weather people are even more likely to want to come in and get warm - probably buying something when they do. An open door would make me think it wasn't going to be much warmer inside...

They do it in summer too, which is fair enough - unless they have air conditioning!!! There is a campaign called either Close the door or Shut the door or something along those lines (sorry, senior moment - haven't done my research properly). There is apparently some research which they mention, which found that people are not put off by closed doors, but will come in if they want to, or not if they don't. As Elrel points out, it's a bit tough on the staff!

I agree Glamma and Jingl
Also think that any shop with open doors in Winter is ridiculous. (There are a lot.)

Thank you Wheniwasyourage.You are so right about the open door policy-many shops now use this as Elrel points out.I also think it is ridiculous and don't see why they do it!

I think charity shops should, ideally, work two ways. Firstly, to make money for the charity, and, secondly, to help out the hard-up members of the local community. Glamma seems to have it right. The manager of our local Oxfam shop makes me really cross though. It's no wonder the stuff doesn't sell.

Early this year I stepped up from being a volunteer at a Charity Shop to becoming the Shop Manager and what an eyeopener that has been for me,we keep the prices in line to what I think the area can afford,I make sure everything that is not acceptable to be put on the shop floor is bagged and that I get the best price from the "Rag" man,you would be mortified what people think is acceptable to be donated, rather than they take the items to the tip it has been known for people to just drop things off outside the front door prior to the shop opening ie:mattresses/headboards we then have to send them and pay for them to go to the local tip which is all time and money for our deliver men who are also volunteers.
We rotate our clothes on a two weekly basis and whilst we have lower prices than the norm (£1.49 for M&S) tops etc we after a full 4 weeks reduce to a 50p rail which is very busy with buys all day long.I keep a rail of designer goods most under £5 for wedding/christening/parties and a really good selection of shoes which we charge maximum £2/3 for,no silly prices for furniture we would rather have a quick turn around and money in the till quickly.glamma x

MOnica has explained it well but it is hardly surprising that the aim of charities is to make money for the charity! I don't understand why that should upset anyone. It is no different from any other shopping experience, if you like it and like the price then buy it, of not don't. So simple.

Thank you M0nica for such a clear explanation. It explains a lot and makes me feel much more sympathetic now I know it's "orders from above" and not just more of the aggressive collection tactics seen over recent years on the high streets where one is all but rugby tackled and then verbally pressurised to sign a regular giving document.

Wheniwasyourage- the open door HO diktat is spreading. Another chain was told doors must be open all the year around 'to be welcoming', a bit daft on a perishing cold day with a shivering manager standing under the overhead heater.
CC have given charitable status to some dodgy organisations in the past and need to look closely at what¡ they are doing.
Some of the clothes banks (not, I would think, the Salvation Army ones!) which first send the clothes to Ireland make a great deal of money for someone.

^ there was a time when it seemed that charity shops knowingly benefited two groups of people, both those who were represented by the specific charity, and customers who could not afford to buy brand new goods.^

Another reason Charities do not offer bargains to benefit those in need is that for a few years ago now the Charity Commission (CC) told charities that they had to limit their charitable actions very narrowly to the purposes stated in the registration document filed at the CC and nothing else.

At that time I was involved with a local charity that hired a meeting room from another local charity that owned a building with several large rooms which it would rent out at a favourable rate to other charities. One year we were told that this was no longer possible. The reason was that the CC had told them that supporting other local charities by granting them preferential room rates was not in their constitution, so all room hirers would have to pay the full commercial rate. As the building was a beautiful period building overlooking the river Thames, the commercial hire rate was way out of our price bracket so we had to go elsewhere. So if a charity running a shop does not have benefiting its customers in its registration document, any price it charges must reflect the market value of its goods.

I was until recently one of the trustees of a charity and remain a committee member. The CC demands on charities to show that they are making the best use of their assets to attain the aims in their registration document and also making sure they declare in detail exactly the activities they are undertaking to meet their charitable aims gets more and more onerous every year.

I didn't realise that charity shops exported their unsold clothing. Several years ago we went to a market in Sicily where there were several second hand clothes stalls stocking items with English charity shop labels. At the time we assumed that they had been sent for textile recycling and been fraudulently diverted. Mystery explained

There is a flourishing market for second hand clothes in a number of countries in Africa and Asia. I heard an interview once with someone from Oxfam who explained that the reason they sold the clothes to dealers and didn't give them away was because the second hand clothes industry in these countries provided employment for many thousands of people, from the dealers that bought the clothes wholesale and sorted them through to the network of people that got these clothes to markets all over, what are frequently, large countries with poor transport networks. To give the clothes away free would disrupt these networks and would result in many of people involved in the industry being made unemployed, plunging them and their families into destitution.

If you give clothes to charity what difference does it make whether the clothes are sold to a buyer in this country or a dealer overseas. You give the clothes to the charity so that they can raise money by selling them - and that is exactly what they are doing. As well as that the overseas sales keep many people in work in the countries they are sold in.

I'm sure our local BHF shop doesn't keep the doors open! Our high street in Tonbridge has a high proportion of charity shops, but as OH and I love browsing in them, we don't mind. Have recently bought a nearly-new Westbeach ski-type jacket in our local Mind shop. It was priced at £15 which was considerably more than I had planned to pay, but as it was a perfect fit and exactly what I wanted, I bought it. Best buy ever. They are about £80 new. Also snapped up a floaty dress for £2 which I wore to a summer wedding and was complemented on it. I don't think most charity shops are over-priced - they are just keeping up with the times.

I remember seeing a TV programme some time in the last year where it showed what happened to the vast quantities of clothes that weren't wanted by the charity shops, or that didn't sell quickly enough: they were exported to, I think, India, where they where auctioned off and became part of a huge business revolving around the selling of second-hand clothes.
I couldn't help wondering at the time how the donors would have felt about their cast-offs becoming part of such a lucrative (for some) business.

Our local charity shop, Prospect Foundation, sell donated items for a while, then those that aren't sold are moved to another shop, the stock thus keeps circulating until it's sold.

I understand that charities are there to raise money for their specific cause, but the fact that quite a lot of people actually shop in these shops because they can't afford to buy new seems to be being overlooked now. Personally, while I am lucky enough to be able to buy brand new clothes (though not very frequently, and from the cheaper shops, or when drastically reduced in price), I do look in the charity shops when wanting or needing other items that I want rather than need, and really do feel that some charity shops are now being very opportunistic.
Perhaps I am wrong, but there was a time when it seemed that charity shops knowingly benefited two groups of people, both those who were represented by the specific charity, and customers who could not afford to buy brand new goods. This seems to have changed, which IMHO is a great shame.

My problem with charity shops is not really the prices they charge because as somebody else said you don't have to buy , but the amount of them there are. Since the recession they have virtually taken over our small town . Because of the discounted rents they enjoy, most of our little independent shops have been priced out as they have to pay exorbitant rates. Our card shop was forced to close as the charity shops were selling cards that the whole sellers let them have at much lower cost than the normal trader had to pay. This can't be right.

Good post oznan!

While I know that the British Heart Foundation does excellent work in research and education, I don't use their shops because they insist on keeping the doors open ("head office say we must"). I don't want to have any money I pay for things being wasted in heating the street, quite apart from my wish for there still to be a planet for all our DGC to live on when they are our age. If they are so concerned that nobody can open their doors (I know, I know, with a buggy or a wheelchair one would need help), they would probably be cheaper in the long run to get automatic doors. Barnardo's seems to have the same attitude, but Cancer Research has not gone out of business by keeping their doors closed.

Having worked as a chariity shop manager,I would like to point out the overheads a charity has-premises, shop staff(usually 2 paid at basic wage),regional and admin staff,energy costs,etc..Volunteers are greatly appreciated.They also have the problem of people leaving bags outside overnight,usually unusable items.This is fly-tipping and causes a lot of unnecessary work.Sorting through donations can be a time consuming and sometimes unsavoury job-clothes only fit for rags,smelly,unwashed clothes and general household rubbish.One manager I know even found a dead dog in one bag.Many customers expected to be able to bargain with staff to knock the price down.Furniture has to be collected-more costs,petrol,van,etc.
We priced our clothes accordingly-cheaper for unbranded and a scale for the high end brands.Each shop had a chart to show them which brands were most expensive.Only good clothes were sold-we had to check for holes,missing buttons,etc.The same went for books,toys and bric-a-brac-all checked for quality safety,etc.
I loved the job but I would just ask people to remember that it has its unpleasant side and charity shop staff work hard for minimum wages-my choice because I believed in the charity.
All that said,charity shops still serve a useful purpose and are a large source of income for a charity.I agree that some of them are a little over-priced but the majority still offer bargains and could not function on the miniscule prices that some people seem to think is their "right."

I agree with tiggypiro on the extortionate price of second hand books sold in national charity shops. This annoys me because I have gifted hundreds of good books to charities but when I want to buy one some are priced at up to a half of the retail price.

On the other hand I bought a few very cheap second hand books at a car boot sale and intending to read them later on, I placed them on my bookshelf in the hallway. However when we went out and came back to the house my wife remarked on a musty damp small in the hall. Unfortunately the bargain books bought at the carboot were pitted with damp spots and hand to go into recycling.

I've met with such a wide range of experiences. Designer labels for 50p in small local charity shops where the elderly ladies pricing up didn't have an idea.

I've picked up brand new items for a couple of quid in shops where the strategy is to charge no more than a few pounds for an item, regardless.

I've also put items back on the rail in other shops, in the knowledge that they cost less at the X Catalogue Shop or Primark when they were brand new.

I have donated hundreds -thousands - of pounds worth of goods to shops over the years. It's a good way of keeping items out of landfill. I'm pleased that we can now donate electrical items, as getting rid of unwanted items that still worked well was always a dilemma.

If I have recently published books to give away that are in excellent condition, I often offer them to the local library first.
Cutbacks mean they have much less to spend on books and they are grateful.

The charity shops remit is to raise funds - you can't expect them to offer that sofa for £20 if they think they can get hundreds. If they sell it at jumble sale prices someone will buy and re-sell on Ebay and the charity will lose out.

I can't imagine many items are priced at £450.