Great charity shop bargain

knspol

I have started donating some of late DH's clothes to charity shops quite a few of them have never been worn, still have labels on and all are good makes. I just hope the shop workers don't keep them for themselves or if they do then they make a suitable donation. After hearing from 2 friends who worked in different shops it seems items are often picked over by helpers and taken home for relatives or friends sometimes without even a donation having been made. Unfortunately I didn't know where else I could take them and did not want the hassle of ebay etc

In the shop where I volunteer, staff can’t help themselves to stuff. We have to buy it . And it has to be on the shop floor for 24 hours , before we can buy. Unless it’s damaged or has marks , then we can have it but we normally put a few quid in the charity box.

BlueBelle

Today in the charity shop I volunteer in we found 10 empty hangers in the same age range in the boys section ( probably £20+ )
This is so so disappointing and upsetting We had a similar thing happen yesterday

Charity shop I visited in London had the pricier clothes, such as leather jackets, chained up. Sad sign of the times.

I have some expertise in a certain type of item and get asked to price relevant donations for one of our local charity shops. It saves them charging, say, £5 when £50 is more realistic.

I love a bargain and bought some perfectly fitting linen trousers in excellent condition last week for £5.00. I like getting jigsaws too, we make them and return them.

I picked up a little wooden squirrel for 99p. I discovered it on Etsy for £12. Quite a bargain!

I support charity shops because I believe in extending the use of products. My best buys were an Orly Kiely bedspread, new baby clothes, pinking shears, books and an M&S coat.
However now I donate good stuff to charity shops as a way to return the favour for my bargains. Not only will someone enjoy giving it a new life, but it benefits the charity too.

Lulu16

I support charity shops because I believe in extending the use of products. My best buys were an Orly Kiely bedspread, new baby clothes, pinking shears, books and an M&S coat.
However now I donate good stuff to charity shops as a way to return the favour for my bargains. Not only will someone enjoy giving it a new life, but it benefits the charity too.

Same here.
I love a good old rummage round a charity shop and have had some good buys over the years.

Me too. The chance of getting a bargain is the main reason most people use them, unless they really can't afford to pay full price for anything, in which case the point is still to save money. If there were some rule that said that things should be sold at usual retail price (or that there is something morally wrong with getting something very cheaply) they would cease to exist.

There is a shopping center near where I live with about 8 charity shops. I used to love browsing round them when I did the post office run. I bought some lovely vintage garments for the fabric and lots of things t resell in my Ebay shop. Unfortunately Im no longer mobile enough to troll around the shops and Royal Mail pick up direct from my home now.

We have a Hospice charity shop nearby that I used to visit once a week and bought quite a few things from to upcycle. They changed to selling things that had already been upcycled and stopped selling anything that was a bit shabby so I no longer go. I used to love rummaging amongst all the bits and pieces looking for mirrors, frames, small tables, lamps, lampshades, curtains, pictures and other bits but now they are not only quite pricey because they only sell 'good' stuff they don't have anything to rummage through.

AreWeThereYet
That was one of the reasons my friend ( she was the manager) left one our local hospices. Plus the daily telephone calls telling her she hadn’t reached her target and that target wasn’t for the close of business, that was through the day.
Then there would be the phone calls telling her they didn’t like/ it’s in the wrong place displays. They were watching on the cameras.

we have a few charity shops in our small town, but i tend to use the one that puts the money raised back into the community, they sell jigsaws for a pound whereas the others sell them for a much higher price. I tend to buy at lease 5 every time i go and i also donate goods to them. I use them all to buy games etc for when my grandchildren are at mine and most of the toys when they were younger

essjay
The charity shop where I volunteer is for local children. Nobody is paid, not even the manager.

BlueBelle

Today in the charity shop I volunteer in we found 10 empty hangers in the same age range in the boys section ( probably £20+ )
This is so so disappointing and upsetting We had a similar thing happen yesterday

I mean what sort of person stoops so low as to steal from charity shops 😢
But I know that they do, having worked in the charity retail for 10plus years before retirement, labels changed , haggling .

Shizam

BlueBelle

Today in the charity shop I volunteer in we found 10 empty hangers in the same age range in the boys section ( probably £20+ )
This is so so disappointing and upsetting We had a similar thing happen yesterday

Charity shop I visited in London had the pricier clothes, such as leather jackets, chained up. Sad sign of the times.

Well to add to that little thing , yes where I worked it was a 24 hour rule with a discount ,if you wanted to pay full price you could buy at that without waiting 24hrs .
But having worked in that environment & having different managers , i took my retirement despite loving my role & excelling in sales & experience. My reason that “yet another “:manager would “ bin” donated items , I even found items I had donated in the skip . That was really the final straw . found a “ designer purse “ priced at £100 , that was actually fit for the bin was another .. yet when I wrote it in our handover book 📕of my find , priced by a volunteer omg it was me in the wrong !!!!!
Yes, one man’s treasure & all that , yet it works as one Managers junk another’s treasure .. I have furniture in my home that one manager from a furniture CS threw out that I brought home & upcycled , nothing wrong with it ,she could have sold for £40-50 or more …😢

on the opposite side of the subject - i get annoyed when a used Primark t shirt is up for sale at £4 or more when if bought new would have been about £3. I am happy to pay a reasonable price but I have an expression I use to describe some high prices - TTP. "Taking the ...."

I can't believe the amazing bargains found in charity shops. Recently I have bought a pair of COS trousers for £5.00; look brand new; £80.00 on website; M&S stretch Jeans for £6.00; look brand new; £35.00 in store; Gap shirt; looks brand new; £65.00 in shop; a jumpsuit for a wedding £15.00 and Jacket £6.00; look brand new! And various useful household things like dishes, jugs and tins. Plus wool like the OP. And inexpensive but nice Birthday cards. It really is worth a quick browse when passing charity shops. 🙂

ordinarygirl

on the opposite side of the subject - i get annoyed when a used Primark t shirt is up for sale at £4 or more when if bought new would have been about £3. I am happy to pay a reasonable price but I have an expression I use to describe some high prices - TTP. "Taking the ...."

I so agree with your comment!

and some jumpers have all the bobbles on the front already when you have some at home like that and priced at £5. lol

Lemsip the shop I volunteer in is very fussy about the condition of donated items . Anything with bobbles is put in the rag bag for recycling.
When I started there I was shocked that so much stuff went into the rag bag . Clothes that were dirty , worn , frayed collars and cuffs , missing buttons and broken zips . Ripped pages from books, cracked crockery and scratched CDs . Some people use a charity shop to dump their rubbish .

Great that you found a charity shop that prices to sell. I have given up looking for wool in charity shops as it's usually part balls at more than the price of a full ball in regular shop.
I did, however, get a real bargain in local charity shop recently. Found a brand new pair of pj's for DH on a table with items "5 for £1.49". I paid £1.49 as more than worth it. Lady wouldn't accept more as had been trying to clear out old stock for ages.

During lockdown I coveted the KitchenAid mixer but couldn’t really buy one as they were around £500 and were like hen’s teeth with people buying them to make banana bread 😂 A couple of years ago we were visiting Lytham which has a beautiful charity shop in aid of a local hospice. They had a KitchenAid mixer for £200 still in the box. The assistant told me that the beaters etc looked like they had never been used. I paid the £200 for it and took it home. When I opened the box the accessories were unusable and unsafe as they were metal coated in some sort of enamel which was chipped. I wouldn’t risk using them because bits of enamel would get in the food. I rang the shop to tell them about this and they said that I could have a full refund. I worked out how much replacement beaters would cost which was about £100. We agreed that I would get the £100 refund and order replacements for the machine. I learned that you should always check the contents of the box not take the word of another person. My daughter who is a fabulous baker made her wedding cakes using the machine and I’m unlikely to get it back 😂

I was in need of something to store the music l am practising on a regular basis as it is a faff to keep getting it in and out of cupboards and it falls off the music stand if I put too many books on it. I found this lovely basket in Age UK today for £8.99, which is just the right size and, I think, looks slightly quirky yet elegant at the same time.

grandtanteJE65

I always start off in the charity shops unless I am looking for underwear or nightwear.

To me this makes sense both financially and evironmentally.

And I agree you can get some marvellous bargins.

You’ll find that unless it is NWT CS do not sell underwear & a lot won’t sell nightwear or sports/ swimwear

Ikiesgranma

During lockdown I coveted the KitchenAid mixer but couldn’t really buy one as they were around £500 and were like hen’s teeth with people buying them to make banana bread 😂 A couple of years ago we were visiting Lytham which has a beautiful charity shop in aid of a local hospice. They had a KitchenAid mixer for £200 still in the box. The assistant told me that the beaters etc looked like they had never been used. I paid the £200 for it and took it home. When I opened the box the accessories were unusable and unsafe as they were metal coated in some sort of enamel which was chipped. I wouldn’t risk using them because bits of enamel would get in the food. I rang the shop to tell them about this and they said that I could have a full refund. I worked out how much replacement beaters would cost which was about £100. We agreed that I would get the £100 refund and order replacements for the machine. I learned that you should always check the contents of the box not take the word of another person. My daughter who is a fabulous baker made her wedding cakes using the machine and I’m unlikely to get it back 😂

It does pay to look tbh the shop would / should have checked the item ,but you say you were pleased as you got a bargain Kitchen Aid Mixer for £200 & then got a refund ! 🙄That’s taking the biscuit ( forgive the pun)
You were quite happy with your bargain & then accepted £100 .

Tenko

Lemsip the shop I volunteer in is very fussy about the condition of donated items . Anything with bobbles is put in the rag bag for recycling.
When I started there I was shocked that so much stuff went into the rag bag . Clothes that were dirty , worn , frayed collars and cuffs , missing buttons and broken zips . Ripped pages from books, cracked crockery and scratched CDs . Some people use a charity shop to dump their rubbish .

Tenno,
Surely it was a case of “ being shocked at the state of the donated items “!
One donor I remember really well ,came in with 2 big bblack bags & said “ I’ve cleaned out my Daughters bedroom & found loads under her bed “!
Yes ,loads of rubbish , one look & it was all binned as it was literally rubbish .
People use Charity Shops as dumping grounds to get rid of their rubbish .

Our local charity shops won't take electrical items.

However, there is a upcycling centre where donated items are fully tested by a qualified electrician.
I wish I'd gone there for a sewing machine, but only saw them after I'd bought a new one.