...to expect a charity shop (business) to take my donation when I deliver it to them?

Correction for the grammaticians, that should be 'one of the less posh charity shops was ...'

I cannot believe that your donation was turned down. Most of the shops here have a decent sized "back room" where the sorting is carried out. From your description your goods would not have been on a shelf for long. The charity shops where I live never turn down donations with the exception of electrical goods as only a couple of charity shops accept them.

I can only think it could be down to a shortage of volunteers to sort goods? I also suppose this was a general notice, so unaware of the quality of potential donations. Let's face it, I bet they get a load of old tat which just has to go to the tip as well as loved quality articles.

Grannyknot how awful of them to refuse your donated gift's I wish I lived near the shop you donated to I am buying my DS1 and his partner Denby ware as and when it comes on offer at Debenhams,at the shop I work in on Saturday the only thing we cannot accept are old big TV's as there is no where to store them due to size but all other electricals are accepted and sent to our "mother store" to be PAT tested they are then returned to us for sale with a test notice.Yesterday we received all manner of goods from a lady downsizing and a couple who where emigrating we make arrangements for big pieces to be collected asap and we are very grateful for our donations.glamma x

We had this issue with Oxfam in Manchester. My son was moving and had lots of stuff, including 50 or 60 academic books. They explained that some back rooms are minute, but also the number of volunteers to sort donations varied, and some donations were better suited to other shops e.g. academic books woud soon find a home from the shop near the unversity. Also, they had limited access to transport to move donations fom one shop to another.

We were asked to go to the city centre shop, where two volunteers were waiting to unload everythng at the back of their shop into a massive sorting area. They were very apologetic about us having to take the stuff there, saying some premises just don't have capacity or enough volunteers.

Charity shops do get an awful lot of tat donated - cracked and chipped crockery, worn-out baking trays, half pairs of shoes, unwashed old clothes (including underwear!) ornaments that were cheap and horrible when they were new and have not improved. Some people seem to think they are just places to easily get rid of old rubbish.

But it is a shame that they refuse all donations at all! Maybe they could display a big permanent notice saying "Due to lack of space we regret that we can only accept donations on a Monday" or whatever, and post an address where stuff would be welcome on other days.

Refusals to accept things are usually about storage (or lack thereof), space on shelves (or lack thereof), and numbers of volunteers (or... you get the idea!).

I agree it's a tad annoying if one has had to carry stuff, but I don't think there's any point blaming the charity shops. Perhaps you could go in another day and offer time as well as Denby pottery. It may be what they need most.

Bags lovely idea but I work full time, plus I am on the board of a charity that has to generate income (but not via shops). So no time to volunteer sorting stuff for the charity shop, and if I'm honest, no inclination either. Maybe at another stage in my life.

I agree about the tat - I see some of it for sale on the shelves, not to mention clothing that I know from the labels come from a shop where I can probably buy as cheap brand new!

Ah well, not to worry. Perhaps it's simply a case of charity shops being 'too' successful and not being able to keep up with turnover. One near us from which I used to buy clothes for DD when she was younger no longer takes or sells children's clothes but they have a lot of new, apparently specially made stuff (not clothing) that is not so useful. I no longer shop there.

grannyknot Not everyone has the transport to get to the cheap shops to buy cheap stuff new.

Apologies to all pedants, that is a dreadful sentence

never mind Ella I get you! True. Bags I've seen that too, Oxfam in my area is one example of that, they're sort of just like any other shop that sells stuff, but one that also sells secondhand clothes.

Ella46...no need to 'pologise. Made me

grannyknot I would have been inclined to go in anyway and say that I regularly donate to the charity and, as I have had to lug the donations to the shop, I would be most grateful if they'd make an exception on this occasion.

elegran I find it shocking that people donate dirty clothes and broken china - and some poor soul has to sort through all that rubbish - yuk.

Eloethan the manager of the shop is quite fierce and would simply have pointed the sign out to me, I don't have the energy for 'battle-axes' especially not on my happy Saturday morning round - are you still allowed to say that? . Anyway, she's a real old battle axe. LOL. I think I'll just avoid donating there in future, will put my heavy stuff on Freecycle locally.

elegran I found a dirty tissue in the pocket of a jacket I tried on in a charity shop, once. Yuk indeed.

Dirty clothing and crockery in a minor offence. I was processing some donations when I started on a small battered suitcase. Opened it to find some old clothing that did not look promising but being a good girl I carried on. After taking out a few garments I started to realise my hands were feeling a bit gritty and greasy. We are supposed to use rubber gloves but they are thin and make your hands sweat and you just get out of the habit. Anyway I started to pay a bit more attention and looked into the suitcase, moved some of the bits of clothing aside and suddenly came across a lot of grey coarse looking dust. Yup....you've guessed it....it was someones ashes! So please do not critisise charity shop VOLUNTEERS we get a rought ride.

I have been having a bit of a clear out and have taken quite a bit to a local charity shop, so much so that the volunteers greet me with a big smile and ask what I have brought today! I always examine the clothes and if it is looking worn it doesn't go (goes to recycling instead).

HildaW - I would never criticise the volunteers. Maybe I don't understand but isn't the manager's job a paid retail job like in any other shop?

Grannyknot Like you, I thought the manager a charity shop was a paid position, and Hilda, in any case, volunteer or not, there is no call to be fierce or discourteous to people donating goods.

Hilda O M G !!!!!!!

Ella46 I love that sentence. #a pearl!

A lot of charity shops do have paid managers. However, its not a job I could NOT do. I worked with a young one who had a lovely approach to all the volunteers and managed to work within the charities quite stict work ethics. It was a huge juggling effort. Coping with market forces and retail style profit targets, volunteers with allsorts of backgrounds (and in many cases emotional and social issues). The general public (and all that entails). I know no one is really critisising the staff on this forum, and I can appreciate the irritation of lugging a huge bag of goodies in to be then told its not wanted. However, getting a charity shop to run reasonably smoothly is something only a few very talented and diplomatic folks can do . I can always remember the day I started sorting though a huge bag of so called 'good stuff' and finding nothing but grubby tat and saying somthing quite loudly (I have that sort of voice) to the effect, to have the sweet manager say......shhhhhhh! shes still in the shop!

oops too many nots....ment to say...it not a job I could do!

Hilda . Why oh why do people donate cr*ppy stuff? I don't get it.