Charity shops everywhere

[Pete_uk]

I work for a youth charity with a charity shop. While the shop doesn't bring in a lot of money for the services we provide it is a place the public can come in and find out about what we do as well as picking up some cheapish clothing.

I'm sure the same can be said for a lot of charity shops.

 

[AM9]

I love them. I'm horrified nowadays when I see the prices of clothes in "normal" shops. Charity shops can afford to heavily discount their stock as it hasn't cost them anything. They are a win win, both for donators and buyers, and also of course the charity. I'm very sad when I see another one has closed down, and I wonder what will happen to stuff that clearer-outers would have normally donated. Anything that keeps anything out of landfill has to be good.

The most effective way of keeping things out of landfill is to reduce the volume of new things bought that will eventually end up there. Charity shops offer a valuable service to the re-use culture that will reduce wasteful material consumption.

 

[E27007]

I consider a well-run clean and tidy charity shop to be an asset to retail in the high street, so many High Streets are over-run with "big-name /. same-name" identikit outlets, it is refreshing to enter a charity shop and see something different or unusual for sale.

 

[jon0844]

Give it ten years I will ask the question again. Most people steam these days. Most of HMV shops is taken over pop figures and t shirts. Primark sell cheap clothes so no need for charity stores. Infact a local one round me which sells furniture is much more expensive than new.

There's somewhat of a backlash against fast fashion these days.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Oct 2022 ==

I love charity shops and I volunteer for a hospice one in Hemel Hempstead. It has been interesting reading everyone's comments.

Out of interest, how much does it cost to get rid of the fly tipped rubbish you find left outside overnight (that gets torn apart by foxes, birds and even people who rummage for anything good).

I no longer do it because of the abuse, but I've caught people turn up in a big SUV and dump three or four black bags outside a charity shop (with clear signs asking people not to do it) and they tell me to **** off and mind my own business.

I've seen similar bags torn to shreds in the morning in doorways, and sometimes wet (and it hasn't been raining that I can see).

Do you work with the local authorities to identify and prosecute, or just put it down as par for the course?

 

[py_megapixel]

Primark sell cheap clothes so no need for charity stores.

Primark sells cheaply made tat which falls apart easily. In charity shops you tend to get decent quality clothes, just being sold inexpensively because they aren't brand new.

Primark is also a noisy, chaotic shopping experience with harsh lights, loud pop music and bright blue branding everywhere. You can also never find anything because the place is so enormous and full of clutter.

If you gave me the choice between buying some clothes in Primark and going to an urban centre with a decent selection of charity shops and buying clothes there, I would choose the charity shops. Every time.

 

[DelayRepay]

Primark sells cheaply made tat which falls apart easily. In charity shops you tend to get decent quality clothes, just being sold inexpensively because they aren't brand new.

The problem is that a lot of other stores, which used to sell reasonable quality 'mid range' clothes have followed Primark in the race to the bottom.

I will admit though, I do buy things like underwear, pyjamas, and basic t-shirts from Primark.

If you gave me the choice between buying some clothes in Primark and going to an urban centre with a decent selection of charity shops and buying clothes there, I would choose the charity shops. Every time.

I have looked in charity shops and I struggle to find things worth buying (as a 40ish year old man). I tend to find the men's stuff is either the kind of stuff my grandad would wear, or it's the cheap Primark tat being sold for not much less than it can be bought for new in Primark.

For non-clothing though, I love charity shops. Most of my fiction books come from charity shops. I bought a set of dinner plates from a charity shop a few months ago. In perfect condition, but far cheaper than buying new.

 

[bspahh]

I have looked in charity shops and I struggle to find things worth buying (as a 40ish year old man). I tend to find the men's stuff is either the kind of stuff my grandad would wear, or it's the cheap Primark tat being sold for not much less than it can be bought for new in Primark.

For clothing, you need things to be in stock, in a size that fits, in good condition and with a colour that you like.

I like Rohan clothes. They have a range of styles, some of which look like you have just stepped off a mountain, but others that are

They use hard wearing fabrics, which are machine washable, very fast to dry, and don't need ironing. They are great for traveling, as you can hand wash them, roll them in a towel and hang it up, and it will be dry in a few hours. They have plenty of pockets, some of which are zipped.

The downside is that they can be expensive.

Once I have found something that I like, then I'll set up an eBay search for it, for the specific size, and style that I want, with a price filter. Then I'll get an email when something matches, so I can get a shirt for £20 which would have been 3 times as much when new. It means I can get exactly the same size and style to the ones that I've already got, even if they are a few years old. If you go to the Rohan shops, then the styles and fit change from time to time.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I like Rohan clothes.

The downside is that they can be expensive.

Can be more reasonably priced in their end-of-season sales, but the downside then is that the colour/size you're particularly looking for, more often than not, will then be out of stock.

Good though if you can find a cheap-as-chips, nearly new, Rohan item, in the right colour/size, in a charity shop.

 

[AM9]

I think the attractiveness of a charity shop's offering is to a large degree dependant on location. For instance, those located in well heeled areas tend to have better quality clothing donated.

 

[py_megapixel]

I have looked in charity shops and I struggle to find things worth buying (as a 40ish year old man). I tend to find the men's stuff is either the kind of stuff my grandad would wear, or it's the cheap Primark tat being sold for not much less than it can be bought for new in Primark.

I take your point. My comment was more about how much I hate the Primark shopping experience than how amazing charity shops are.

I can't quite put my finger on what the problem is, but I just find their shops obnoxious.

 

[AM9]

I take your point. My comment was more about how much I hate the Primark shopping experience than how amazing charity shops are.

I can't quite put my finger on what the problem is, but I just find their shops obnoxious.

Anyone with an ounce of consideration for reducimg the impact of climate change should avoid adding to Primark's profits. The whole 'Fast Fashion' industry is an environmental disaster.

 

[trainophile]

Agree about Rohan, and to a lesser extent Craghoppers. Was lucky enough to find two pairs of Craghoppers walking trousers in two different charity shops recently, both £4.99 each. I also have an amazing winter weight fleecy lined pair of Rohans that I know I wouldn't have paid more than a tenner for, although I can't remember the exact time of acquisition.

Used to get all my teeshirts for 50p from a local, non-chain charity shop that alas closed down during the lockdowns, never to re-open. Also get my CDs from a local Hospice clearance shop for 20p each. Can then upload the tracks I like to my iTunes Match account, instead of paying 99p per track to Apple.

Charity shops' main problem is too much ornament type tat on the shelves, who is going to buy a "Best teacher ever" mug or key ring? I suppose they can only sell what they are given, plus the often realistically priced new stuff. Get all my greetings cards in them, 99p or £1.50 instead of £2.99 for something that will be in the bin in a few days.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Charity shops' main problem is too much ornament type tat on the shelves, who is going to buy a "Best teacher ever" mug or key ring?

All those folk wanting an inexpensive end-of-year present for their child to give to their teacher, perhaps?

 

[trainophile]

All those folk wanting an inexpensive end-of-year present for their child to give to their teacher, perhaps?

Lol yes. My dad used to call such presents "the carousel", as they were endlessly circulated and nobody ever wanted to keep them.

 

[PeterY]

There's somewhat of a backlash against fast fashion these days.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Oct 2022 ==



Out of interest, how much does it cost to get rid of the fly tipped rubbish you find left outside overnight (that gets torn apart by foxes, birds and even people who rummage for anything good).

We don't get a lot of stuff left outside the shop because the shop I volunteer in, is on a precinct, it's a tad too far for people to walk and dump their rubbish. I do see it happen to other shops though, where it's easy for "fly tippers" to dump their rubbish.

Anyone with an ounce of consideration for reducimg the impact of climate change should avoid adding to Primark's profits. The whole 'Fast Fashion' industry is an environmental disaster.

I've only ever been in Primark once and brought an ill fitting pair of jeans. Never again. IMO Primark is utter cheap rubbish and their clothes are not expected to last long. When I'm sorting, if I see Atmosphere on the label(Primark's own label) I've no hesitation to put it in the rag bag unless it has still got its original tag on (always woman's clothes) and it'll get priced with 66% discount.

 

[trainophile]

For all the cheap tat that does get donated, it makes you wonder how much more is dumped in people's bins because they can't be bothered. Whenever tenants move out of the building my flat is in, they always completely fill the communal bins with black bags crammed full of goodness knows what. It's time something was done about the throwaway culture, but I don't know how it can be reversed.

Perhaps ceasing to trade with China might be a start.

 

[philthetube]

Cancer Research, Macmillan, the British Heart Foundation

Even if the government provided all the funding now provided by charity shops what would be wrong with charity shops providing more.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

The larger organisations employ paid staff too, and have many shops. How much of the revenue goes to the good causes?
..
I do voluntary work (not in a shop, not too organised). Helps the cause, but friendly contacts (quite different from contacts when working in an office) are important too. I think that charity shops are usually friendly places, very good for people's mental health too (staff and customers).

Some exceptions : where staff think they are "in charge", where loud music is played, where the heating/air-con makes the air stuffy and hot. That is just what I do not need while browsing.

 

[birchesgreen]

The larger organisations employ paid staff too, and have many shops. How much of the revenue goes to the good causes?

Not all staff in the shop, when my friend worked at one (Cancer Research i think) she and a few others were unpaid volunteers. The manager was paid though had 3 or 4 shops to look after. This was 20 years ago though so might have changed now.

 

[alxndr]

I've only ever been in Primark once and brought an ill fitting pair of jeans. Never again. IMO Primark is utter cheap rubbish and their clothes are not expected to last long.

People always say this, but I've never had an issue with their clothes. I don't know if women's clothes are more poorly made. I've had some Primark stuff for years and years as they're one of the few places that reliably sell genuinely extra small clothes.

I'm not against buying clothes from charity shops, 90% of my clothes growing up were from them, but when it's hard enough to find clothes that fit in fully stocked stores the odds of finding something in a charity shop is even lower. Got lots of furniture from them though.

 

[bspahh]

The larger organisations employ paid staff too, and have many shops. How much of the revenue goes to the good causes?

None at all if the shop doesn't make a profit.

Charity shops don't get taxed as much as a normal shop, but they still have bills to pay, including the cost of paying to dispose of donations that they cannot sell. If you can run a shop with volunteer staff, and make a profit that is fine, but I don't have a problem paying staff if it makes more profit for the charity than they cost.

 

[PeterY]

None at all if the shop doesn't make a profit.

Charity shops don't get taxed as much as a normal shop, but they still have bills to pay, including the cost of paying to dispose of donations that they cannot sell. If you can run a shop with volunteer staff, and make a profit that is fine, but I don't have a problem paying staff if it makes more profit for the charity than they cost.

I don't know the actual figures for the shop I volunteer in but we do make a good healthy profit after all expenses and the profit goes direct to the charity. We have a paid manager and the rest of the staff is made up of volunteers. If we didn't have a paid manager, the shop would soon fall to bits. The manager keeps it all together and knows what's going on (well most of the time) and there are H&S, banking, shop keys, who does what, etc etc that are her responsibilities.

 

[david1212]

I consider a well-run clean and tidy charity shop to be an asset to retail in the high street, so many High Streets are over-run with "big-name /. same-name" identikit outlets, it is refreshing to enter a charity shop and see something different or unusual for sale.

Going to different towns for different shops belonged to another era.

For all the cheap tat that does get donated, it makes you wonder how much more is dumped in people's bins because they can't be bothered. Whenever tenants move out of the building my flat is in, they always completely fill the communal bins with black bags crammed full of goodness knows what. It's time something was done about the throwaway culture, but I don't know how it can be reversed.

Perhaps ceasing to trade with China might be a start.

Given I have read several times that the average number of times an item of clothing is worn was just 6 or so there must be plenty. If the majority went to charity shops they would have to be much larger.
The reality is though if the racks were full of Primark, New Look, supermarket brands etc to sell they would have to be priced lower than say M&S and the cost of sale could be greater than the ticket price. Would much even sell at all?

 

[AY1975]

Oxfam has dozens of shops in Germany.

Yes, I've noticed that but I've never been in any of their shops in Germany so not sure if they sell the same kinds of stuff as their UK charity shops. In fact I'm not sure if charity shops as we know them in the UK exist much in any other countries in Europe or the rest of the world.

 

[Gloster]

It was not something that I noticed, but I have a vague feeling that those few I have seen in Scandinavia were for local groups: Friends of the Hospice Support Group and the like. National groups tend not to have them. (As said, I wasn’t really looking.)

 

[TheSeeker]

not sure if they sell the same kinds of stuff as their UK charity shops

Oxfam shops in Belgium generally don't take donations of stuff. They sell brand new sustainable "Fair Trade" products, coffee and clothing made from sources that support local communities.

There is one that takes donations of things, "Le Petites Rien". Directly run for homeless people who are employed there to get them back on their feet. Other than that secondhand book shops are big but books are not donated but bought and then sold for a profit as a private money making enterprise.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I've heard that quite a lot of charity shops no longer accept CDs and/or DVDs, presumably because they're now yesterday's technology and because they've already got too many.

I occasionally donate stuff to my local Barnardo's charity shop. A few years ago I took them a load of audio and video tapes but they said they had stopped accepting them because not many people wanted them anymore. Until then they had still accepted them despite no longer selling them, but they told me that a lot of the tapes that people gave them had just ended up being binned.

I was surprised how many of my audio cassettes I managed to sell on eBay when I had a clear-out during the first lockdown, though. I suppose a lot of people still have cars with cassette players.

It can vary from shop to shop. There are certain albums on CD that you can almost guarantee that every charity shop will have at least one copy of. James Blunt's 'Back to Bedlam'; Be Here Now by Oasis; the Il Divo album; that awful Tom Jones covers album for example. Then there's charity shops that still have Lostprophets or R Kelly albums gathering dust on their shelves which obviously nobody will buy now.

If a charity shop doesn't have a volunteer with the knowledge to "sort the wheat from the chaff" with music it's easier to just refuse to take them. Some shops will use Music Magpie (other services are available) to get rid of stuff they can't sell, but even Music Magpie probably have an entire warehouse full of Be Here Now CDs so won't buy any more, even for 2p.

 

[TheSeeker]

There are certain albums on CD that you can almost guarantee that every charity shop

Same with books. Any Jilly Cooper, Jaws, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Bridget Jones, Dick Francis, Alistair Mclean, Clive Cussler... A zillion Mills and Boon

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Oct 2022 ==

I've heard that quite a lot of charity shops no longer accept CDs and/or DVDs,

I suspect sales of DVDs will continue as there are many good films not available on streaming sites. My other half just bought "Big Night" with Stanley Tucci on DVD as we can't find it anyway streamed.

 

[PeterY]

It can vary from shop to shop. There are certain albums on CD that you can almost guarantee that every charity shop will have at least one copy of. James Blunt's 'Back to Bedlam'; Be Here Now by Oasis; the Il Divo album; that awful Tom Jones covers album for example. Then there's charity shops that still have Lostprophets or R Kelly albums gathering dust on their shelves which obviously nobody will buy now.

If a charity shop doesn't have a volunteer with the knowledge to "sort the wheat from the chaff" with music it's easier to just refuse to take them. Some shops will use Music Magpie (other services are available) to get rid of stuff they can't sell, but even Music Magpie probably have an entire warehouse full of Be Here Now CDs so won't buy any more, even for 2p.

Yes, I recognise those CD's and with DVD's there's always plenty of copies Bourne Identity -- Matt Damon.

All books, CD's and DVD's are scanned, if they have a barcode before they go out for sale. We use a company called ZIFIT. They only offer us peanuts, if they want them but it doesn't take long to get £20+ boxed up to send to them.

We're struggling now to get CD's and DVD's now.

 

[Gloster]

They tend to get waves of what was the ‘in’ thing to read, or at least give at Christmas, a year or so ago. You can usually see who or what was the cookery flavour of the year last Christmas or the one before. With novels: have you seen just how many Shades of Grey they had?