Charity shops more expensive than mainstream shops.

[Badgerramble]

The other day St Luke's in Crookes had a box of Asda glasses (wine glasses if I remember rightly) priced at £3 and the box had a massive Asda logo pricing for £2.

 

Seemed a bit bonkers that the charity shop was charging £1 more than the glasses were originally when new.

 

[cressida]

I always fill the plastic bags charity shops put through the door but only if they are a registered charity, now I seem to be left with clothes I quite like and am running out of things to give them, some charities specify 'no bric-a-brac' which is rather puzzling as most shops have ornaments etc. in them - maybe their costs (overheads) have risen too hence the higher prices.

[staninoodle]

I was in a cancer research one last weekend,saw a book by cricketer david gower,was already to buy it untill i saw the prce tag of £8.The bridge shop in stocksbridge sells books 3 for a £1.The same shop had a really nice early days childrens top priced up at £3.99,but the book put me off,saw the same top in primark brand new with tags, priced at £2.50!!

[xfox3x]

I think charity shops have always tried it on.

Once I took a baby coat into Sue Ryder shop on Walkley and it was put on sale for £2 - told the woman that I'd bought it from them for 50p about 3 months before and that my daughter had now outgrown it.

She was very miffed and told me that it was worth £2 because it was in good condition

Now I am rubbish at figures but I reckon that Sue Ryder's got a real profit on something that was originally donated!

This, by the way, was 36 years ago.

[Tony]

So what do you do instead of giving your unwanted items to charity?

 

Are you all sending money instead?

[BoopBoop]

I must admit my mum and I used to give a lot more suff to the charity shops before I discovered eBay. But I do pay monthly direct debits to Dogs Trust and Cancer Research so the little money I make on my eBay items does kind of get donated in the end.

[davyboy]

So what do you do instead of giving your unwanted items to charity?

 

Are you all sending money instead?

 

Boot fair them. Charity begins at home.

[greentim]

The missus and i regularly visit the charity shops in our area,and they seem to be getting more expensive than mainstream shops.Are they getting greedy? Are they pressurised into squeezing as much as possible out of the general public? I did a few price comparisons last weekend on similar items,and the charity shop was the most expensive.One particular shop we frequent puts,"the price you see,is the price you pay." (no bartering) on big stickers on the items.We have put a lot of money over the charity counters in the past,but we are starting to lose faith in how they seem to be adopting a more aggressive sell.

 

Just slightly off topic here but regarding charity bags through the letter box.A new tactic,(in our area anyway) is offering you cash,there and then for clothing.The other one is asking you to place old phones/computers in the bag for recycling.Who in their right mind would give these people the means to use any info stored on them.

 

Your thoughts forummers.

Charity shops will charge what the market price is and if people stop buying because they are overpricing then they will soon find out and be forced to lower their prices.

 

As for charity bags through the letter box, I'd check out who the charity is. The market for used clothing and textiles is currently very strong and doubtless people are out to exploit this.

[Dozy]

I think a lot of the problems are because the people doing the pricing don't have any idea of what the items originally cost. If you flick through a rail of T-shirts, for example, they'll all be priced within a certain range, but you'll find Primarni at £1.99, the same price as stuff from Next or Debenhams. This can, however, also work to the customer's advantage, I've had some decent stuff at ridiculously low prices.

 

And some people doing the pricing simply don't take the condition into account. I was involved with a local charity shop a few years ago, and one of the women who helped would price up a totally wrecked leather coat at £10 - simply because it was leather! We had to stop her doing the initial sorting of donations, because she'd put every scruffy, stained, ripped and tatty item in the bags for washing, instead of the bags for the rag man.

 

I think most charity shops are run by volunteers, and I don't know how much training they get, so there are bound to be pricing "blips".

 

Having said that, Oxfam does appear to consistently over-price their stuff and I can't say I've bothered going into any of their shops for years.

[Phanerothyme]

If there aren't any bargains, then what's the point?

 

If there's no chance of Gieves & Hawkes 3/4 length grey wool overcoat for £2, then I'm not going to bother.