Charity shops and their prices

Yes it is the buyers choice to buy or not, but it seems it is forgotten charity shops are there for the public to help the charities not the charity shop to help the shopper

the charity shop where my daughter is assistant manager takes electrical goods and they're pat tested before they're put on to the shop floor.
if you think a price is rather more than you want to pay you are welcome to ask if they'll accept a bit less than the tag price. you probably would have got the food mixer at the price you wanted to pay.
yes, charity shops are a business now and why not? they do a good job in raising money for their respective organisations.
i, for one, was surprised to learn how things are run in charity shops these days - they don't just put things on the shop floor but take things off if they haven't been sold in a certain time and replace them with fresh donations.
all clothes are clean and in good condition, all books, cds and bric a brac are also "whole" and in a good condition and electrical goods are, as i said, pat tested, complete and in working order.
your food mixer would have been a good bargain even at the price they were asking, nonnie1, and it would have worked when you got it home.

I guess it is always a problem for them that new clothes are so cheap these days. One has to think about their prices as a donation as well.

I agree with the comments that clothes are too expensive in charity shops especially t-shirts.
I have the gift aid cards and when I hand stuff in I get it scanned.
I have had some good bargains right enough, last year I had a dress for my daughters wedding that I received for free and then went and bought all my accessories in different charity shops. Hat, shoes, bag, shawl, necklace all for change out of £40.not bad as mother of the bride

Nonnie1 Why not join your local Freegle group and post a 'wanted' request for a food processor? Someone will have one, unused, at the back of a cupboard and would be glad to get rid. You might be lucky ? It wouldn't be PAT tested though so you need to accept that. If you get as far as collection and it's obviously ancient, you don't have to accept it! Freegle is a free giving, re-use organisation. No money or payment in kind is allowed. It's a great way to get rid of unwanted stuff. www.ilovefreegle.org

I tried on a summer jacket in British Heart Foundation this week. It was £13.99 which I thought was too expensive for second hand. Bon Marche next door had similar jackets for a few pounds more. They also charge too much for yarn, which has no label and no complete balls. Again you can get cheaper across the road in B&M Bargains. Charity shops will price themselves out of the competition if they're not careful.

I work in a charity shop as a volunteer, when people donate to us they expect us to get as much as we can for the charity. Someone donating a Radley handbag they bought for £120 would not expect us to sell it for a fiver. As it is many of our customers are buying things to resell on Ebay & these are the customers who complain about the prices because there is no profit margin for them! I give my time to make money so people can have end of life care in their own home.

I think £50 sounds reasonable, a pity you let the chance go buy.

As I stated in my first post I always pay over the odds for items I buy because those shops are there for raising money for extremely good causes but that is my choice to do so - so no argument there.

The point I was making was that if they ask a little too much the item will be passed by, by a potential buyer.

The food mixer I saw was an 'Andrew James' which is not as good as some others, and I have now priced this particular food mixer up and there are various prices on line. The most expensive being £101.00 so indeed this was too much to ask IMHO

Someone else will buy it I am positive of that, so no harm done.

As for those who say charity shops are there for the charities, I am sure everyone here is in no doubt of that

Like many others I am keen to pass on unwanted but decent items for charity. I always have a current bag in my garage with items in.

I am not saying we don't need charity shops as they are the life blood of the charities they support. What I am saying is sometimes they ask too much and people walk on by.

I agree, Nonnie. I used to visit our local charity shop with 8yr old who loved to buy a book with her £1 pocket money. Now prices have been hiked to £2 for a used paperback. Perhaps they don't realise that you can buy new ones delivered for less than that. Now we go to the public library for a book and she saves her money. It's only a small amount but overall charity loses!

I think a lot of people buy from charity shops to sell. I browse ebay because there are no charity shops as such in France, but I can tell from the muliple listings (of wildly differing sizes) on some sellers sites that these clothes have been bought in .... from somewhere else. And how many times do you see someone on Flog It, who bought a piece of Moorcroft for a fiver in their local charity shop and sold it for 50 quid at auction?
I don't like the morals behind it, so it would seem the only way to clamp down on it is to sell second-hand quality goods at a quality price.
Also, quite often, by the time you have got involved in an online bidding war, and paid the postage you are paying too much for an EBay item anyway...... and you can't see the quality or the wear. I would much prefer to wander round a charity shop, so as I'll be spending the summer in the UK you can guess what I'll be doing in my spare time.

I totally agree Petra. Charities with CEO's making 6 figure salaries make me want to puke. My husband & I ran an animal rescue for over 25 years,and we never asked for a penny - my husband worked to pay the feed and vet bills. There are loads of small charities who spend the money from donations directly on their cause and give their time free. And there are larger ones too, like Soi Dog Foundation, IFAW or Medicines Sans Frontiers who really do a great job - but the Red Cross, or RSPCA and SSPCA and the like will not get a penny from me. They are greedy. And the old ethos of charity shops benefiting the poorer in our society as well as their cause seems long gone: our local Red Cross shop asks more for a tired looking 2nd hand blouse than Tesco or Asda would sell it for new. Plus, I have an acquaintance who volunteers at the Red Cross shop, and the things they simply throw out which have been donated, is positively sinful.

Sillylily, is it not good for a child to know their money is going to help people and saving a pound is of less importance

I think £2 for a used paperback is too much, particularly as some supermarkets sell them so cheaply.

I think it would be better to sell 20 books in a day for £1 each (or even 50p) than have them languishing on the shelves for weeks because customers thought twice about paying £2 for a used book.

and if £2 is a whole week's pocket money ... the child also has to learn how to get the best value from it.

and I have never seen a Moorcroft vase in a charity shop, only in the local antique shop. It was still quite a bargain at £40 but I didn't have that much money to spare.
I still think about it, though.

OH!! Just googled it - estimate in 2010 £300-400

I agree - £2 is far too much to pay for a used paperback and at least Sillylily and her GD are supporting their local library, far to many of which are being lost.

too many

I totally agree with Anniebach.

Well, I agree with anniebach in principle, but think that £2 for a children's paperback is too much, and doesn't encourage younger people to spend their money there.

It's like spending your whole week's money after bills on one item. £2 is a lot for an 8 year old (or perhaps not, perhaps I am out of touch, although I think DGD only gets about that, she is 7).

And children do get plenty of encouragement these days to help those less fortunate than themselves; they are aware of Children in Need, Red Nose Day, the Poppy Appeal, sponsored walks etc etc and eagerly participate and collect money for charities.

Exactly, Jalima.

Yes. It does seem a lot for a child's paperback. I agree.

Children should be charged less than grownups. (Especially as their used books are likely to be a bit grubby!)

would you all be comfortable telling a child - I wouldn't spend two pounds on a book when it is only worth one pound even though it may help towards a cure for your mother's breast cancer, your kidney failure, your sisters anorexia, your brothers broken spine, your grannies dementia ? I wouldn't and for me this is what you are saying but not directly to those who need that two pounds