Sign of the times

My local charity shop has a sale... half marked price on everything. You should see the queues......

 

Think "Charity" shops have been over charging in the past few years. Thought the idea was to get a quick turnover to get the cash to the particular charity, not rival the high street shops?

 

Have to say I agree the prices are going up. I used to buy a lot of books rather than use the library but they seem to be a lot now. As I give them back when I have finished anyway it now seems an expensive way to read. At least I'm back supporting the library.

 

There starting to get smarter, I volunteer a couple of times a week at a well known humanitarian aid charity shop and they mark prices up depending on their customers... as well as having basic stock rotation system in place and also an internal network of stock relocaction fascinating stuff considering what I thought happened

But usually price is decided then and there by the person pricing it if you think the charity shop is too expensive say so! if you see something that's been sat there a while then offer them a price for it usually if it's something niche they have little idea to it's actual value and if nobody buys it then off to recycling it will go! you wouild be horrified with how many books get pulped at the end of there rotation

 

I think the charity shop prices vary greatly between one charity and the next. I like charity shops, because you can get excellent bargains from them with the added smugness of knowing you've helped a worthy cause, but there is one on Redcar high street that I almost never bother with, and that's Oxfam. I have nothing against Oxfam, I'm sure they do excellent work, but I just don't want to pay almost new prices for second hand stuff. The quality of stuff they get in is the same as, for example, British Heart Foundation which is just across the way, but BHF is a lot cheaper. Like less than half the price for the same thing.

 

I wasn't going to mention Oxfam, but now you have....

When I was skint last Christmas they had a lot of gardening books that I would have snapped up if i'd had a few bob in my pocket, but they were just out of my price range, what with having to find presents for the family.

 

Our OXFAM the area manager turns up in his top of the range company BMW and balls out the two old lady volunteers for not selling enough scratch cards and have not met their targets this month ?
They have an original BEATLES Please Please Me LP hung on the wall priced at £1360
Most of the other stuff is double what the other charity shops are selling at

Moving on to British Heart Foundation, I donate all my stuff to them
A few months ago I donated a lot of Gardening Books RHS ENCYCLOPEDIAS etc amongst them I donated a 1920 Herbs and Medicinal receipes book
After a forum question on here last week, I thought duh should have kept it

The books I donated have not appeared yet on the shelves, so today I chanced my arm and asked do you have any Gardening books
Yes they are in the stock room, :-) Do you have herbs and receipes for medicinal use
Oh yes we remember that one the Pricing accessor/Manager, took it away to the Edinburgh head office :-( But we have RHS Encyclopedias they are good books

I find of all the charity shops OXFAM donates the least % to CHARITY after overheads
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/~/media/Fil...policies/documents/Annual-report-2011-12.ashx

Jack McH