Charity shops are getting greedy

Its a myth that all charity shops get reductions. Only a few do and its up to the local authority to decide.

Plus charity shoops have to pay for carrier bags, shelvings, display items etc.

Not all stock is free (bags going out being posted and collected etc)

Why give money to the greedy supermarkets for a low quality item when you can get better quality for the same. eg £5 primark trousers or £5 hobbs trousers? I knew what I would pick!
Plus the money does go back into helping local services (well I know Age Concern Havering's does!)

Why wear what everyone else is when you can get lovely one off items?

And the comment about them smelling, yes sadly some do, but 9/10 shops look professional and don't smell.
Good ol' general assumptions eh!?

It's not just a question of getting cheap things, it's about helping chairty.

banks and pension fund companies buy shops as investment instruments, then they charge as much as possible until the pips squeek, aaa plus the vat

it all depends where you live re prices , I live in a small town in the northeast we have 1 charity shop and its rteally cheap , full of bargains, example , a pair of doctor marten boots in v good condition 6 pounds,
if they had come up for sale in london where I used to live theyd be at least 20 pounds.

what I find is that if the manageress of a charity shop is particulaly well off she will inevitably price items nearer to what she finds affordable herself than to what poorer people can afford,
i know the priority oc these shops is to raise as much as possible for charity however I feel that they should also be charitable somewhat to poorer folk in the locale in which they operate.

I do agree that charity collectors are getting more aggressive. I was walking round the town centre and a girl veered off and blocked my way. "Hello, I'm collecting for the RSPCA - could I get you to sign an endowment form?" I said that I already gave to charity each month so no, I wouldn't. She then called out 'Don't you care about animals, then?' as I walked away. Thought that was a bit much. Fact is, I've got 2 cats from the RSPCA shelter and I gave a fairly decent donation there as well.

Just had a quick look round the charity shops for a warm winter coat. The cheapest one on the rack was 4.99 and that was really mangy. Wool ones were going for 12.99. I think they forget that these things are DONATED and also have been worn before. Too expensive by far. Wouldn't it have been better to sell the whole lot at 3 pounds each? Otherwise, they'll just get put in the back room until next year.

The thing that annoys me with charity shops now is that alot of them don't open until 9.30 am which makes it awkward for people with donations. You are left with 3 choices;

1/ Go in town for 9 am and carry the bags around for half an hour.

2/ Leave them in the car & go back for them later.

3/ Get in town for 9.30 and risk having to drive around for ages to find a parking space.

Don't they realise that if we have donations we need to drop them off BEFORE we start shopping?

Down & Out is absolutely right. The charity shops in my medium sized town think they are Harrods just cos they're on the HIgh Street. OK, they might have the same business rents etc as other shops, but this cant be anything new. I think now there is a recession they are taking adantage and putting prices up. As other gripers have said, why pay £7 for something second hand when you can get the same thing new for £4? Shame cos I love going in them.

And whatever you do, don't give any money to the Ramblers. Bunch of interfering old busybodies who trample across our green and pleasant land and MY BACK GARDEN.

Once one of these backpack thugs tripped over my shubbery lighting and broke the electric cable. I was not happy.

It's times like this I wish the MOD would open their land to everyone, then these people can quite happily ramble around land that is littered with unexploded ordnance and that'll teach them....

PS: I like walking but I'm not a rambler!

Charities today are not living hand-to-mouth. They have vast reserves in their bank accounts invested in stock markets around the globe. They own vast tracts of land and huge portfolios of property. They salary their directors on a par with city bankers and they beg for donations through heart-wrenching television adverts that are quite sickening.

They enjoy tax and business rates advantages that disadvantage regular traders yet behave more like profit motive and profit making companies than you would beleive.

A particular SuperCharity, that are cancer nurses, and who now promote themselves using television, had collected funds in my rural village for many years. When my mother got breast cancer, we called these people. We were told that they didn't operate in our rural area and so couldn't help, yet they had collected MONEY here for all of my life.

The local charities came to help my mother, and support my devastated dad.

So, DON'T GIVE to SuperCharities, DO GIVE to Local Charities.

Charity Begins at Home..... Give to your local hospice charity, your local animal charity, whichever charity it is, Keep your donations local.

Remember, SuperCharities follow corporate plans, local charities care about local people.

I went into Oxfam one day to drop off some clothes. Out of curiosity I had a look round, and one of the first things I saw was a pair of used trainers for £35. Huh?? I went over to the books and CDs, as I've got a weakness for a bargain when it comes to those items....but they were mostly priced at £2.99 minimum, and when I opened a few of the CD cases up to check quality, I saw tons of scratches. I've heard that Oxfam will send books off for pulping rather than drop the prices on slow sellers...so since then, whenever I'm having a clear-out I put my stuff to a couple of local charities that sell books for as little as 25p each. That way, at least I know they're going to make a good go at selling whatever I put to them, as opposed to just dumping it.

I'm lucky I guess as I live in between a well to do area and a more run down one so that I have the choice of charity shops. There is a huge difference in the prices according to the areas and I find that the cheaper one is better stocked then the dearer one. Never too sure whether my old car would have been stolen or broken into but I find the trip always worthwhile. I always make sure to bring something in too, however small. I would not shop at Asda as I do not approve of their oversea policies and I rather use up the goods we already have here rather than importing more. Charity does start at home as Youthful Griper quite rightly says so.

I do like to visit the odd charity shop, sometimes an unusual gift can be had.

However, if I can, I prefer to leave it to the winter as most have a dreadful background smell, a bit like a teenager's bedroom first thing in the morning. So one (sad) reason for avoiding charity shops is the need to pluck up the courage to hold your breath for 10 minutes.