Are charity shops pricing out the poor?
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2024
- Is it just me or are charity shops for the middle class now?
I grew up needing the support of @Barnardos and although I didn't know it at the time, I probably wouldn't have survived without them.
On the other side of that though, poor families are in unprecedented poverty across the UK thanks to rising fuel prices, ridiculous rent costs and stagnating wages and for a long time, they've relied on places like markets and in particular, charity shops just to clothe their families and treat themselves to otherwise unaffordable items.
After years of austerity, the poorest of the poor now depend on things like food banks despite working multiple jobs and to really take the biscuit (quite literally) those same charity shops that the poor depend upon have started raising their prices and sending 'unsuitable' stock to foreign countries, not because it was damaged or unsellable but just because it wouldn't yield enough profit.
Great.
Here's my little rant where I scream into the wind about this issue before moles in the comments try to flip it into me hating charity shops or something. - Hry
The problem is they all use eBay as a reference. I could list an item worth £30 and list it for £250 and I bet if they saw it, it would be on the shelf for £150. They never look at the sold items for what they really go for.
100%
On a bigger scale this could explain the 360 sudden burst on the scene. You get two sellers in agreement-one buys the others games for an inflated price and it makes it seem like that’s the going rate -sounds conspiracy theory but could be true.
Are people really that enamored with fatal inertia lol the demo is on the store the game is very lackluster at best and it’s even available to buy for 20 bucks. No way in hell that game is worth $180. I don’t care how rare or exclusive it is.
@WilliamSmith-ex9et I bought my PAL version in Poland for 59zl, which is roughly £11.50 / $15.
In our cheapest, 2nd hand game stores (CeX) it is currently £30 ($37.50).
Absolutely insane.
I have a charity shop near me called St Vincent's and I've noticed the prices are in some cases more expensive than buying the item brand new.
Yep - from the comments, it appears charity stores now try to 'price match' high street stores with donated, 2nd hand products!
Most of the games in my local sue ryder have been sat there for 6 months plus.
Due to prices being comparable to a weeks holiday in Turkey
It's absolutely insane, especially when you check the disc and it looks like the surface of a Ryvita.
😂
I think a big part of price increase is that its becoming a cool new thing to do w the new generation, they see the new market thats taking advantage of low prices and up them. Strange really i remember being bullied for having charity shop clothes as a kid
Yeah, although I recently had some absolute knobber try to buy my jacket off me at a takeaway because it looked "old and retro" - the cheeky git!
Saying that though, it WAS knackered and he offered me £40 so I snatched his hand off and just walked home a bit faster than normal.
I live in California. It’s the exact same thing. As a matter fact, if I walk into a thrift store and I see a male worker in his 20s-30s working there, I immediately assume the good collectible/high dollar value games are going out the back door. Pointless to even look there.
It's both comforting to know that it's not just the UK but also incredibly depressing to know that this happens in the U.S. too.
been really enjoying the uploads - keep it up. agree with the sentiment on charity shops, the last few years really feel they have upped the prices to crazy levels
Thank you! I'm genuinely trying to do something a bit different and be honest 😂
I remember having only one pair of shoes, and I begged for them for four years as I outgrew everything I owned in one summer. Then, I didn't grow anymore; I was around 10 or 11 years old, already 6'4", and I had only two outfits for about three years. Then, my mum took me out after saving for ages and said we could get some name brands, and I asked why when we could get loads more for the same price at a charity shop. I was so thin that the school was getting worried, and I used to come into school one to two hours early to help the teachers and get food/money to spend on food for helping.
I think far too many people can't relate to things like this which is good in a sense, as it means society isn't completely shot yet.
It also means that quite a few people think that the world is rosy, poor people are just 'lazy' etc and that anybody saying otherwise is a liar.
The amount of times I've had the word 'privilege' thrown at me because people don't understand or believe my past is unreal.
Someone in a charity shop near to me has worked it so that all games/consoles all funnel in to her shop and she 'deals' with it all. Shockingly, only worthless sports games really. It's a shame that it has come to this but it was inevitable.
That's awful as even though they may be naff sports games, somebody has donated them to a charity, not a shop.
Its sad because my local ones smash all VHS tapes because they do not sell them and i collect them and when i see them in charity shops there like common ones for £20 each.
It might sounds harsh but I've stopped donating stuff and just list it for free on FB Marketplace so it go to people that actually want it
@@donaldmackerel I fully respect your description I gave up hope for finding cheap stuff in charity shops I find all of my best stuff in my and my late father’s vhs collection was found at car boot sales £0.99p bin at blockbuster yes I’m that old I was a small baby when VHS was dying out
Alot of charity shops I go in prices are super high but the one in my local town sells games for a quid each, dvds and pc games 10 for a quid. But because it's literally right near cex the games go quick and most that's left are sports titles but I still give charity to money as I get my dvds from there as I collect dvds aswell as games
@@hybrid_Batman I'm exactly the same matey
I think charity shops should be fair prices not expensive prices, especially clothes and shoes cos people who dont have much money can benefit from these items at low prices.
That's exactly it matey.
These are the places where struggling people go to survive or God forbid, try to treat themselves with something they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.
They've now been highjacked by profiteering businessmen who don't care about the poor as they've never struggled to survive.
A lot of people go looking for branded items to flog the things on eBay . I’ve served many of them in my time . There’s always some that will try their luck to get the price knocked down.
My friend's mum volunteers at a charity shop every Sunday. I have no idea why as she doesn't strike me as the most socially conscious person ever, and she's bloody loaded, but good on her for doing it!
😂😂😂 never judge a book by it's cover etc
I've volunteered in Banardo's and a lot of prices is set from a head office where certain items has to based at a certain price and yes it's close to brand new on items like George n F&F. Every store has 2 paid positions some bigger stores can have upto 6 ! They have rents and wages to cover plus overheads like electricity. And even charity shops sells on ebay also. They are becoming more new goods based like the calanders diaries flowers etc. Head office have horrible demands even volunteers not allowed to have cups of coffee while on duty. They have lost it's way. Online barnardo's shopping exsists also
I'm sorry to hear that matey - it's disgusting that paid staff should be treated in such a way, let alone people that give up their own free time to work there.
I'd love to see a legit alternative become available.
Also the amount of stock what is destroyed so it can be sent out to be "recycled" is astonishing instead of being transferred to another store what could be in need of it like brica brac in low income areas. The upmarket areas will destroy it cos they're still competing with other stores in the district. And with some items of clothing they have it abundance trousers, jeans, shoes and vest tops for women they could easily sell them about a £1-1.50 and shift more items n generate more money but they won't they "rag" them to get shreaded. Yes volunteers did get a fair price but in the store I was at none went on ebay at all
@davidmarchant9386 my old mate said the same thing (he worked at one in a small, rural market town, mainly full of quite well-off people) but he said that pretty much ALL of the staff were basically robbing the donations, meaning average stuff made the shelves and anything that might have been a bargain for poorer families was STILL getting rejected.
What's happening is that the charity shops is ran by people like a high end fashion boutique.
This is not the owners but usually by some volunteers working in the shops. There is a few charity shops in Brighton where this has happened where the staff looks down on people and the prices are absolutely ridiculous. One charity shop sold the new reissued Star Wars figures as vintage figures with extreme prices but this was about a year ago and one customer pointed this out and he got a proper bollocking from a volunteer just for pointing it out.
Fortunately it was only one shop but the prices are absolutely NUTS these days.
I've got a lady who works in a charity shop trying to tear this view to pieces in these very comments.
She can't understand that it's a charity shop, not a boutique, and that throwing clothes that you don't consider 'worthy' into a skip or selling them as oil rags to auto companies is exactly the issue that needs to be addressed.
Unbelievable.
@@donaldmackerel This is so sad. A charity shop should not throw away anything they can sell because every penny they can get for charity is great. If someone doesn't understand that, they shouldn't be working or volunteering in a charity shop at all!
@sotkajarvi I fully agree matey. It's pure classism and coming from a background of pure poverty, it both angers and sickens me that some people either can't understand that or just choose not to care.
It's down to the charity's upper management themselves,I used to manage a charity shop,on minimum wage, just before I left they introduced a 'pricing bible ' that had to be referred to when pricing stock.Most high street clothing shops were on there with each type of clothing listed and a price range,.
This explains the pricing, but also confirms my belief that they're not interested in helping poorer families source goods - only in profits.
@@donaldmackerel yeah definitely, funny thing is though, instead of selling clothes for 50p or a quid , after being on the shop floor for 2 weeks,they'd just sell it on by weight,a large bin bag would be about 6 quid 🤷♂️
i live right by a charity shop and it's absolutely barren, loads of CDs and DVDs but no games at all, some clothes, bit of kids stuff, furniture and lots and lots of new in box stuff that was probably reject stock from other shops, nothing valuable, they have a room where they hide all the good stuff to take home, it used to be open and people could buy all of it, now it's all reserved for the workers, load of rubbish, can't find anything in these shops
and half of them are just used stuff shops and nothing goes to charity anyways
I've noticed that the only people getting defensive in the comments are people that work at charity shops 🤔
You have to wonder why they're trying to say that everything anyone else mentions is pure lies... even when in comes from ex-managers and people that have witnessed it first hand...
I only use charity shops to find rare coins which would be expensive in cash converters and other second hand shops
Please don't suggest more things for me to collect 😂😂😂
Charity shops purpose is not to provide affordable clothing/home ware etc for the working class. The charity shop's purpose is to raise money for the charity in question.
The British Heart Foundation isn't set up to provide clothing to those in need, it's set up to raise money for research into heart diseases.
I think there needs to be clothes banks, like food banks, where people in need can go to get free clothing for themselves and their dependents.
I recently cleared out my wardrobe and had a load of clothes I wanted to donate to such a shelter but the only place that would take them (all washed and folded) was the Air Ambulance charity that shredded them for recycling.
And before the usual mob comes in saying no one should need food banks and clothes banks and whatever and it's just Tory government causing all the problems in the world. There will always be people in need, and you can take personal responsibility for those people in your community by donating your money and time and resources, or you can say it's the governments responsibility and ignore their suffering.
I agree with you.
Poor people do need places to get clothing etc from, and charities do need to fund raise (although paying a CEO £700k a year a bit mad).
What did you do with the clothes in the end?
my sis works at a charity shop the games they get in you dont even stand a chance of buying as they take them str8 to cex, its like the food banks you see name brands in the give boxes wen you go for a food bank you get store brands wheres to brand stuff going
Yep, which is why the only decent games that hit the shelves are the ones with knackered discs
UK charity shops are horrendous. We used to op shop in Australia, and they’re miles ahead in offerings and pricing. Op shops here are obviously just profit operations.
Definitely. My partner took me round a few in Poland and it was just like being a kid again. Pretty much every item was under £1 and those that weren't would be things like full length dresses or fur coats etc.
They even had kids' toys for the equivalent of pennies over there.
What's shocking is that they buy the stuff our shops refuse to sell, ship it over, pop it in their shops and STILL make a profit.
Similar to yourself Donald. We were v poor, not quite Bernados but we got hand downs from cousins etc
A lot of Xmas presents were recycled and handed down from family members and friends. Now I can fortunately say I have a pretty good job and privileged to be in the position I am.
I totally get your point and agree, I used to hand a lot of stuff into various charity shops. It is mind blowing how much everything has rocketed up, personally I think its a disgrace. Things are equal to ebay prices and quite frequently over!! I am convinced they still rinse the majority of good stuff before it goes on shop floor. Poor people have no chance nowadays, it really is ridiculous.
My other half now gives our stuff to people through the church and local charities (we know these people are v poor)
I just cant see how these "main stream" places can call themselves a charity anymore.
It's an awful state of affairs matey.
When I want to get rid of stuff, I pop a post on Facebook Marketplace and sign in the garden just saying "help yourself" and then lug everything onto the front lawn.
It's usually gone by the end of the day.
I remember I did the same when I was moving house and just left everything on my driveway, only to find out some bloody snob from 4 doors down had accused me of 'fly-tipping' on my own land 😂😂😂
I got a shop near me that sells clothes for £1.49 each item or 10 for £10 and kids clothes are like 5 for £1.49 and games starting at £2 but the others are crazy prices
Ah man! That's great news!
Is it a 'chain' charity shop or a local, independent one?
the issue is Ebay. also Ebay has destroyed the carboots
Especially when people see a price and don't realise that price is a buy it now one for a mint condition item.
@@donaldmackerel ive stopped going to car boots got tired of every seller saying the same thing "on Ebay its this much"
@blackhatter1980 😂😂😂 yeah, I rarely go now.
I had a mate who sold antiques at car boots and said that David Dickinson was the bane of his life. He would rock up to car boots with a camera crew, filming some god-awful program, then tell stall owners that his contestants would play full price OFF CAMERA if they agreed to cut really good deals ON CAMERA. It was all lies to make interesting TV.
Next thing you know, a load of armchair experts would rock up every Sunday and get angry when he wouldn't haggle because "that's what happens on Bargain Hunt..." 🙄
@@donaldmackerel lmao
I took some shoes there and they had it in the window for more than what they originally cost. Scum everywhere at this point
Allegedly, these pricing decisions all come from 'upper management' but when I hear of stories like this, I'm not so sure.
They aren’t there for the benefit of the poor they’re there to make money tbh - but they still act like if you give them things they go to the less fortunate or whatever
Which is the issue, really - where do struggling families go now?
I don’t see a problem with them using other platforms as benchmark to price their items. Think of it this way if they had 10 decent games priced at 50p or £1 each they get fleeced by the same person who will then flip it make money. That’s not charitable, I’m happy seeing games in shops and quite often if I don’t want that game I’ll tell them to increase the price if it’s in decent condition. Hopefully the flipping culture slows down.
But the conditions aren't great on the ones I'm showing - they're literally unplayable and would you really return something to a charity shop?
On top of that, they're benchmarking certain items whilst at the same time asking RIDICULOUS amounts for other games and refusing to budge on the price, even when the game has been there for months.
The whole point of the video wasn't that though - it's that they no longer support the people in this country that are really struggling, literally destroying perfectly good clothes to make rags that they can sell to garages etc or shipping palletloads to foreign, second hand shops (not in struggling countries btw) simply because they see them as 'not profitable' to sell.
There is literally nowhere for the poorest people to get clothes from now and some daft git even suggested "If you can't afford to shop in a charity shop, go to Primark".
Imagine a charity that looks down on people that need charity, then ask yourself why this is ok?
They have dealer contacts. Stuff never reaches to counter/shelves.
A few people have messaged to say this and also that LOTS of the 'volunteers' have eBay shops or car boots that they just sell people's donations on.
When my mate told me about what went on at his store, he said they made nominal donations as a sort of 'sorry' to the charity Gods... I'm now finding out that most don't even do that.
@@donaldmackerel Bhf have the full house clearance service. So someone alone dies. The undertaker will ring up Bhf for a price. Someone from Bhf will visit and sort ot the best bits. Anyone can imagine what happens next. I am not saying all are not trustworthy but the opportunity is there. I must say though that I bought a few valuuable bits from them but noticed that very little now reaches ebay.
A lot of charities have prices set by head office . They look at the brands original worth and then price accordingly.
Looking at the comments on this (of people who have managed such places), the pricing list is not for brands per se but for items (usually a new item).
Again, there are things that they just deem 'not worth selling' which just get shipped abroad or as I've recently found out, just binned.
They all end up suffering from a condition I like to call second hand madness. This happens when they start to think that all the customers are trying to eploit them for profit. At this time they also seem to have a man who magically appears and then vanishes who seems to know exactly how much everything is worth. You will never meet him, but they assure you that he is real. This seems to apply mostly to records.
Without resellers charity shops wouldn’t make half the money they get with them.
😂😂😂😂😂
I doubt that very much, things worth buying would sell if they are worth having and are the right price, it is not just resellers that go in them.
@scrunts666 check the comments and see for yourself.
They also turn decent (but not high profit) clothes into rags for workshops etc or sell them cheap by the palletload to foreign 2nd hand shops.
@@donaldmackerel I buy mostly records and ever since records have come back into fashion the prices have gone through the roof, mostly, like I said before, because they say they have some man who comes in and seems to know the price for everything. It tends to be a case of "Oh, I know who this band is, therefore it must be worth £20".
You could also ask, are resellers pricing out the poor. They rinse charity shops dry and in response charity shops have put up their prices. The charity shops don't see why they should subsidise resellers' businesses with cheap prices, and I don't blame them.
True, but then that's what I say in the video. Have 2 tiers of charity shops, meaning there's still somewhere for the poorest families to get clothes from etc.
They literally just bin the clothes if they don't see 'enough' profit in them.
They could even just bag them up and 'donate' them to needy people who visit the store.
Ah OK. Have to confess I posted that after watching a couple of mins 😂
@Neo_Player 😂😂😂 no worries matey! I even joke that me not being able to find cheap games is selfish (although I do then show the condition of the discs which actually SHOULD just be thrown in the bin... ironically).
got a nice bargin on a gh2 guitar boxed for the 360 not long back and from 1 further down street managed pick up a gh3 controller with game for a resonable price , could of easy doulbled my money if i wanted still with what the controllers go for theese days , managed do same recently with a few ps4 games that whould of got me same deal if i sold onto cex
Whatever you do, don't give put the location of this goldmine 😂😂😂
@@donaldmackerel both was in leyland i work at 1 of them :D and yh is rare for games but now and again :D and the whole pricing thing is kinda a list of guides we have to follow but yh still plenty of bargins to be had still :)
Totally agree that charity shops (which get their stock for FREE) are pricing items up very expensive.
I recently saw a Marvel book (which brand new was priced as £20 on the back of the book) the charity shop wanted £10 for! Crazy! I offered £7 (as I thought it was a fair offer for a second hand book) and they still turned it down.
Went back a few weeks later and saw they reduced it down to £5! Lol.
I get that they want as much as possible to go to the charity but bits like that take the p - especially when they just search ebay and pick a 'buy it now' price (which hardly anybody ever does).
If an item has only just been put out they won’t reduce it down
Donald getting back to Polish culture. Does your Mrs like any of the following things? Vodka, Euro dance music and carp for eating at Christmas.
My polish friend Marek is mad for them.
Swap Vodka for Bourbon, Disco Polo for Death Metal and carp for a nice turkey dinner 😂😂😂
Carp, disco polo and vodka are traditional Polish things though, so I think my missus is the black sheep in this situation.
I think it depends which charity shop. The worst offenders I’ve found are BHF and oxfam. The BHF near me has a copy of fifa 15 that is priced at £8 😂😂 and I don’t think you can buy a t shirt there for less that about £6
It definitely appears that the independent charity shops have fairer prices.
Unfortunately the charity shops are in a place where they are getting rinsed by resllers and CEX credit hunters. So these bargains never went to the poor. I know i was one of the many that took advantage over the years. Thats why i understand that what they are doing is the right thing. People have to realise the volunteers dont understand the value of these games, and have just heard they are valuable so sometimes over price them. A lot of charity shops i see now are valued just under CEX. So it means if you want the game you will get a bargain.
Dont forget video games are only a fraction of what charity shops sell. Clothing is the main thing that helps people in need, you can pick jeans/tshirts etc up for around a fiver in most of the charity shops i go to. I know you mentioned the addidas, even tho 65 sounds a lot it might have been a huge discount.
The world has changed since we were kids... and charity shops have had to adapt.
I literally said that I could see shirts that were £3 in Primark being sold USED for £5 in my local charity shop.
Checking the comments on here, people that have both managed AND worked in charity shops admit that if they don't see 'profit' in an item, it goes straight in the skip - this includes clothing that could be bagged up and stored for families in need.
I don't really give a monkeys about games etc as those are luxuries but even then, pricing their stuff to eBay 'buy it now' prices and CeX prices is insane, especially when usually the only reason the discs have ended up there is because CeX have said no and they haven't sold them on Facebook Marketplace.
When the people that manage charity shops are admitting that the poor HAVE been priced out, there's no excuse for their behaviour.
Wait until you find out that they dump half of their donations in the bin
Seriously? Or is that just the damaged stuff?
@@donaldmackerel Seriously.
czcams.com/video/JNEa0KDMbnU/video.html
If things don’t sell they either get rotated to another store of the same charity elsewhere or it gets recycled in the recycling bin for general recycling waste or it goes in the bin . I’ve worked in a few charity shops so I’ve had to do it myself and I find it extremely wasteful. Bric a brac and dvds and cds usually end up binned if they don’t sell . Puzzles and board games get put in the paper recycling. And clothing either goes to other charity shops or gets ragged which means a company pays an amount per kg of clothing and it goes elsewhere, to foreign countries for people with nothing I believe
@@emward6858 I did reply to Donald here, but I included a link so it might have been held for review.
Yes, that rings true what you say, and different charities have different levels of waste. BHF near me throws out 'Gift Aid' unopened bags of stuff. The CD/DVDs etc that they throw out have never even hit the shop floor, they just bin them.
@@donaldmackerel I included a link in my other comment, but yes seriously. Have a look at held comments as I linked to an episode of channel 'Bin Flippers' where they find a boxed Master System in the chazza bin.
Oxfam books are the height of overpriced, I've seen things (I collect grapgic novels) selling well over cover price.
Which is quite mad, seeing as they got them for free and are often a bit tatty.
Resellers are the reason
Nobody is re-selling clothes that they throw in the bin or destroy.
star wars is £4 in cex
You should have seen the disc though 😂
@@donaldmackerel I can imagine a very good video with great points as I said in my previous comment eBay has played a massive party in destroying charity shops and car boot sales
There is no charity in charity shop's never has.
Have you seen the CEO's Houses and Cars????
I always try to Barter in charity shops😂 if there's no barter then I leave with saying to the staff so NO CHARITY in here then!!!!!😂😂😂😂
Disgusting places.
I don't know if I could start haggling at a charity shop - I have enough trouble returning damaged goods 😂😂😂
its a charity shop if its too much for you simple don't pay
As in steal stuff?
@@donaldmackerel no it's a shop if you don't like the price put it back
@@chrisburns7979 please re-watch the video (and read the title).
Where are poor people meant to clothe their kids?
@donaldmackerel you haven't heard of primark have you?
@chrisburns7979 have you actually heard of destitute families?
I really think you need to look around at struggling people, food banks and homelessness and re-think your attitude on why 'charities' that get everything donated for free (and massive reductions in rent / taxes) closing their doors on the poorest in society is an OK thing to do whilst also paying CEOs up to £700k P/A.
They are a disgrace. Everything is donated to them and they put them up more expensive than Ebay. I used to donate a fair bit to charity shops. I don't anymore. I offer people who may need it or sell it for peanuts on Ebay.
Same here matey.
I had an old Xbox 360 S with about 10 games I didn't want.
I just gave it to a mate who had hit hard times and told him to have fun with it and if he ever needed the cash, sell it.
I'd rather 100% of my donation goes to somebody that needs it rather than 87% (alledgedly) of it getting used, 13% of it going to a CEO and 100% of it going to a 27 year old hipster with bum fluff on his face.
Our local Sue Ryder charity shop has become ridiculous
Used sofas £200 plus.
2nd hand jeans etc now more expensive than ebay and vinted.
Greedy and pandering to the middle class.
Exactly matey.
I try not to angry but seeing what this country has become and the lack of care for the lower classes makes me feel sick.