My favourite type of shop (Charity Shops in general)

Member Name: lucy1989

Product:	Charity Shops in general
Date:	23/05/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cost, helping a good cause, friendly staff.

Disadvantages: Some items can be vastly over priced...

Charity shops were once seen as very embarrassing to admit you shop in them. There was a certain stigma about them where only poor people shopped. Of course in these hard times everything has changed and they have increased dramatically in popularity. I remeber when I was around 13 I would hide in another shop while my mum looked in them. I'd bring a supply of carrier bags out with me to quickly put anything my mum bought in from the fear of someone from school seeing me walking round with an Oxfam carrier bag.

How things have changed... its my mum who follows me in them now. At uni on a Monday morning we regularly discuss who got what bargains from what charity shop!

The most exciting thing about shopping in a charity shop is you never know what you are going to find. Some visits you may find absolutely nothing and others (like today) I've come away with a couple of bags full.

This of course does depend on the shop and of course the area. I find the shops in London not to be as good as the small independent ones at home. This may be because everything is much, much more expensive and I often find there is too much competition from the other fashion students!

Prcies have had to go up in recent times, they obviously have had to do this with their overheads going up but you can still definitely find a bargain. My best buys have been a Jaeger cashmere jumper for £2.50, a Zara silk dress for £4, a pair of brand new Marks and Spencer shoe boots for £2 and a Hobs new season jacket.

For every major, expensive label there is often a lot of tat. I really hate it when you see bobbly, old, worn, wash out Primark basic T shirts that cost £1 new and they want £4 for them.

Clothes is mainly the area I look at but most shops sell bric a brac for great prices. You can get some lovely items such as picture frames and ornaments for very little money. You often hear of people buying big names like Clarice Cliff without knowing and the item turns out to be worth a nice amount!

Books always sell well too, the beauty is you can buy the book for usually less than a pound, read it and give it back to the shop. Great for holiday books.


Overall I love anticipation and thrill of finding a bargain. It gives you the opportunity to add a bit of individual style to your outfits while ot costing you an awful lot too.

Summary: I love them.