Charity Begins at Home! (Charity Shops in general)

Member Name: zebra

Product:	Charity Shops in general
Date:	12/08/01 (1047 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enviromentally friendly way to shop for bargains and help a charity at the same time.

Disadvantages: Shops do have a lot of rubbish

I have helped in a couple of charity shops in the past but got rather disillusioned at the last one. I discovered that the manager had a bit of a racket going for herself and was selling the cream of the stuff to dealers and had even opened her own ‘charity’ clothes shop elsewhere in the area. Now I help at the annual charity shop which we have in the village.

The shop runs throughout August in the church hall and it is something between a jumble sale and a charity shop with prices reflecting this. Every penny raised goes to the chosen charity project – it is a different one each year. Being an avid bargain hunter I visited the shop nearly every day anyway so I thought I might as well help. OK – I admit it one of the reasons I agreed to help was not so much altruism but the opportunity to get first chance at the books, and anything else which grabs my attention.

In spite of car boot sales, e-bay auctions and the competition of other charities people are still incredibly generous. Sometimes the donations are almost unbelievable – so far this year we have had a pair of beautiful Victorian boudoir chairs, an oak coffer worth £250, a vase worth £150 and a few other valuables from a collector, a complete dinner service, a whole box of recently released computer games and immaculate computer books on programming, brand new trendy exercise equipment, sports equipment etc.

Unpacking the stuff is always fun because we never know if we will find some treasures – usually we don’t and the bin liner is more often than not full of outdated clothing of dubious quality. But there are always gems tucked away in the junk. Plenty of ‘as new’ designer labels are mixed with the mass of M&S. One thing does puzzle me though – that ‘smell’. Most charity shops still have that indescribable but very distinctive ‘smell’ and ours is no exception. But the strange thing is that nearl
y everything we unpack is obviously clean and neatly packed so where does it come from?

Helpers do get the pick of the items coming in but there are no special prices for us. All items which are recognised as valuable are priced by the various ‘experts’ we have available. But it is a case of supply and demand - there are always certain collector’s items we miss or know are too specialised to achieve their full value at our shop. These are the real bargains to be found. For example many old children’s books are very collectable now as are original Corgi cars etc but many of the ‘old dears’ who help do not recognise these as having any value and put them with the toys. And this is the type of stuff that brings in the dealers and car boot entrepreneurs.

The dealer is usually quite easy to spot. He casts his eye over the bric-a-brac to see if there are any unrecognised antiques or collectibles but when he sees the antique copper kettle priced at £50 and the Portmerion jugs at ‘market prices’ he knows there is little chance and moves on. When he buys the bargain priced foot spa ‘for an old lady he knows’ the helper notices that his wallet is crammed to overflowing with notes.

Homing in on the men’s clothes rail he thinks he has found treasure – there are some beautiful shirts in perfect condition. He brings seven of the best in assorted sizes to me for pricing. He explains that he lives by himself and is not good at laundry – I remind him that this is a charity shop not a cheap source of ‘disposable’ shirts and he replies ‘Charity begins at home!’. He leaves with the ‘bargain’ shirts not realising that he paid at least twice as much as any genuine customer would have.

Then there is the lonely old man who comes every day and always spends £2 - £3 but he is really paying for the company it brings him. He arrives early and l
ingers to chat for most of the morning with everyone and anyone who will listen to his nostalgic stories.

Lady bountiful pays a few uneasy visits. She feels obliged to support the effort but would quite obviously rather not be there at all. Keeping well clear of the second hand clothes, ‘one never knows where they might have been, does one?’ she chooses a couple of pieces of china, which is easily disinfected, and generously parts with her 40p.

Finally, and I think this is rather sad, there are quite a few cheats and thieves. It is sad to think that even when the prices are as low as they could be and every penny is going to charity people still steal. There are a couple of people, yes we know who they are, who regularly peel of price labels of the more expensive items hoping to get them cheaper.

The bulk of the customers, however, are just ordinary people out for a bargain or two with the added extra bit of self satisfaction in knowing they will also be helping a charity.

I quite often visit local charity shops myself. Usually I go on a charity shop splurge and visit several to see what they have got. I always check the bookshelves hoping to find one of those elusive out of print books I want – but rarely do. Toys are worth checking too because the grandchildren always enjoy having something different to play with and don’t mind if it is not ‘new’.

I have got to know the local charity shops and which are most likely to have stuff I am interested in. I rarely bother with Oxfam because I think it is seriously over priced. But I sometimes pop into the Oxfam shop in Oxford to check the books (the first ever Oxfam shop) and have seen some really beautiful and fashionable clothes there but all in teeny-weeny sizes. This shop is probably targeting the students and although the prices seem expensive if compared to a jumble sale, they are far far cheaper than buying new. But other branches of
Oxfam in ‘bedsit land’ areas are much cheaper.

My daughter maintains that the charity shop on the High St. is particularly good just after the students have gone for the summer. Many of the students can’t be bothered or haven’t got room to pack all their stuff and the charity shops bulge at the seams with studenty bargains including ‘ball gowns’.

I don’t think it is worth going to charity shops if you are out to find under-priced antique bargains or clothes for pennies but if you care about the environment (in the sense that charity shops are an example of recycling at its best), fancy a nostalgia trip or want to do a little for charity they are well worth supporting either by helping or shopping.

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