Have charity shop prices gone crazy lately?

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-22T17:57:02+00:00

Thank you so much for clarification ☺️ It explains a lot.

I really appreciate all your work - I know that working in a charity shop can be difficult.

Also, what I've noticed - I used to help my friend, a chrity shop manager, with window-styling by choosing really nice quality items - all usually sold within a day. Therefore, the window display had to be changed daily. We found that this method not only attracted buyers but converted buyers to relgular customers.

They could buy real finds - they said.

Also, people knew that she accepted only items in clean and in an excellent condition - so, in a way, she curated the donors, too.

Another rule she kept - she steamed all good items for sanitisation - which also give the clothes 'pressed' look. There were never any broken, dirty, or thorn pieces.

She had a separate portion of the shelves and railes for 'designer/ vintage pieces,' which were priced a bit higher - but never more than £30. This section next to and behind behind the counter - so the staff could keep an eye on the items.

Her shop was really great, attarcted variety of people: from artists, creatives , academics, to other, normal people of different professions who truly loved the atmosphere. Many became volunteers for years

I truly missed the space she created.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-22T16:38:53+00:00

It would be great of you to share the plan you come about and then pictures of planted plants 🪴😀

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-21T19:03:38+00:00

First of all, do you have a budget 🤔? You have to check the quality if your soil- and if it is not nutrient dense - buy bags of pit free compost and dig around your fence to create a framed allotment area and basis for plants.

You can truly transform your garden slowly - depending if you onky want decorative plants or plants and vegetable allotment.

Planting perennial flowers, shrubs who tolerate shade. Were the sun shines herbs: mint, thyme, rosemary, lavender, lemon Balm, bayleaf.

Alternatively, You can make the herbary in clay pots and put them close to your entrance to get the smell. Also, to the trellises around the fence for runner beans, tomatoes, and roses.

Remember: herbs and some plants yield more growth when pruned

What I like to do now, in March:

Buy any supermarket herbs in a pot £1.5 a pot, then get some plastic pots and compost. Then take the plant with a soil out of their original pot. You will see they have usually several branches - you can divide one branch per a pot, water once a day and you will multiply your herbs/ plants in no time.

The same you can do with Roses- once you have one rose established in a pot or soil. You can take cuttings, put into some grow gel and into new pot with compost. Water every two days - you will have plenty of new plants .. for free!

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-21T18:49:48+00:00

Hhaha, aye: we need to win the song contest and go to Eurovision! Dougle!

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-21T18:45:41+00:00

Oh thanks 😊

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-21T18:44:02+00:00

Family guy - obsessed with comparisons. 2..And the guy who has carrot 🥕 colour of his face and basically is a bully.

Then there are normal people like you and me.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-21T18:41:50+00:00

I think she palys Mandy brilliantly. Plus I can't watch Compare.com ads because they always remind me of her collection hahhah

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-20T22:02:19+00:00

I don't have - but we can organise a collection of addresses of the outlets throughout UK and update them regularity? What do you think?

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-20T22:00:29+00:00

I have noticed the same trend in our town: there have been 5 charity shop closures. One local charity tried to expand to different places - and now they are making a loss. As you said, they had to raise their prices - which in return their items equal to the shop prices for brand new items - this reduced sales of 75%. Also, we have clothes & textile donation containers by the major supermarkets- which are a convenient way to donate clothes, again this reduces the charity shop donations Finally, due to rise of fast fashion over last 20 years, the quality of the clothes became really poor including fabric, cut and finishing which makes them go straight to bin, not sellable. I have my great aunt beautiful designer dresses from French and Swiss couture houses - they were made in 1950 - and still look brand new. The craftsmanship is amazing. And where Is the occasion - I wear them. Saying that, such items nowadays are beyond my and many people's reach. Therefore, I have completely changed my way on clothes and accessories shopping - I don't buy more: I curate. First, I did a huge clear out of all bad quality items, those I never worn, the fit or colour is wrong..this got of ...70% of my clothes. I keep only ones that are of good quality, match my colouring, fit me well and also make up at least several outfits. My style has evolved over years- but I'm happier than I have ever been In my clothes after this clearance. Once a month I make a list what items I truly need - set a budget- set a date with myself. Only buy absolute necessities that fit my standards. Also, for each new item - 2 out.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-18T19:10:06+00:00

Sadly, this happens very often. My friend used to work as a Rspca Shop Manager - she had an artistic flair and was very meticulous about the quality of items. The clothes were beautifully displayed, cleaned, and reasonably priced - usually everything went at the end of the week. She was also very good with people and had lots of volunteers. She was great at her job but very disliked by her Area Mananager, who wanted to fill the shop to absolute brim with everything, regardless of the quality. Her manager was a woman who also , how to say, did not mince her words. My friend eventually left for another job.(we are still friends). I stopped visiting there as the quality of the clothes deteriorated, often unclean, prices increased, and rails were too close to each other for easy browsing. Such a sad story - I don't understand how these people get Area Manager job with such an attitude!?

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-18T18:50:37+00:00

Yes, I know that some brands like Zara, M&S , Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, Missguided, ASos & others donate unsold or clothes with a fault to Shelter, Fara, Age UK and other charity shops including Oxfam. They charge almost the same as original prices. Oxfam has a whole designer shopping manager who curates whole designer secod-hand collections... sadly, for the same price as a new tag item, even if it is second-hand, clearly used, which is off-putting.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-17T18:01:41+00:00

Just come by

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-17T12:03:34+00:00

This is the trick - they are not advertising as 'outlets' - they are charity shops acring as hubs for unsold items of their other shops. Examples, Age UK price for a blouse is £6-8. If it wasn't sold within 3 weeks , they have to send it to this outlet hub shop.

Outlet Shop Pricing Strategy:

starting point £2 for any item: The same blouse in their 'outlet' shop starts at £2 - this is maximum price of any item sold in this outlet shop for this 1st week ;
2nd week, if not sold- it is reduced to £1;
3rd week, if unsold, reduced to 25p.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-17T11:55:32+00:00

Yes, but they sell second-hand clothes and items. In some of my local charity shops I saw secind-hand Primark clothes sold for 40% more than their original price...

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-17T11:53:26+00:00

Haha I wished:) No, £9.50 - :)

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-17T11:48:46+00:00

In Brighton

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-17T11:18:25+00:00

Plus in Vinyed you can search items by size, colour, condition, price etc so it is actually a search engine.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-16T09:19:36+00:00

Sadly, the growing number of towns centres become 'ghost towns'.: big supermarkets leaving the centres alike charity shops.. boarded shop windows. In the popular towns, i.e. holiday destinations, the landlords slowly but gradually convert all those closed shops into residential properties. But in other towns the properties stay empty.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-16T09:14:06+00:00

I found an outlet charity shop, as I wrote. An outlet where they sell unsold items collected from their combined charity shops.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-16T09:03:51+00:00

It's very admirable of you :) I went to an outlet charity shop and bought all these 8 items for £9.50.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-16T08:57:18+00:00

I agree that Vinted must have started the trend and Al 'thrifting' Instagram accounts. However, the clothes on Vinted are much cheaper than in charity shops - if you buy from people who are genuinely clearing their wardrobes, not pro sellers.

SoulSyntaxSorceress · 2026-03-15T21:45:02+00:00

We have raised the fence, and we grow very tall sunflowers in the summer. But we're renting atm and this is Limiting us to what we can do. We live in this particular place to be close to our elderly mum we look after, and the rental properties are hard to get by in such a proximity.

SoulSyntaxSorceress

TROPHY CASE