Charity shops

Introduction

Some of the benefits of charity shops in the UK :

• Their trading raises over £110 million a year for good causes.
• They play a major role in the re-use of second-hand goods (helping the environment, eg reducing landfill and global warming) - see the re-use & recycling page for details.
• They're a more effective way of raising money for good causes than house-to-house collections (see the donations page for more on this).
• They publicise the good causes they represent, and many provide leaflets and information/advice.
• They receive £ millions annually in cash donations.
• 120,000 volunteers donate their time, by working in charity shops.
• They provide good-quality, inexpensive goods - helping the less well off.

See the website of the Association of Charity Shops (ACS) for a wealth of information on charity shops, including a searchable database of over 90% of the charity shops in the UK.

Charity shops - a shoppers' guide

Prices of goods

The prices listed below are typical of charity shops in SE England. The figures are only a rough guide.

Expect to pay less or more for an item, depending on factors such as :

• location of the charity shop
• brand
• price when originally purchased new
• quality when originally purchased new (eg Primark vs M&S)
• whether the item is still new/unused
• whether it's in the original packaging
• if it's in its original packaging, is it still sealed?
• current condition - any missing parts, damage, wear-and-tear, cleanliness etc
• age of item
• time of year (especially for seasonal clothes)
• whether it's 'collectable'

As a very general guide, second-hand goods in charity shops sell for around 15% of their new price.

In extreme cases, items are sold for as much as 75% of their new price - for example something bought only a few months before, and still sealed and unopened - such as an unwanted present.

Some charity shops sell their goods at below-average prices in order to increase flow/turnover, especially if they're short of space.

Price marking - Most charity shops mark the prices on the goods (or on a notice nearby) - especially the large chains like Oxfam.

Where shops don't display prices, it saves them time (and labels) - but this can lead to problems :

• Some people will be put off buying an item unnecessarily, as their expectation of the price they'll be asked to pay at the counter is too pessimistic. So the shop loses the sale.
• It tends to result in hurried, arbitrary pricing at the counter - by a volunteer who may quote an inappropriate price.
• If too high, this can lead to embarrassing haggling and sometimes even arguments.
• If too low, the shop has lost some revenue.
• Bear in mind that trading standards departments advise that goods and services should normally be priced.

Furniture

Electrical and electronic goods

a) Mains-powered electrical items :

Examples:  TVs, microwaves, table lamps, hair driers, vacuum cleaners, fax machines.

When these items are sold second-hand, government Regulations now require that they're tested for safety before being put on sale. This has to be done by a suitably skilled person. The testing includes checking the wiring of plugs, earthing and any damage to cables.

Accordingly some charity shops won't accept donations of any mains electrical equipment.

Other shops have suitably qualified staff (often volunteers, such as retired electricians) who check out donated electrical goods and weed out (and scrap) any unsafe ones.

Sometimes you'll find cryptic labels on second-hand electrical goods with an item reference number and date. These are added by the charity shop and refer to a log book they keep of all electrical items which they have checked and approved, with an entry for each item - giving reference number, description, date checked and name of examiner. So now you know.

In our experience, around 10-15% of charity shops accept mains-powered electrical goods.

We've visited charity shops which sell hi-fi's, televisions and even white goods like fridges, cookers and washing machines.

b) Low voltage electrical equipment :  This is exempt from the Regulations described above - because there's no risk of electric shock. Examples:

• battery-powered :
  torches, shavers, clocks, radios, toys etc
• telephones, computer mice, computer keyboards, USB-powered scanners.

All charity shops can sell donations of these types of equipment, without any testing.

A rough-and-ready rule is, if an electrical item has a mains plug, the item needs to be tested.

Second-hand computer equipment

See above for general points concerning electrical goods.

Some charity shops accept donations of old computer equipment for sale, especially peripherals. Computers pose a greater problem - partly because they have a hard drive. This may have private data needing to be wiped (rather than just deleted). Also there's the issue of licensing of any software on the machine.

There are a number of specialist charities which take unwanted computer equipment and either :

• give it to good causes, or
• sell it - with the proceeds going to good causes.

Some of these organisations refurbish/overhaul the equipment before sale - for example cleaning items, testing, wiping any hard drive of data, and installing a minimum of (legal) software - usually just Windows.

Computer software

Software is an unusual commodity - with most software (strictly speaking) you're not buying the product, but buying a licence to use it. However, normally it can be re-sold legitimately, so long as it's original (and not a copy).

Software publishers (like Microsoft, Corel, Borland and Adobe) maintain they take their social responsibilities seriously. We trust that they recognise the social benefits of selling their products second-hand in charity shops - so raising revenue for good causes and promoting re-use/recycling.

If you're donating software, try to include as much as possible of the original product - such as discs, user guides, licensing/registration documents and packaging (if you still have it).

Books

Arrangement - Some charity shops don't put their books in any order. However, many shops organise them, separating fiction from non-fiction (reference etc), and organising non-fiction by subject. We've visited shops which are as well categorised as any public library - with posh labels and signage. One of these days we'll find a shop using Dewey Decimal Classification.

Non-fiction categories commonly used include:  children's books, health, cookery, gardening, DIY, science/technology, computing, business, humour, languages, religion, art, music, history, travel and biography. A number of shops we've visited (eg Oxfam) organise fiction A-Z by author.

Pricing - Some shops use simple methods such as :

• all books 50p
• paperbacks 20p, hardbacks 50p
• under 200 pages: 30p, 200-400 pages: 50p, over 400 pages: 75p

These methods minimise the work for the staff - they don't have to decide on a price for each book individually (a time-consuming and skilled job) or to mark each book with a price.

Some shops display a notice stating that all books are (say) 50p "unless otherwise marked". This is a nice method because it allows them to charge more (or less) for certain books.

A few shops put price labels on the spines of books - this means you don't need to lift out each book to find the price.

Bookshops - A number of Oxfam charity shops are bookshops (ie they sell only books). These tend to be in cities, especially where there is a university - such as the one in Oxford.

Magazines

Some charity shops sell donated magazines such as women's titles, computing, Which?, gardening, cookery, embroidery, National Trust, RHS and Reader's Digest. Prices charged range from 5p to 50p. 25p is typical. However, many shops are reluctant to sell magazines. We'd like to see them stocked more often.

We know of some charity shops (and public libraries) which allow customers to take magazines without charge.

At recycling centres we've been saddened to see hundreds of recent good-quality magazines (in perfect condition) dumped - destined for pulping. Surely people would buy these if they saw them in charity shops?

Other points

Hours of opening - Typical hours for high street charity shop chains are :

Mon-Fri	9-5
Sat	9-5
Sun	Closed

Smaller chains of charity shops and one-off shops tend to have more restricted hours, such as 10-3.30.

Only about 2% of charity shops open on Sundays - for example the FARA chain in London. However, the number is increasing.

Occasionally a charity shop has to close unexpectedly early (or even doesn't open at all on certain days), because of problems with availability of voluntary staff - sickness etc.

Displaying clothes - Some shops fill the racks randomly. Most organise them. We've come across two systems :

• arranged by size (our preference)
• arranged by colour

Shoppers' rights - If you buy second-hand goods in a charity shop, they're usually sold "as seen", so it's your responsibility to check for damage etc. If you return goods, many charity shops will at least give you a credit note - but often not a cash refund. It always helps if you produce the receipt, and return the goods as soon as possible.

If you buy new goods in a charity shop, you have same rights as in normal shop, run for profit. So, if the goods are faulty, you're entitled a cash refund.

When dealing with charity shops, most shoppers tend to be more good-natured on these matters compared with commercially run shops. After all, the goods are mostly donated, the proceeds all go to the charity, and most of the staff are volunteers.

Giving your unwanted goods to charity shops

Delivering your donations - If you take goods to a charity shop, remember some have restricted opening hours (see above). If they're closed when you get there, we'd advise you not to leave your goods there (in the doorway). They may get stolen before the shop reopens, they can be a fire risk and they can cause security alerts. Bring them back another day, or see if there's another charity shop open nearby. Why not telephone the shop and check they'll be open before going, to save a wasted journey?

Condition of goods - Remember that many charity shops can't sell things if they're in poor condition - dirty, seriously damaged etc. If your unwanted goods are dirty (especially clothes), wash them first before donating them.

If an item is in good condition apart from (say) a missing button, why not mend it yourself before donating it? It will fetch more money in the shop. In fact some shops reject any donated clothing item with defects - they'll sell it to rag merchants (or scrap it). This may seem fussy, but it can pay off - because their shops will get a reputation for selling consistently good-quality merchandise. Then they sell more and can charge higher prices.

Sometimes you'll find slightly defective goods in charity shops. Most shops adjust the price to reflect this. Some helpfully list the defect on their label, especially if it wouldn't be obvious to a shopper - eg "top button missing", "slight scratch on base" or "three pieces missing" (jigsaw). If you're donating such goods, you'll help the shop if you attach a written note to the item pointing out the defect.

You can clean some non-clothing goods too before donating them - for instance ceramics, glass and plastic items and books.

Books

• Cleaning - Many modern books have wipe-clean covers (a cellophane or plastic coating). You can clean these with a damp rag or (better still) methylated spirit (obtainable from high street chemists and DIY stores). A few minutes of your time preparing a book (cleaning, erasing pencilled annotations etc) can add 50p to its sale value.
• Repairing - If you repair a book, don't use ordinary Sellotape-type sticky tape, because it deteriorates within a couple of years (it yellows and oozes adhesive). Instead, use a permanent tape such as :
  • 3M Scotch 'invisible' Magic tape (or equivalent)
  • 3M Scotch book tape - obtainable from library suppliers such as Don Gresswell - tel 01992 454511
  • transparent polythene repair tape

See the page contents list at the top of the page for sections on donating specific types of second-hand goods - eg furniture, electrical goods, computers.

Turnover, costs and profits of charity shops

£££
+/- The three figures are :

• Turnover = sales = revenue
• Costs = overheads = expenses
• Profits = turnover minus costs = the net proceeds available for good causes

Statistics

There are around 7,500 charity shops in the UK (as at 2008).

Turnover nationally - According to the Association of Charity Shops (ACS), the annual turnover of UK charity shops in 2007 was around £550 million.

Turnover per shop - The average was about £75,000 in 2007.

New goods - Increasingly, charity shops are selling new goods as well as second-hand donations. The new goods are bought in. They're often ethically produced fair-trade products (tea, craft items etc), produced in developing countries - such as those sold in Oxfam's shops. Cards are stocked by many charity shops.

The ACS estimates that the proportions are as follows (for 2007) :

Second-hand goods (donated)	93%
New goods (bought-in)	7%

Costs and profits (the amounts raised for good causes)

Inevitably, part of the turnover of charity shops gets absorbed by costs - such as rent, maintenance, insurance, shopfitting, heating, lighting, tills, bags.

As to staff costs, most of the staff in charity shops are volunteers. There are 120,000 of them in the UK according to the ACS (2008). Some shops refund volunteers' expenses - eg travel.

Over the last few years, there's been a trend to use some paid staff - eg the shop manager. Although this adds to costs, the idea is that it more than pays for itself by improving organisation, continuity, window displays etc.

Charity shops get certain tax concessions - eg in respect of VAT and non-domestic rates.

%The Association of Charity Shops estimates that the costs of running charity shops in the UK amount to about 80% of turnover.

The remaining 20% is the 'profit' - in other words the net amount raised for good causes. This totalled £110 million in 2007.

Increasing the turnover and profits

We feel the turnover figures could be increased by perhaps 10% if bogus and poor-value house-to-house charity collections were eliminated, and the goods went to charity shops instead. Please see Our aims page for more on the principles. This doesn't involve asking people to donate more goods - it just means making sure that all of the goods go to charity shops rather than being swallowed up by bogus and poor-value collections. It's analogous to water companies dealing with leaking mains pipes, so saving water.

A second way of increasing the turnover of charity shops is by encouraging more people to donate goods per se, rather than throwing them away (eg to landfill) or sending them for materials recycling (rather than re-use).

A third way of increasing the turnover is by encouraging more people to buy second-hand goods from charity shops - in other words by increasing the demand.

We were shocked by the TV advertisements for a furniture superstore chain a while back, which showed unwanted household items (in saleable condition) being thrown out of first-floor windows into rubbish skips in the street. OK, so it was done for dramatic effect, but it still seemed irresponsible.

Conversely we praise BBC2's programme on clearing out your junk called The Life Laundry, for encouraging people to give their unwanted goods to charity shops.

Recently, some charity shops (such as Sue Ryder) have started applying gift aid to donations of goods. People donating goods are invited to sign a declaration showing they are taxpayers, and the charity is able to claim back tax on their behalf (in a similar way to cash donations).

The Association of Charity Shops (ACS)

Their website includes an excellent database of 7,000 charity shops in the UK, searchable by town or postcode.

See our page on the The Association of Charity Shops.

The Irish Charity Shops Association (ICSA)

Website : www.icsa.ie  

The Association covers Eire (the Irish Republic).  The introduction on their home page states (at October 2009) :

"We are a membership organisation that supports charities that run shops in Ireland as part of their fundraising activities. All our members have CHY registration with the Revenue Commissioners.

Members range from large national charities to smaller locally based ones and currently our members operate over 200 shops throughout Ireland."

Their website has a database of the 200 Irish charity shops.

There's a useful cautionary page on door-to-door clothing collections : www.icsa.ie/icsa/Main/doorToDoor.htm  

Scambusters:  There's an excellent page on this school education project :  www.icsa.ie/icsa/Main/News_Scambusters.htm  

" Stella Maris students in Waterford 
Scambusters Project
Stella Maris students for their YSI project chose to highlight the problem of bogus charity collectors in an enterprising and colourful way "

You can download a 7-page report on the Scambusters project and a 2-page leaflet.  It offers a commendable model of how the issue can be tackled in an inspired way by schools and colleges - UK teachers take note!

Charity shops :
Related pages and Useful links

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