General Chat

Believe this or not Julia, I too buy jigsaw puzzles from charity shops, I love doing them, I have found a few Gibson or Jumbo puzzles in good condition and only yesterday found a wasjig, brand new, for £4.00, that's usually why I go in and also second hand books are always very reasonable. I usually keep mine upstairs in the wardrobe and then every year do a car boot and sell them.
Hi Rach,
I knew you were manager of a charity shop, Taff told me, I don't want to take this too far because the manageress of the shop was rather nice and very upset about this so I will wait and see what their head office says. When I put the thread up, I really didn't want to upset the good people out ther who give their whole for these charities, but just wondered if anyone else had had the same experience.

Barbara xx

I know Rach, I've never had a problem taking stuff in before, I think that woman must have noticed how glam I am and made a quick dash for my bags, lol. I'm the first one to know the world is not perfect, some people never miss a trick do they, but it's a damn shame for all the hard working folk out there and for the poor people who benefit.
I don't want to put people off from donating but this just made me mad.

Barb x

Speak later Rach, my nephew has just arrived

Barb xx

Well done for that, it must have been difficult, but if you hadn't had the courage to go in it might have continued, now it should stop xx

Hi Barbara ,
i'd just like to say well done ,
it must have taken a lot of courage for you to
go back to the shop and complain .
Lets hope you get a response from head office .
Hazelx

THIS IS DISGUSTING. BUT I'M AFRAID IT HAPPENS. I KNEW PEOPLE WHO DID VOLUNTARY WORK IN A CHARITY SHOP, AND THEY GOT THE FIRST PICK, AND NOT MUCH OF IT, IF ANY, WAS PAID FOR.

AN OLD BOSS OF MINE NOW WORKS AS AN ASST MANAGER IN A CHARITY SHOP, AND SHE SAID THEY GET FIRST CHOICE, BUT NOTHING CHEAPER THAN THE PUBLIC WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.

I NOW PUT MY STUFF INTO RECYCLING BINS IN SHOP SUPERMARKETS, AS I WAS SICK OF PUTTING BAGS OUT FOR COLLECTION, AND THEM NOT BEING COLLECTED. THE ONLY ONE THAT WAS EVER COLLECTED WAS THE ONE FOR CANCER CHARITY.

Barbara,
Just wanted to say well done on making a stand!!
Also, this morning I went into the charity shop where I work and I told all the other Friday volunteers about what had happened to you and they were all angry and dismayed. We had a big discussion about it and there were a couple of points that they asked me to pass on with regard to a couple of comments posted on this thread (apologies but I can't remember who made the various comments).
Donated goods sometimes take several days to be sorted so if you go back to the shop in the next day or so, your item may not be visible simply because it hasn't been sorted yet. Anything that looks like it may be worth a bit more is set aside and is independently priced for us before going into the shop.
Also, clothing items are examined for tears, marks, missing buttons etc before being priced and put on hangers. They then go onto a rail to be steamed before going onto the shop floor. Again, this process can take a few days.
There are strict regulations with regard to electrical goods (all ours get sent away to be tested, before they go on sale in the shop).
We also exchange goods with other local charity shops of the same name (ie if we have a lot of jeans/trousers but are short on coats/jackets)
So there are various reasons why you may not see an item you donated.
We agreed though, that there are always going to be people who take advantage of the system if they can.
As with every charity we do get a certain amount of unsaleable items - chipped/broken crockery, electrical goods that don't work, etc. We also get bags of unwashed clothes and various other items that I wouldn't mention on here. We happily take 'rags' and old books as these can all be recycled. We get a bit of money for the 'rag bags' so hardly anything gets wasted.
I can only reiterate that we do our best to ensure that the majority of items that are donated to us do get into the shop.

Edit: Just read Rach's post (~ to Rach!).
We also get the occasional customer who waltzes off without paying for items and we also had a gang changing price labels but in the main we have a fantastic bunch of regular customers, (some of whom come in on a daily basis) helping us keep a good cause going.

Thank you to everyone who posted on here, I have read all the comments and thank you for your support.

It wasn't nice to go back into that shop, but at least that woman will no longer be there stealing and I hope she is thoroughly ashamed of herself .

Thank you for your support, I will let you all know what happens.

Barbara xx

Hi Barbara. Just to say you did the right thing. Well done. :-))
x

Congratulations on making a stand Barbara.