Dilemma 2.

I just wanted to follow up on my last blog post as it raised a number of differing opinions.

It's important to me personally that a charity shop is more than a retailer, it's a social enterprise. They're a place to get information and support, to get work experience, to get back on your feet - that goes for both volunteers who may have been ill and out of work and need experience and for those on a low income who need a cheap suit for an interview to improve their situation. They should be mutually beneficial for customers and staff.

I'm against price hikes because I'm against charities becoming big businesses which isolate sections of the community.

I remember once going into a charity shop with my mum who was in her mid-fifties at the time. The shop had recently been redone with these beautiful shop fittings and shiny wood floors and the stock had changed and the prices had increased to match the surroundings. My mum whispered to me 'this is just for young people now'. That was someone who had supported that particular charity for many many years, had a personal connection with it and now felt pushed out.

The charity shop was somewhere you could always go and be accepted. When I managed charity shops, elderly people would come in for a chat because they lived an isolated life - for some, talking in a shop is the only contact they had all day. They're also a place for people with poor mental or physical health to socialise and build relationships.

Poverty is on the rise in the UK, mental health issues are also on the rise. 'Traditional' charity shops play a massive part in supporting those affected. I know for certain a lot of the volunteers I worked with would never have approached a 'higher end' charity shop to gain experience.

Maybe there is call for a new-era charity shop where all the higher end items go but I think charities have a responsibility to carefully consider the area they're thinking of opening up in and consider if it could be detrimental.

I think a boutique-style shop is intimidating to some people - customers and potential volunteers alike - and something charities should never be is inaccessible - that's really the exact opposite of what they stand for.

Char x

Designer dilemma.

'Burberry Trench Coat £99'

This is the shop window of Oxfam on Oldham Street in Manchester which sits at the heart of the Northern Quarter - an area of Manchester full of vintage shops and quirky cafes and bars. The pricing in the shop is not that of a standard charity shop - most items are about £20 - but I've never seen anything over £30 in there until today and it got me thinking...

Is it really okay to charge nearly £100 for an item in a charity shop - designer or not?

Some people would argue that charities should get as much money as possible from their stock - it's going towards a good cause, right? Say you see a nice Topshop top in a charity shop - you probably wouldn't resent paying £3 for it, which might be about 10% of its original price. Burberry trench coats are currently retailing on Net-a-porter for about £1000 - logically, that's the same discount.

The comments on my 'In support of smaller charities' blog raised a few points - one of the most poignant was from Amie at Credit Crunch Chic who said she had seen a Cos dress in a charity shop priced at £25 when everything else on the rail was £5. Amie suggested that charities should price according to their market. As someone who complained about paying £2 for a second hand book, you won't be surprised to learn that I agree! I'm quite tight with money by nature (I budget to the penny) but seeing prices like that this morning really gets my back up.

I read a few news articles when I was researching this blog which were based around people complaining about price hikes in local charity shops. Many of the arguments were that families with low incomes are being priced out of the charity shops they rely on to clothe themselves and their children. It really bothers me that the big players are losing sight of their most loyal customer base. Many people raise with me that high prices put them off charities as a whole - they don't even bother to shop in a particular charities shops because they know they'll get annoyed. It's bad PR of shops to price out of their market and they just end up looking greedy. They did get the stock for free after all.

I'm not losing sight of the fact that these shops are there to make money, I'm just saying most clothing doesn't retain its value once you carry it out of the shop the first time around, let alone the second or third! I also had a quick look on ebay for Burberry trench coats and the prices there were less than Oxfam were charging - I just don't understand how they got to £99!

I really feel that as a consumer body we're paying the price for the growing success of many charities in a time of economic difficulty but I hope people are becoming wise to this - taking their custom to smaller, more fairer priced shops. Hopefully it'll encourage the larger chains to rethink their pricing plans.

Char x

Binky-gate.

Last Monday, Made in Chelsea’s Binky Felstead found herself on the front cover of The Sun after reportedly being paid £20,000 to front an advertising campaign for the children’s charity Barnardo’s. It later emerged that the fee amount reported may have been inflated from £3,000 but this did little to placate the critics of both Felstead and the charity who stated it was both wrong of Binky to take a fee from a non-profit organisation and wrong of the charity to spend its donations doing so.

The comments are still rolling in on Binky’s Instagram – the picture of her holding a handwritten sign saying ‘Please follow @barnardosretail on Instagram’ which caused the outrage is still live. But is the hatred justified?

Shortly after the news broke, the CEO of Barnardo’s, Javed Khan, posted a blog on the charity’s official website in which he stated that Barnardo’s hoped the campaign with Felstead would drum up ‘£100,000 of donated stock’. That’s £97,000 of profit, which by anybody’s standards would be a good business transaction. Barnardo’s have 590 charity shops, which raise over £11m per year selling donated goods. They also reported £285.8m in income last year alone – that’s big money. They spent just over £278m of that – their largest expenditure pot was nearly £206m on ‘charitable activities’ which in non-annual report speak I think means helping out the disadvantaged children that the charity was set up to support. If you look at it like that, £3000 is a drop in the ocean.

It seems to me that the people who were really shocked by this have been slow to cotton on to the fact that many charities have been operating like businesses for years. Leo Benedictus, writing for The Guardian online, raised the point that charities have bills and salaries to pay and they’re subject to no discounts when they advertise on television or in print. Charity shops are not only competing with the lower end of the high street, they’re competing with each other and there’s only so many donations to go around. Can you blame Barnardo’s for trying to get ahead? When outside agencies and the media treat them like businesses are they wrong to act as one?

People don’t like to think of charities as businesses, I know I don’t, but sadly, I don’t think enough money can be raised on good will alone. When you buy from a charity shop, you’d be naïve to think your money goes directly to benefitting someone. Charities employ thousands of people and those employees need to be paid before any funds can be raised. You wouldn’t expect those employees to work for nothing, you wouldn’t criticise them or say they weren’t true supporters of the charity for taking charity money each month because you know they need money to survive.

Is Binky just different because she’s famous for being on a television programme all about flaunting excessive wealth? Maybe she was just a bad choice on Barnardo’s part.

But just a word about salaries – across the charity retail sector, they’re awful. Having worked in the sector in the past, I can also say that Barnardo’s are one of the worst in terms of remuneration of their charity shop managers. £3,000 is nearly three months salary for the majority of charity shop managers who work really hard to meet near-to-impossible retail targets and in difficult staffing environments. All Binky did was hold up a sign.
Furthermore, your average charity shop probably looks to make about £170 a day, which is just over £5,000 a month. Yesterday, I watched my favourite charity shop close its doors for the last time. The decision was made to close the shop because they weren’t making enough money. I’m sure their deficit last year wasn’t more than a few thousand – would it not be better to plough a £3,000 celebrity fee into making up a shortfall like that in order to keep a shop open, keep the staff in their jobs, keep the charity on the high street and raise awareness that way?

But then we’re back to ethics versus business decisions.

My other gripe with this came after reading something on the Barnardo’s blog in which Mr Khan, CEO states ‘Charities are facing enormous pressure to meet the demands of our celebrity-focused culture…Barnardo’s is fortunate in the number of celebrities who are willing to give up their time free to support the direct work we do with children…[but] we have struggled in the past to find celebrities to front recent retail campaigns’.

(Let’s put aside that Mr Khan’s salary is no doubt six figures and there’s been no media outrage directed at him, which forced him to donate some of it back).

Are charities forced to meet the demands of a celebrity-focused culture? That’s news to me. People shop in charity shops because they like the excitement of a potential hidden treasure and because they don’t always want to pay high prices. I, for one, could not care less if someone from a reality show is displayed in the window of a shop! What were Barnardo’s hoping to gain? They say they needed help driving donations. Binky posted a link to an Instagram page which showcases some items found in different Barnardo’s stores – there’s nothing about donating? When the news broke, I had a look at Binky’s Instagram and there was another photo (which has since been removed) showing her doing some kind of fashion shoot for the charity. I suspect that has now been canned but surely showing what gems you can find in a Barnardo’s shop would’ve been a better direction to go in?

Some charities are a bit of a different breed – Barnardo’s is one of them, there’s big money involved and they seem to want to keep expanding. Sometimes that’s not always for the best – just look at Tesco.
For the record, I think it’s wrong that Binky even considered accepting £3,000 for displaying a poorly-written sign on Instagram and I’d be very upset with my employer if I was a Barnardo’s shop manager earning £12,000 a year but I think it’s silly of people to say they won’t donate to Barnardo’s anymore of they won’t shop there. It’s naïve to think that when you buy a £4 jumper in a charity shop, a child or an older person or an animal is somehow £4 better off. It just doesn’t work like that. Barnardo’s didn’t use your money to pay Binky but they do seem to have a strange idea of what us charity shop lovers want! I'll be very interested to see how damaging or beneficial this will be when the next annual report surfaces.

Char x

Stamping feet.

Today I took my boyfriend on a very romantic, post Valentine's weekend....charity shop wander. The poor sausage took the whole day off work to follow me around 30+ shops and spend half the day on the bus!

My first purchase was this ring from the British Red Cross shop in Hyde. I fell in love with the design of it immediately and it only set me back 50p! The Red Cross is one of my favourite shops in the Greater Manchester area - the staff use the floor space really well and the clothes are presented nicely in colour blocks.  

The British Red Cross have a partnership with H&M which means they get some of the end of season unsold items which would otherwise go to landfill. I think this is an excellent idea - it brings a younger customer base to the shops who will undoubtably browse the rest of the shop and raise even more money. They also have damaged H&M items - bags with faulty zips, jumpers with small holes etc. Nothing they stock in this section is beyond repair. I've had a few pieces from this range and just hand sewn them. 

The next stop was St Ann's Hospice in Cheadle which I'm always dying to take people to! The shop front is nothing out of the ordinary and the ground floor stocks normal charity shop wares but when you go upstairs, the shop transforms! There are two rooms upstairs - one is a wedding section filled with beautiful wedding and bridesmaids dresses, suits and hats. The other is pictured below - it's a vintage clothing and home-wares section converted from an old bar and coffee lounge (shame about the Lidl bag in shot!). I love this room, especially the design of the glass in the ceiling. It's a shame the charity don't advertise the rooms more as I think it would really attract more visitors!

I also picked up this dark green shirt in Barnardo's in Cheadle - it was from the £1.99 shop I mentioned in a previous post. It has really cute little buttons and I like the pocket details.
The breaking news about Barnardo's hadn't seem to have put off the Cheadle residents as the shop was as busy as ever!

I paid £1 for this gold coloured necklace in Cancer Research. I haven't bought a new statement necklace in ages - I'll probably wear it every day for about a month and then it'll never be seen again!

My final purchase was this black Asos dress which cost £4.25, again from Cancer Research but the Withington shop this time. There were two very similar black dresses hanging on the same rail which I could've snapped up too - no doubt they were all in the same donation!

Not a great day in terms of the ratio of shops visited:purchases made. Having said that, I've been going a bit mad recently! I bought three items from Age UK in Sale on Friday - the gorgeous coat I posted on Instagram which cost £2.49, a white blouse with collar which was £1.20 and a great jumper, also £1.20. Everything is half price in the shop in preparation for them closing down on the 21st Feb. I felt really sad going in, especially now the charity have pulled the closing date forward a week. I dropped in with a present for the Assistant Manager as it was her last day and felt a little bit teary handing it over.

Has anyone visited the St Ann's shop in Cheadle or any other shops with unusual design or history?

Char x

In support of smaller charities/end of an era.

On Wednesday, I was having a browse in Age UK in Sale and was told the shop is to close at the end of February. 

To give a bit of background, I used to be the manager of one of the charity shops in Sale. My first experience of Age UK was before my old shop opened when me and some of the volunteers went to have a nosy around our soon-to-be competitors. I thought 'this shop is tiny and it's a shame everything is squished'. Over the ten months I was in charge at the shop, I built up relationships with the other shop managers in the area (swapping money when the banks were closed, helping each other bring donations in etc) and of all the shops on Sale high street, I by far had the best relationship with the staff and volunteers in Age UK. 

Since leaving the charity sector at the end of 2013, I'd say I still call into Age UK at least once a week - sometimes it's a lot more often. I donate all my clothes there and my only Gift Aid membership is with them and that's not at all because I believe their cause is the greatest (I have no idea how they help older people) - it's because they've remained fair with prices and because the people in there are a joy to talk to.

I shouldn't've judged the book by its cover - the shop may be small and short on floor space but the stock is good and the people are kind and interested in their customers. That's rare and it should count for something. 

I'm devastated the shop is to close. Part of my devastation is based on my friendship with the staff and I'm sad that they have to find new jobs after putting so much of their time and energy into the shop. It breaks my heart that a shop that has been part of the community for so long will soon cease to exist. 

The big players in the charity sector do a lot of harm to the smaller shops - they simply can't compete with rental prices for better premises, more eye-catching advertising, paying their Sales Assistants in some cases (anyone who's from or been to Sale will know which charity I'm referring to!). 

But to me, that's forgetting what charity really is. These shops started as something for the community and that's been lost. It's not charitable to force smaller shops out of business. It's not charitable that those staff members lose their livelihood. Each of these charities started with someone who had an idea about making life better for other people - be they old people or people with disabilities or people with life threatening diseases. That's been clouded by a drive to make more and more profit which at the end of the day, mainly goes towards paying the six-figure salaries of those at the top. 

I had a message on Instagram earlier from a girl called Cherelle saying she had a lot of clothes to donate. She asked me which charity she thought I should donate it to as she's 'all for charity but it seems some charity shops aren't'. She's absolutely right and I hope more people give that some thought.

Why do most people shop in charity shops? Because they want something nice for cheap. It's just a convenient by-product that the money might go to helping someone. 

There's nothing wrong with wanting a bargain - all I hope to get across is don't dismiss a shop because it doesn't have gleaming white floors or attractive shop fittings or it's a local charity and you haven't heard of them before because they don't have TV adverts. They need your support all the more because of it and I can almost guarantee they'll appreciate that donation or that purchase all the more.

Age UK will close at the end of February and the staff might walk away with no job to go to after dedicating years of their life to raising money to help others. For me, charity shops make UK high streets what they are. Volunteering in these shops changes the lives of thousands of people each year. I don't want to look around in a few years time to find the big charities are all that remain.

Any thoughts?

Char x

Impulse purchases.

So, I am never not in the mood for a charity shop browse but after my success last weekend, I'd got the bug a bit so I left for work early on Tuesday in order to have a quick look in the shops in Sale. 

I decided to go in British Heart Foundation for once. It's not that I'm against big charities (BHF reported the largest retail profits for a few years), I just find smaller or local charities to be better priced and generally friendlier (less business-like). I ended up being quite glad I did...

The first thing I saw was this sheer dark red and gold sequin top. It's actually in pretty good condition and I can't see any gaps in the sequins, miraculously! I paid £3.49 for it. I can't quite work out when I'm going to wear it though as I always wear dresses on nights out and it's a bit too sparkly for day to day! Luckily for me, it just looks quite pretty hanging on my clothes rail...

The next thing I picked up was this cropped white Topshop jumper. It was £3.29. There was a note on the tag saying it was marked and therefore discounted but I'm yet to find it! 

So Wednesday came around and I just hadn't had a successful enough week yet so I got another early tram and ventured into Age UK and was greeted by some terrible news (which I'm actually going to dedicate my next blog to...). 

In there I found this thin black collared dress with cut out back. I'd actually had my eye on this last week but decided, as it was a few days before payday, that I couldn't afford its £2.29 price tag (it was a 6-week pay month over Christmas - I'm not a complete financial disaster!). I was lucky it was still there so flung it straight onto the till! I've worn it already this week and I'm quite surprised it fits! It's from Glamorous - a range where I always find the sizes to come up quite small (anyone else feel like that?).

I also picked up this dark denim skirt. I've not tried it on yet and I'm a bit concerned the shape is all wrong for me but for 99p, it was a chance worth taking and if it's not so good, I'll just donate it back to another shop!

The last stop of the week was St Ann's Hospice where I picked up this purple and black Miss Selfridge cropped jumper for £3.99. 

As if I haven't bought enough this week, I've just planned to go to Longford Park via Chorlton High Street tomorrow so I'll probably have procured something else this time tomorrow!

Can anyone rival my week?!

Char x

SK8.

I work every Saturday so my boyfriend and I try and do something fun every Sunday to try and make up for it. We were really struggling to think of somewhere to go today so I suggested we just get on a bus somewhere and see where we end up (my love of charity shopping is only rivalled by my love of public transport!). Our first stop was Withington which is actually one of my favourite areas for charity shops but disappointingly, everything was closed and one of my favourite places, Fuel (a veggie cafe and bar) was packed. We carried on to Stockport where a select few charity shops were open, although I didn't manage to find anything. There was a beautiful dark gold coloured ring with an amber ball detail in one of the shops but it was too big for my tiny fingers and I was a little horrified by the £10 price tag and awkwardly had to ask the lady to put it back in the cabinet.

It was about half past two by the time we'd had a look around Stockport and I suddenly thought of Cheadle. A quick Google search revealed my favourite charity shop was open until 4 so we bolted to the bus station! 

Cheadle high street is home to an impressive nine charity shops. I'd recommend the area to any charity lovers as the stock is generally good quality and well priced and you don't have to walk miles between each shop! I picked up five items in Barnardo's - two dresses, two skirts and a pair of trousers.

The first item I saw was this Gap denim-esque dress. It has such cute little sleeves and a really pretty shape. My only concern is it might be a little small - does anyone know what a Gap size 2 is?! I'm terrible for not trying things on in shops!

The next item was this Asos black skirt with faux-leather panel and zip detail. The photo makes it look like the bottom of the panel is the bottom of the skirt but thankfully, it isn't quite that revealing (that did take me a bit to work out!). I love black - it's by far my favourite colour and I have a lot of faux leather items so this skirt is a dream really!

I also picked up these skinny blue patterned trousers. I don't know about anyone else but I hardly ever find decent trousers in charity shops - they always seemed to be ragged at the bottom or a little scruffy looking and outdated but I absolutely love these and can't wait to wear them.

Finally, I picked up this basic cream skirt and black and white striped dress. The dress is from H&M and I remember considering it in the shop when it was first stocked. I only realised when I got home that is was missing a button so finding a replacement in my mission for tomorrow!

I'm really pleased with the items I picked up today and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of them. As my boyfriend said, 'they're all very you'. He actually didn't mind being dragged around the shops and even made a purchase of his own...a commemorative spoon (don't ask!).

So something I haven't addressed in this post is how much everything cost...

£9.97 (including 2p for a bag!). Barnardo's introduced one-price shops a bit ago and Cheadle has one where all the stock is £1.99. Honestly, it's a wonderful place. I've been going for about a year now and hardly ever walk out without a purchase. The £1.99 offer includes all shoes, handbags and coats and I've even seen designer items in there. It's well worth a visit if you're local. There's also a vintage Barnardo's which is so great I want to give it its own post! 

Has anyone been shopping in Cheadle or visited a Barnardo's one-price shop? 

I was really pleased with my January bargains and Feb looks like it's off to a great start! 

Charlotte x