Charming!

[nellypope]

After the sad demise of my father in law my husband and I helped my mother in law sort and clear out her house. One day I turned up and she had a large box of crockery and bags of clothes she wanted dropping off at the local charity shop. Despite being pregnant I dutifully "lugged" the heavy offending bags and boxes to the charity shop of her choice that very afternoon. Now you could blame grief, perhaps even old age but today I popped over to see her to be greeted by an extremely disgruntled (to put it very mildly) MIL who wants to know what I did with her rejected items as she's caught the bus on numerous occasions and visited the charity shop and she has yet to see any of her items in sale!!!! Unbelievable! I had to laugh a little to myself as I have visions of this mad old lady scouring the shelves for her 1970's Denby! But I was kinda at a loss to explain it myself!

[Quassia]

Either the shop workers liked the look of it or it's in storage till they need it?

[notasyoungasiwas]

I often take stuff into my local rspca charity shop and often pop in to browse the books or put some money in the tin and I have never seen any of my stuff for sale, apart from a book once. Maybe the staff have first dibbs if something is nice ?

[Davethedog]

These shops are chains my understanding is that before they get sold they are first valued just to make sure you haven't left a ming vase or such amongst it, they then distribut amongst all shops.

You (or you MIL) must also understand that not all donators are as fastidious in clenliness as she was.

[nellypope]

He he! Well I ran with the old depot story and whether it's true or not explained that all items probably go to a depot where they are then distributed to various other branches. But I will admit it's admit it's a complete guess, so kinda glad you have confirmed my thoughts! I did laugh at the thought of the locals in old Ted's suits drinking tea out of his china ;-)

[mike11111]

You should have told her that within 30 minutes of the shop opening they were all snapped up like hot cakes.

[Quassia]

... or that you'd asked & the local church fete had bought it & used the crockery for the coconut shy ! ;0)

[Booldawg]

lol, whats the point in her getting rid of a box of unwanted things only to visit charity shops and buy a load more 'tut'.

[Dee Sa]

I asked a similar question a little while ago and was told that they send the items to another branch and that way they circulate to a wider area, they very rarely display your items in your area.

[bryher]

Thats a nice thought, when my father died who lived in deepest darkest Cornwall, I took his clothes back up to Bournemouth where I was living at the time as I would of hated my mother to see some elderly gentleman walking up fore street in fathers clothes

[scotman]

I heard that most shops send clothes away to other branches. I was informed it is to reduce the risk of anyone seeing another person wearing the clothes of a deceased spouse or similar.