What d you feel about the charity shops that are springing up all over the place.

[RATTER15]

We regularly take unwanted items to the charity shop, we favour the Animal Ambulance charity but also take things to other charity shops. I know there has been talk of towns being negatively affected by these shops as people are buying so much from these shops instead of the buy it new shops.

What are your views?

[bert_h]

They're great, generally, but it's rather a waste when you get four or more of them all within 100 yards.

[murraymints]

I love a poodle around ther charity shops !!!

[cazzz1975]

I like charity shops you can always get a bargain!, I suppose the argument against them is that people want to see more high street stores on their doorstep with more quality goods that are not second hand.

the way high street stores are going they probably prefer a couple of large stores spaced out rather than lots of smaller retail shops that cost more money.

[tamaris]

3 of ours have closed in about 3 months

[NoMercy]

The should be renamed "Profit-making Organisations That Donate A Small Fraction Of Their Income To Good Causes"

[cazzz1975]

isnt that the case for most charities nom?

[jimgams]

It can be unfair for other businesses as they pay little or no business rates.

[anneasquith]

in he town nearest me, the busiest shop is the salvation army charity shop.

[B00]

Don't they get some sort of rent reduced thing from the council?

I'm a massive fan of charity shops, however I have noticed that in the last few years their prices are rising up and up (same as everywhere else I know). Looking through their rails im often finding George, Tesco and Primark stuff priced nearly as much as they were originally.

If they're not careful, they're going to price themselves out of the market :-(

[tamborine]

Internal branch sAle compition bug me, as stock isnt passed to poorer areas

[pastafreak]

I work for a small local charity-and we have a charity shop-so I have no problem.
But our organization-just like the big ones-needs to spend a lot of money on admin,media,fundraising....and,oh yes...our salaries.*


*...for which there was NO money not too long ago, as donations-big ones-are hard to come by.

[pastafreak]

There are several shops here that price everything at 99p.

[NoMercy]

It infuriates me when they spend countless sums on sending out begging letters with free pens.

[bert_h]

Tamborine :- our local Cancer Research takes stuff off the shelves after a few weeks and ships it down to another branch in a poorer area, to be put out at reduced prices.

[tamborine]

I wish they all did bert

[wolf63]

I spend most of my spare time slaving away in our Oxfam Book shop. I am proud of our little shop and all the staff are nutty but nice.

All our fiction books are in excellent condition and are all cleaned before going out on the shelves. The prices reflect this ;-(

Our fiction book range is amazing - old books in old book condition (I was looking at one from 1797 the other day) and newer books. We also sell on-line via the Oxfam site http://www.oxfam.org....fam-books-music-perth

It is all big business nowadays and in our town alone we have about 14 charity shops.

We were also collecting bras the other month - if you see a wee wifie in Africa toddling around wearing a 46GG bright pink bra on it came from me. :-)

[in a mo]

Charity shops used to be where we took things we didnt need etc so we GAVE it to the shops ,in turn they sold the item with a modest mark up ,mostly to people who were not so well off ,tghen Charity shops started to employ PAID managers instead of Volonteer managers these people were and still are paid many thousands of pounds per year to run the shops ,Prices went up massivly some items were almost as much as they cost new .Vinyl Records Books and ART are now sifted out and sold at auctions or offered to collectors ,It is very seldom that a bargain can be found.
As for the cluster of shops ,there will always be charities no matter what they are for ,the latest is the FOOD BANK how disgusting is that, it will not be long before a charity is set up to feed BRITAIN we will have shops on our High Streets where people take things they do not want ,the PROFIT goes towards buying food for the FOOD BANKS.
Forget the word CHARITY they are a BUSINESS for PROFiT To pay MANAGERS BRANCH MANAGERS AREA MANAGERS and on and on .THEN if there is ANYTHING LEFT we might get it.

[LochNessMonster]

All for them, they do a lot of good and I have used them a couple of time.

[China Doll]

I like them, I usually buy books in the charity shops so I'm happy they're there for the cheap books. Have to say I don't often notice what charity shop I've gone in to, it's all about the books for me.

[RATTER15]

We donate to the Animal Ambulance charity because it is a real charity where there are no highly paid mangers etc and the shop is run by little old ladies as volunteers.