Why So Many Charity Shops?

computerman said:
Complainer, in answer to your question - no.

I know someone who runs a few charity shops. He trades under their name, pays a portion of his revenue to the charity and keeps the rest. Something akin to a franchise.
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I never knew that either.

I just thought it odd the amount of them springing up left, right and center. I know times are tough but apart from books most items in these shops are dearer than pound shops.
 
10 - 15 % is based on declared turnover.
Guess who declares the turnover?????

Then of course there are the expenses....................
 
db74. you are correct expenses dont affect turnover, however they enable deductions against tax. I was refering to questionable expenses.

Also, spoke to individual yesterday in the charity shop. He stated 70c per kilo weight for recycled clothes. Bags are collected from the shop.

It would be a tragedy if it was not so funny. While bags were being packed with "rejects" (not even having been examined), the public were dropping off full bags of clothes and toys as donations.

I was told that they make more from the rubbish than from the good stuff.

It kind of explains why clothes are disappearing off clothes lines, and clothes banks are being raided.
 
So if I bring clothes to my local charity shop which is run by one of the best known charities, I may be unknowingly lining someone's pockets, with the charity getting a small percentage?
 
AgathaC, in answer to your question, not necessarily. Sorry if that answer is vague but I will try to elaborate - without mentioning names.

My company carries out contractual work for three charity businesses. I know these charities are reputable (they are big names and international). The staff in the shops are volunteers, however they have a manager who is on salary. The staff in the shops have the added bonus of getting first pick of what comes out of the "bags". So this would be a perk for the volunteers.
Also some shops get "shop returns" from some of the chain stores with labels still attached. I would presume from this that would add to the credability of the charity shops.

On the otherhand, as I have stated before, I am aware of (lets say more than one shop), whereby the "owner" gets the bags of clothes as delivered, opens the top of the bags and empties them direct to the "green bags" for disposal. I was in one such shop on Thursday and there were approx 30-40 bags for collection. While I was there (for about an hour) several people showed up with bags of household items and clothes. The shop was very busy but the selling price on most of the stuff was about 2 euro. There were a few prams for a tenner each. Anecdotaly, the demographics of the people buying were very interesting - thats for another forum.
It would appear to me that the money is in the recycling of clothes - not the resale in the shop.
I asked the owner how much he has paid to the charity that is named over the door.
He looked at me, smiled, and went back to refilling the bags.
Draw your own conclusions from that.
 
I have an amt of good quality material I was intending to drop into a local charity shop,could you give the names and locations of the reputable shops as I want others to benefit and not some greedy charlatan trading on others good intentions.
 
Knuttell said:
I have an amt of good quality material I was intending to drop into a local charity shop,could you give the names and locations of the reputable shops as I want others to benefit and not some greedy charlatan trading on others good intentions.
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Vincent De Paul
 
Thanks Computerman. Your posts have been very informative.

The reason I started this thread was because I have a small retail business that is basically been nailed to the floor trying to compete with these oranisations. Lets say I sell something for €10.00 and they sell it for €15.00 customers have told me that they will give the €15.00 to the charity as "it is going to a good cause".

In recent years, ten charity shops, have opened within a stones throw from my business. I would say only 50% of the ones in my locality are legit.

Also approx 50% owned by non-nationals within the area.

I know business is business but how can you compete with a retailer that does not pay staff, bar a manager, and does not pay for its stock as its stock is received through donations!

Think I need to change business!

Did Fas ever fund any of these organisations?
 
Check out the irish charity shop association. icsa.ie

I just found it and did a search for general shops in the D15 area. (no particular reason) surprisingly - there was only 1 shop!!!!!
 
Thanks computerman for your response to my query above, my local charity shop is St Vincent de Paul.
 
I know someone who runs a few charity shops. He trades under their name, pays a portion of his revenue to the charity and keeps the rest. Something akin to a franchise.
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We gave a large amount of mixed items (some expensive) to a shop trading under a certain charity in the naive belief that the proceeds were for this particular charity. I decided to check on line and discovered that only 10% went to the charity.

What a great business:rolleyes: . Get good for free and sell.

PS. Unlike the norm charity shops who dont take electrical goods, this particular shop had no problem in this regard.
 
So the clothes actually goes to Africans.. that's a disaster for them
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It is, they are sold in shops, not given away. It totally undermines the local traders.

And many thanks also for the info that not all charity shops are what they seem - I'll be more careful about where I drop off my stuff in future.
 
Thirsty said:
It is, they are sold in shops, not given away. It totally undermines the local traders.
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I actually deleted my post because I didn't think it through. Wouldn't people have more money to spend on other things when they make savings on cheap clothes?
 
LEVELPAR, remember the 10% that goes to the charity is based on "profit" not turnover. So if the shop keeper has expenses eg diesel for the jeep, tea and coffee for the house (sorry) for the shop, mobile phone bills, internet expenses (have to google where the funds go in the third world), ----there will be very little left over for the charity.
It would be an interesting exercise for someone to contact a charity and ask for a breakdown of contributions by individual shops. If this could be done on a monthly basis all the better.
 
Yes, Computerman, I realise that the 10% is on the net profit and what the net profit would be is anybody's guess.

However, I think that the charities that accept this situation are thankful for any money they get and seem to turn a blind eye to the misrepresentation of those involved.
 
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