Unrealistic charity shop pricing makes me CROSS

This means thrift shops have become my fashion staple (apart from once a year, when my well-paid, creative genius brother hands me out a fistful of cash to spend in Topshop).

And let’s not talk about my mortgage or the price of lettuce.

Anyway, last week the Teen and I went to Romsey for the day (I relish these days together because by the time you read this she will be 16 and I am just so pleased that she still likes spending time with her middle-aged mummy).

The sun was shining as we mooched around the beautiful King John’s garden before hitting the high street, in which every other shop was a charity shop.

Imagine my delight when I found an amazing designer frock for £4.99. Then the Teen picked up a tee for the same price.

Now I know I sound mealy-mouthed and mean, but the tee the Teen picked up would have cost the same price new and this example of a five-year-old Primarni was faded and bore a hole in the sleeve.

I thought £4.99 was a bit steep.

So when I went to pay, I asked the manager if the price was right.

“Oh no love, that’s not right, you can have it for £1.99.”

Delighted with our purchases we spent the rest of the afternoon searching for bargains, but there were no more to be had.

I scoured loads but I resent paying more than a tenner for something isn’t new or really, really old.

For example, in the next well-known charity shop, I spotted a dress with a price tag of £15. Again a bit steep as it would have cost maybe just a couple of quid more for a new one – two or three years ago.

Anyway I tried it on and the elastic had gone completely from the top.

I asked a member of staff it they would sell it to me for a fiver, as I would have to faff about with alterations or risk getting arrested for indecency.

“No. We are a charity shop, all the money goes to a good cause.”

I was sort of a bit cross. Does all the money really go to a good cause? Does it? Does it?

These are my issues.

•  They get 70 per cent business rate relief 
• Their stuff is donated for FREE 
• Top managers of charity organisations can net salaries of more than six figures 
• Profits are often invested for years in banks and not spent on those in need
• They usually pay lower rents than other shops

Before you hit me with your Oxfam bag I want to make it clear I am not against charity shops per se. But for decades they have provided a lifeline for people looking to pick up a bargain.

Now they are fast becoming mini-boutiques, offering cast-off designer clothes or broken tat, at prices beyond the means of most of their hard-pressed consumers.

I don’t think it is fair. If that woman had sold me that dress for a fiver, the charity would be £5 better off.

But now that dress will sit there forever because it won’t fit anyone and is too expensive.

Charity shop or not, it is still a business that must generate money and part of that is getting the prices right to enable things to fly off the shelves, surely?

Humph.

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