4/10/2008

Why I Don't Shop At Oxfam Charity Shops Anymore ... By Uncle Monty.

Why I Don’t Shop At
Oxfam Charity Shops Anymore
By Uncle Monty
::
Each year Oxfam charity shops make about £5 Million
or $10 million in just selling donated film and music items.
Like so many charity shops in England thesedays, Oxfam
is competeing unfairly against commercial businesses that
must pay taxes and hire paid staff to run their stores.
::
I have come to the conclusion that many charity shops
are in the business of charity for themselves and not the
the buying public, who for some unfathomable reason
crowd such stores for “bargains” at rip-off prices.
There is no such thing as a bargain at most charity
shops that I’ve gone to. I am sick and tired of seeing
the same useless and overpriced knick-knacks
that I can buy, if I wanted, at car boots sales for
a fraction of the price. And I can dicker, too.
::
When I was in one of the Scope-charity shops last year,
I had the nerve to ask what the lowest price they’d take
for a small bookcase that had gone from a mere five quid
the year before to thirty-five quid today. The woman
at the shop said, “Sorry, we cannot reduce the price."
When I asked her why. She said, “ ... because we’re a
charity … “ I told her cynically and cheekily, “Well
you know what? I’m a walking, talking, two-legged
charity that’s more of a real charity than you
rip-off artists …” She said I was cold and mean.
::
In the US, charity shops are called Thrift Stores and
they are on the whole far more superior in choice,
quality and price than most British charity shops
which are so crammed and very tiny compared to
America. A typical thrift store or charity shop say in
New Orleans is large and the variety of goods is huge
and practical from every kind of electrical and household
items to everything for jewellery to antiques to racks upon
racks of good quality clothes and what have you. You can
spend hours inside such huge thrift stores, while in England
you cannot move for all the crammed space you encounter
and folkz pushing and shoving their way inside the “Doll
House-size” charity shops. For such tiny shops, they
generate huge profits for their size and their cause.
::
Why I’ve stopped shopping at Oxfam, British Heart
Association, and Scope charity shops is because they
are basically a rip-off and full of the same gloried rubbish
from store after store, year in and year out. And, if I see
another cup and saucer of The Charles and Diana Wed-
ding at some crappy charity shop, I think I’ll scream
blue murder. I recently found a nice used toaster, by
the way, for 3 quid at my local church jumble sale, but
try to find such at most charity shops and you’re told
the usual refrain: “We cannot sell electrical goods.”
::
What I hear is that most charity shops take the
cream of the crop of whatever they get and either sell
such to private dealers or friends or keep the best stuff
for themselves. Such donated items never even hit
the shelves. If they do, they’re usually overpriced
and/or something is wrong with them.
::
Of the huge amounts of money charity shops take
in annually from the buying and gullible public,
such is oftentimes gobbled-up to paying operation
expenses and charity management that drive around
in their fancy cars and having their new swanky lap-
tops and expensive Blackberries all in the name of
"good charity." Some charity shops get away with
only applying 8%, yes 8%, of their overall take for
the charity to which they represent. To retain their
charitable status, surely the charity regulators should
impose a high minimum percentage for charities like
perhaps a minimum of 35% of their take under
the rules for registered charities.
::
Charity shops operated by British national charities are,
moreover, little more than stores of corporate welfare
that supports and benefits their corporate structure
first and the role of charity is second fiddle to them at
best. Local charities - like hospices, church fundraisers,
etc - oftentimes cannot compete against such giant
national outfits that seem now to dominate and control
High Street locations over the small and local charities
from what I can see. All too often, local charities are
shut out from even having their own charity shops
in town due to the clout and money
behind major corporate charities.
::
At Oxfam charity shops, I not only have to put up
with their rip-off prices but also their own in-store
products like Fairtrade and organic foods and the
Oxfam bullshit about buying a cow or goat for
straving families somewhere in Africa or Asia or
wherever. Buying a cow or goat is a novelty at best
and at worst a clever gimmick that does little in a
practical manner to permanently change the condition
of poverty for the recipient of such a cow or goat.
Why a cow or a goat? Because it costs Oxfam virually
nothing to get, but reaps in handsome rewards for the
charity’s corporate bank account. Oxfam also just
started its first online charity shop. Its reach is now
global and should be treated as an international
corporation, not as a cute little charity outfit many
believe is still Oxfam. Nothing could be further
from the truth.
::
The Association of Charity Shops is also a charity.
Blimey, it’s a charity for charities. Only in England
would we have such a thing …
::
Here are a few stories on questions of what charities
and charity shops are upto. Most operate in the dark
and the stupid public blindly gives money to them
believing they’re giving to a “good cause.” Maybe or
maybe not. What I say, support your local charity
shop first and not the “brand name” ones from the
big charity boyz and girlz at Oxfam, British Heart
Association, Save The Children, Scope, Help The
Aged, Sense, British Red Cross, etc. They're getting
too much of the charity pie and gobbling it up for
themselves like pot-belly pigs at a charity
pigsty, I believe.
::
How charitable is your Christmas cards?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4467610.stm
::
The Charities Advisory Trust proudly
Next time you drop-in to your "local" national
charity shop, stop and think first what are they
getting out of this from me? Do I need to support
this charity shop when only a fraction of the money
will go to support the so-called "good cause" I
believe I'm buying into from the junk they're
offering me to buy? Is the charity shop helping
my local community? Or is the money going off
to some corporate bank account under the guise
of being a "charity." When you donate to a
charity shop, ask yourself what will become of
what you've given. Is the stuff trashed (and alot
of stuff is) by the managers at charity shops. Will
my stuff be kept for themselves or sold privately
to their dealers or friends?
::
Ask questions out loud and if the charity shop
cringes at what you ask, simply don't give. Tell
them to go jump in the lake, if they take offense.
Ask questions before you take your stuff to them.
There's always your local church jumble sale
who could use your stuff to help
the local folkz at where you live.
::
So now you'll understand perhaps why I
don't shop at Oxfam charity shops and other
corporate charity outfits like them.
::
Honestly, Uncle Monty.
+Tinpanalley Day, 2oo8.
+
From Anonymous yet again ...
"I honestly think you have no idea at all what
goes into running a national chain of charity
shops in the UK. What a lot of hot air."
My question to anonymous is this:
If you do know what goes into running a
national chain of charity shops, why don't
you tell us? Or are you simply full of BS and
hot air, yourself? Truly, Uncle Monty.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I honestly think you have no idea at all what goes into running a national chain of charity shops in the UK.

What a lot of hot air.