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

announces the winner of the 2007 Scrooge Award:
http://www.charitiesadvisorytrust.org.uk/charitiesadvisorytrust/awards.html
::
One Website. Every Charity.
http://www.guidestar.org.uk/?gclid=CIHXiua2z5ICFQ9IMAodhhr1Cg
::
Knowing me, knowing you.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/feb/21/voluntarysector2
::
The Big Issue
http://www.guidestar.org.uk/gs_summary.aspx?CCReg=1049077&strquery=big%20issue
::

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.