Christchurch charity shop in urgent call for donations

4:00pm Monday 14th January 2013 in News By Katie Clark

HELP NEEDED: Volunteers Honora Hedges and Annette Hawksworth from Sue Ryder Care in Highcliffe are appealing for donations due to a 20 per cent shortage in items around Dorset HELP NEEDED: Volunteers Honora Hedges and Annette Hawksworth from Sue Ryder Care in Highcliffe are appealing for donations due to a 20 per cent shortage in items around Dorset

URGENT donations are needed to help meet increasing demand for charity shop goods, according to a Christchurch store.

Volunteers and staff from Sue Ryder’s charity shop in Highcliffe are calling on residents to donate their unwanted goods, predicting the next few years will be especially challenging due to cuts in services and an ageing population.

The shop is part of a network of 400 stores nationwide that help to raise vital funds to support health and social care charity Sue Ryder.

All money raised goes directly to pay for care and emotional support for people with life-changing illness.

Julie Collis from Sue Ryder said: “We are encouraging people to clear out their wardrobes and cupboards and donate any clothes that no longer fit, books they have already read and bric-a-brac they no longer use to our charity shop in Highcliffe.

“Charity shops like the Sue Ryder shop in Highcliffe benefit the local community as a whole, because they help raise money which goes back into providing end of life and long-term care to local people when they need it most, including care provided at hospices and care centres across the UK.”

In the Dorset area shops are 20 per cent short of the donations they need to keep shelves continually stocked with merchandise.

Julie added: “The next few years will be the most challenging we have ever faced. An ageing, growing population combined with hard-hitting cuts by Government has increased reliance on charities to deliver care services people need. More than ever we vitally need your support.

“We are hoping that local groups, businesses, schools and individuals will support our appeal by donating stock to our shops and asking friends, family members and colleagues to do the same. The support of the local community has never been so vital for Sue Ryder than it is now.”

For more information on ways people can support Sue Ryder contact 0845 0501953 or visit sueryder.org.

Comments(17)

pete woodley says...
4:09pm Mon 14 Jan 13

I hope the atmosphere in that shop is better than the Winton one.The staff there watch you like a hawk as if you are trying to shoplift.and there are no please or thankyou's.

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speedy231278 says...
4:37pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Try the British Heart Foundation or Barnados then - places that try to sell some secondhand furniture for more than it cost new, all because they have a 'price list' of what stuff is allegedly worth. I once saw a £10 bookshelf from Argos for sale for £35 in the Barnados in Boscombe. Charity shops are now just rip-off merchants who think people are mugs just because it says charity above the door... :-(

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pete woodley says...
4:45pm Mon 14 Jan 13

A member of staff at BHF at one time was selling off goods he bought at a local auction.At some charity shops staff have a good pick for a start,followed by dealers.

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guisselle says...
4:55pm Mon 14 Jan 13

I donated t-shirts my son no longer
wears, as good as new and jeans, its
great to be able to get rid of stuff and
know that others will benefit. The
charity collected from our house as
they give bags away to be filled.
There are loads of good causes such as
cancer research.

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pete woodley says...
5:03pm Mon 14 Jan 13

guisselle wrote:
I donated t-shirts my son no longer
wears, as good as new and jeans, its
great to be able to get rid of stuff and
know that others will benefit. The
charity collected from our house as
they give bags away to be filled.
There are loads of good causes such as
cancer research.
A lot of the "charity"bags put through doors are private firms who only make a very small donation to the charity,if any at all.Trading standards and the media have put out many warnings about this.

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mytown1 says...
5:45pm Mon 14 Jan 13

To all those out there who knock these charity shops I would say if you give to the Sue Ryder Foundation (as I do), and Gift Aid you get a personal letter stating how much your goods have brought into the shop. I personally like this and it gives me an incentive to donate even more. So instead of "knocking" these charity shops, (which do in these hard economic days) help a lot of people by recycling the goods donated and raising funds in the process. Well done Sue Ryder I am off to check my closet now to see what I can donate.

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guisselle says...
5:52pm Mon 14 Jan 13

pete woodley wrote:
guisselle wrote:
I donated t-shirts my son no longer
wears, as good as new and jeans, its
great to be able to get rid of stuff and
know that others will benefit. The
charity collected from our house as
they give bags away to be filled.
There are loads of good causes such as
cancer research.
A lot of the "charity"bags put through doors are private firms who only make a very small donation to the charity,if any at all.Trading standards and the media have put out many warnings about this.
You are probably right Pete its best to
take donations to the shop yourself
as sometimes I have left a bag outside
to be collected and its still there the
following day!

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ShuttleX says...
6:53pm Mon 14 Jan 13

It's not surprising charity shops are finding it hard to fill the shelves. There is only so much stock out there, and with every other new shop opening being a charity one, they are spreading the jam to thin. How many shops does Boscombe have now? And don't forget to include the new Salvation Army one that is currently being fitted out.

Speedy231278 makes a good point. Some of these shops feel that by having the word "charity" over the door gives them the right to rip off customers. Shops are not the only ones mind. Dorset Reclaim in Springbourne has become more and more expensive over the last couple of years. The BHF have lots of stuff made for them, then sell it on at a very high mark up.

I'm not against charity shops. I do feel there are to many of them now. In these times of belt tightening, I have to say I donate less stuff to shops and sell more on ebay and bootsales.

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TD61 says...
7:11pm Mon 14 Jan 13

I agree with those who mention charity shops having fixed prices now. One of my sisters used to work for Age UK and she said some of their prices for basic t-shirts etc were charged at more than would have cost new in Primark and other similar cheap clothing shops, so it's no wonder people are not buying from charity shops!

Charity shops mostly sell second hand clothing, so quite why they expect someone to pay "as-new" prices for clothing is beyond me. Anything not sold within 4 calendar weeks is then bundled up and sold to rag merchants for less than £50 a ton !!! Absolutely ridiculous when you think if they kept the price down they would sell almost every item and certainly get a lot more than £50 for it !! :o//

Books are usually a bargain, but pretty much anything else - clothes, handbags, curtains etc I no longer buy from them. If I'm going to pay over a certain amount I want new stuff. Charity starts in my own purse these days, as I'm sure it does for many people.

It's all very well supporting charity shops, but by their very nature they are usually frequently by those of us with less money to spend, so surely keeping prices down would mean they sell more in the first place, rather than having stuff on the shelves for weeks and then it's sent to rag merchants if it's not sold!!

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pete woodley says...
7:12pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Wish you could sell some of mine,now i am not well enough to do sales.

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scrumpyjack says...
7:41pm Mon 14 Jan 13

pete woodley wrote:
guisselle wrote:
I donated t-shirts my son no longer
wears, as good as new and jeans, its
great to be able to get rid of stuff and
know that others will benefit. The
charity collected from our house as
they give bags away to be filled.
There are loads of good causes such as
cancer research.
A lot of the "charity"bags put through doors are private firms who only make a very small donation to the charity,if any at all.Trading standards and the media have put out many warnings about this.
And that's if they are genuine. Most are east european con artists.

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pete woodley says...
8:05pm Mon 14 Jan 13

People just do not want to listen to advice scrumpy.I dont trust a lot of well known charities,certainly not the white van boys.

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bosco1 says...
9:34pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Over the past few weeks have been turning out bits and bobs for several charity shops taking them down in the car into the Bournemouth charity shops.Went in a few weeks later not ONE single item on display that I took in, must have sold everything I took in.!!!?

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wokboy60 says...
11:30pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Some very interesting comments on this subject ! Seems that the public is waking up to the fact that Charity shops and the organizations they purport to support are no longer the same as they were at their inception !The High street shops are becoming nothing more than a "con", I am afraid, nowadays and if the same sharp practice was used by other retailers their would be a public outcry.If you donate clothes for example the charity's sell on the bulk of the better items to global company's ,particularly Eastern European ones who pay a very good price per tonne.All the Salvation Army clothes banks are dealt with this way as an example .The owner of the Company contracted to clear them has ,I believe ,made himself a very tidy fortune on the strength of it .As for the bags through your front door ....dont EVEN think about filling those up ! Books are usually sold in bulk to on line sellers .As a little tester ,and if you are male, ask yourself where does all the trendy ,fashionable, designer label, Mens clothing go to because it certainly DOESNT end up in the shops nowadays !
A lot of the Charity's are finding it difficult to justify some of their existence as many of the problems that they were supposedly set up to alleviate have subsided or are now dealt with on a Government level .But the Charity's continue to exist because the middle management is certainly not going to "own up " to the fact that they have NO real role left. Before you ever donate again dont ask what you can do for "your" charity , ask what "your" charity actually does !! ?

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pete woodley says...
2:57pm Tue 15 Jan 13

Wokboy60,as i said before its a waste of time warning people they do NOT want to listen.

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suzigirl says...
4:30pm Tue 15 Jan 13

I tried to donate a three piece suite a few years ago but they would not take it because there was a slight mark on one of the arms - bloody cheek! They are not charity shops now it is big business - where else can you start a business and pay less rates that other shops, get the merchandise for nothing, get staff for nothing and then sell it at inflated prices! I am sure the fat cats at the head offices are rubbing their hands - with their big salaries and company cars! Also how much out of each pound raised goes direct to the charity?

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pete woodley says...
5:23pm Tue 15 Jan 13

While we are on about charities is the W.V.S. a charity,as charging £1.20 for a coffee at RBCH,is a "bit" high and other prices as well.

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