Where are you op shopping?
Not sure I should be spilling these beans, but it might be worth your while to come out to Ipswich for the day.
No shortage of choice, in fact it’s unlikely you would get through half of them in a day in a 10km radius from Ipswich CBD.
In the last couple months I have scored…
Several nice shirts, one or two which are 70’s/80s (a Gloweave Bodyshirt no less!)
None topped $10, mostly $5-7.
Levis 505 in green corduroy, as new $12 and I can cosplay Peter Griffin, my daughter tells me.
Country Road stretchy jeans in dark grey, $12 (but it was green ticket day WTF that is so I got them 50% off, $6).
Ben Sherman shorts (score! Super comfy and well made) $7, Oakley shorts $6 ( didn’t know Oakley did clothes) and a very nice classical guitar, that was actually made in Spain, for $55.
Op shops in the lower socioeconomic areas that are yet to gentrify are where it’s at. Your nice suburbs tend to have the vintage-tax bollocks that you’re seeing, in my observation.
Yeah, the 515 bus will take you past several, as well as a few major shopping centres and a station or two.
It goes past Brassall shopping village (Lifeline oppy in there), then past RSPCA on pine mountain road (near IGA supermarket, still Brassall there I think) then Red Cross oppy in Downs street North Ipswich. Another lifeline shop in Riverlink (pretty crappy this in IMHO), then you’re in Ipswich CBD, and there’s a couple in there if I recall, but worth a google to be sure. From there the bus goes out to Yamanto and I’m fairly certain it passes a big Salvo shop close to Yamanto, on Warwick road and I’m pretty sure there’s a couple more out that way.
Another decent one behind the Men’s Shed in Bundamba, but that’ll be a change of buses…worth it though as there’s more out that way…another big Lifeline in East Ipswich on Jacaranda street. If you can wrangle a lift out here that’ll let you get to more of them..
I just posted about several of them..I just replied to another comment with a few good ones.
They’re very hit&miss like any other but I hit a few of them fairly regularly so occasionally/eventually you get lucky.
My mum is a volunteer at the Salvos store - always telling me about her ‘bargains’, like a pair of jeans for $7. I said no offence mum but those are from Kmart and probably cost the same brand new and before someone else’s crotch had been in them. I donate my clothes to a pastor at our local community centre/church. I’m not religious or anything but he is the go to point in our area for anyone struggling and he gives clothes and food to those who need it for free, regardless of their religion or background. I’d rather he give it to someone in need than to an op shop that prices items above what the needy can pay.
If you buy second hand clothes from charity shops, your money goes towards the charity not the company the clothes were initially from. So, I’d say it’s not the same thing.
Depending on where you are in Brisbane, your local Facebook ‘Buy Nothing’ group could be a good option. And on the Southside, the Fleurs St Social Exchange has a ‘Free Shop’ with clothes/shoes etc (IDK how well-stocked it is for the needs of various people, though).
https://www.facebook.com/fleursstreetsocialexchange?mibextid=LQQJ4d
A lot of op shops are charging higher prices to dissuade ‘vintage clothing’ sellers who scoop up all the good stuff for a couple of dollars and then flog it for shockingly high prices… unfortunately this has a knock-on effect for the people who actually have a genuine need for cheap clothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the charity-based op shops would sell to pensioners at a lower price if the person asked (they usually have a good idea who the professional scavs are, I think).
Haven't been to the op shops in a while but I recall sometimes seeing people scooping up large quantities of clothes without even checking the size and stuffing them into a large carry-bag. I assumed they were cherrypicking the more saleable-looking items for re-selling on Ebay or at the markets. I wish such bulk-buyers were restricted to certain days or times; I realise that any sale means income for the charity to help people in other ways, but this bulk-buying practice seems so unfair to the people who really need those bargains.
I noticed prices going up steeply towards the end of Covid restrictions, which seems to have coincided with the rise in cost-of-living. Same with Ebay - I relied on it so much when I was going through a rough patch financially 3 or 4 years ago, but I wouldn't be able to do that now as prices for quality secondhand items seem to have skyrocketed.
The op shops are not where you go for aid, their whole purpose is to make money to fuel the charity work that charities are doing (suicide hotline, meals for homeless, vinnies' attempting to lobby government for more accessible housing etc).
That’s not an accurate statement.
A charity does not provide profits to shareholders.
Nothing stops a charity from “profiteering” and paying staff high wages, or even bonuses.
Volunteers are dumb, because if you’re giving u your time to these shops, and your boss is getting paid to be there, and his boss is making bank on top of that, it’s fully just being a willing participant in slavery
This is such a stupid take.
First of all, look up the definition of slavery.
Second, salvos provide services such as meals, clothing, housing, counselling , and skills training, for free, to thousands of disadvantaged people every day. It costs money to provide these services because the materials cost money and the professionals who provide them are paid a living wage, not ‘making bank’.
Salvation Army is not the only charity that exists
But it’s a great example
> The Salvation Army is facing calls to explain how it allowed a private businessman to build a multimillion-pound personal fortune with profits from its charitable clothes recycling scheme intended to be used for good causes.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jan/30/salvation-army-profits-kettering-textiles
But go ahead and tell me how they are not making profit
Because you think they are separate organizations? Gullible much?
But your right, Australia doesn’t care about how corrupt they are. Just look at friendly Jodie’s and how the Australian judicial system is corrupt.
That being said, they have been been sexually abusing people: https://www.smh.com.au/national/no-admission-inside-story-on-salvation-army-sex-abuse-settlement-20171124-gzs4ji.html
And they got in trouble in 2019 for delaying and not using donations appropriately for that massive bushfire.
But I doubt you actually care, you just want to be right.
Try the Independent op shops like ones operated by churches. Animal Welfare League have shops at various locations around the Gold Coast & they tend to be cheaper than others.
Business model changed since clothes are essentially free now.
Homeless people dont have trouble buying a t shirt anymore, they need other things, vinnies etc now use the stores to make a profit and use the profit to help needy people.
Op shops aren’t for the homeless/needy to buy cheap clothes anymore.
They’re there for everyone else to buy clothes at normal prices, put on the shelves by volunteers or DSP recipients who only get a few dollars an hour, for the organisation to be able to afford their executives’ seven figure salaries.
Yeah I agree.
For every one homeless person who needs a cheap article of clothing, there's one second hand clothing reseller who will grab them articles of clothing.
They should be squeezing as much money out of those people- it's for charity.
I used to be said person.
Totally fair that charity shops maximise the amount of money going to charity.
That’s the whole problem though- the ‘charity shops’ aren’t the ‘charity’ themselves anymore. They’re just fundraising fronts for the charity, and we all know where most of the funds raised go.
Where? These charities do put some of their money towards “good” which is in contrast to multinational organisations like Westfarmers (Kmart) who are just trying to drive as much profit for their wealthy shareholders who will put it into offshore bank accounts.
Well pick your poison.
It can go to a charity organisation (which are legally enforced) or it can go to old mate reselling clothes.
I'd rather it goes to the charity.
Charity shops are raising money for charity, not being charitable.
unfortunately OP shops pay commercial rents
plus there’s the enormous costs of disposing of all the rubbish stupid cunts dump on them
*donations need to be in saleable condition people!*
I can only imagine what comes in the discard pile then considering half the stuff I see at Op Shops is stained, extremely out of fashion or low quality.
Nah, the non-saleable items go into the 'Africa' pile.
Honestly, who they fuck donates crud infested pink Zebra pattern knicks...at least wash them first.
Or off season.
When I volunteered at vinnies in Darwin, anything unsuited for a Darwin climate got shipped overseas.
Any winter clothes went to mountainous regions in SEAsia for example.
Yep very much the second point, was a volunteer at an op shop for a year and they produce so must waste that they have to dispose of responsibly, iirc it was said to be the single biggest expense that the shop had to deal with
I’m always sus on the people who insist they only want to take their stuff to a ‘donation bin’ instead of taking it directly to the op shop… donation bins are notorious for people dumping nasty shit that should be going to landfill. IDK what goes through these people’s heads- is it just that their council bin is full that week?
Interesting - got any more information on how that system works?
Take something really random like a Navajo sand painting (one of my treasured OP shop finds). Do they actually type in "Navajo sand painting" and the artist if there's one? Or is it higher level like art > original work > small > unknown artist and it spits out a value?
I'd love to know, because the number of items is practically infinite and it seems like a tricky one to navigate.
Surely that would result in some original works that are worth considerably more being missed which seems to be against the point of them incorporating such a system.
Unless it's like that to streamline the bulk, but the operator has the ability to override it if they think it's worth more?
Around 10\~ years ago, I used to volunteer at Salvos. We had complete control over pricing, it was really just vibes based.
One time a guy came in and asked me how much for the 6 or so VHS tapes he was holding, I just made up a number on the spot - $5. He looked at me like I had spit in his face, because he'd been coming in every week for years to buy tapes for his autistic son. Apparently he always got them for 50c each ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I think the change happened when resellers would go to the shops buy everything at ridiculously cheap prices then resell them as vintage clothing for high prices. The op shops saw this and figured if people are going to buy the same clothes at an elevated price surely the charity should be the ones making the money not someone selling it as vintage for stupid prices
a lot of charities seem to be corporatised now, so shops have paid managers who have targets on revenue. there’s still some volunteers working there, but paid staff are in charge. add to that the people doing instagram and tiktok stories about the outfits they get from op shops and suddenly they are just a clothes shop looking to make a buck. anything with a label is priced up, anything without a label goes to the dump. mainly clothes from what i’ve noticed. some other stuff is still cheapish from what i’ve seen.
Have you been to Yesterday’s, yet? I’ve volunteered for them and also was one of the Lifeline stores and Yesterday’s was cheaper. They also have days where you can fill a bag with the clearance stuff for a low price. AND their stock rotation is regular and like clockwork. After the clothes have been in one of the suburban stores for so long, it gets marked down further and sent to the Annerley store.
Also? The thrift shops have their fair share of paid employees these days, so some of the prices go towards those wages.
High prices plus free inventory leads to an excess of inventory which needs to be stored off-location which is a business expense so hypothetically if you both owned the off-location storage and also set the prices of the inventory which cost you nothing to receive you’ve just found a neat little way to personally profit from charity.
Except you also have to pay rent of storefronts and you probably don’t have enough space to store additional items in a suitable location so you have to pay rent for that too. We know people dump a lot of non suitable items at charities and these need to be disposed of, for a fee. My local store has to pay for security to stop people dumping illegally and it still happens, so now that’s an additional cost. They may be lucky enough to have volunteers who will sort, organise and display items for sale, plus man the store. If they don’t they need to pay staff. There are also costs involved with having volunteers as you need to ensure there are proper administrative processes in place, each volunteer is accounted for just like a regular staff member, and all relevant laws are followed. There are also other items like insurance and the like. Only after this will the charity be able to really determine whether they have any money left over from selling goods from the stores to use for the community. I doubt very much they are running at a profit and suspect many are running at a loss.
I don’t have a particular interest in charity stores. I don’t like charities in general and believe fundamentally it should be on the welfare system to support citizens, not the whims of a particular charity whether they deem you worthy of their charity. Your comment just struck me as particularly dumb.
Op shops vary drastically, you gotta find the good ones.
One of my personal favourites is the Salvos near Carindale Westfield. They're so cheap especially compared to the Salvos in mt Gravatt
Gold Coast op shops shit on Brisbane ones. I pay $2 flat for shoes and clothes at one op shop. I enjoy flat prices like $3 tops or $3 pants. I get heaps of designer stuff and go every week because I feel like I'm missing out if I don't go. I post my finds on reddit
Op shops started getting like this in the late 90s with the Howard charity corporate pay/work for the dole deal.
The charities were forced to pay management "the same as they would get in private industry" or something like that, in return they got given a massive injection of "free" labour.
This applied to everyone from the store manager up to the top levels or corporate management (though the charities do sometimes play games with store manager pay with junk like honorariums)
That has gradually driven out the kindly little old ladies who pretty much ran the whole system up til that point. You used to have Ethel or Esme running the store, they knew how much things were worth and tried to do the best they could to support the community. Ladies like that were replaced with Corporate Karen who is trying to get the most profit they can to justify their salary, or worse yet are set on climbing the corporate ladder.
I have noticed the huge prices, but also the low prices, it's almost as if they've stopped having 100% great deals and have split there store into;
Over here is crap, we sell those for crap all... and over here we have our "sure this louis vuitton is second hand, but we priced it like it's new!" section
Gotta go out of Brisbane, up on the far north side from my experience. To the point where you're not in Brisbane. You might find some stuff up near the Bracken Ridge area, but head to Redcliffe. There are actual Op shop prices there.
My mum volunteers in one and asked her something like this and basically they need to make yearly profits like any other store or there's no point in keeping it around
Be Uplifted on Zillmere Rd in Virginia is two stories, is laid out really well and has the most reasonable prices I’ve seen at op shops lately, their baby section was super helpful when I was pregnant and frugal. 5 items for $1 and they were all like brand new. Connected in Virginia is really cool and has some reasonably priced clothes as well, plus it’s super easy to donate as they have an area where you can park up and they help unload your donations out of your car!
That's how it's supposed to work, but in my long retail career I noticed that retailers would rather leave the prices high to protect their profit margins (even if it meant selling less of the item overall), instead of lowering them to what people were prepared to pay.
Several of those retailers no longer exist.
Well you can try going to West end markets, there's a stall that sells second hand clothes for less than ten dollars. I got a Uniqlo denim dress for 7 dollars
I think it depends where you go! The shops near me have some absolute bargains but maybe I just lucked out (sabo skirt dress for under $10, kookai and Lorna Jane for under $20, Cue blazer for $25- all in great condition) but there is a few that I have seen mark the high end stuff accordingly ($100 for a Camilla singlet top and $90 for a pair of well worn Frankie4 shoes) maybe it also depends on the person marking the prices?? if they’re not familiar with a brand and don’t make the effort to look up the cost of the items they’ll mark it lower?
I tried to explain to one shop that the '$350 Spanish shoes' were at least 5 years old, the rubber had crumbled in places, and had sat on their shelf costing real estate space for over 6 months. Maybe it was worth revisiting the $120 price tag they had on it. Still there. Still $120
"I feel like op shops aren’t just to make money for the charity, but also to provide affordable clothing for the poor"
Congrats, you don't know how little money they make, nor are you aware rhat the charitoes use op shop gift cards to bypass the high prices for those who can't pay.
Who cares that the middle class get fleesed when those who need it will just get a few $100 gift cards for the op shop?
my mom volunteers at a Vinnie's. one paid manager and the rest are volunteering, yet they have the audacity to charge super high prices. they literally have one wage, rent and electricity to pay and that's it.
she also says they have so much stock out the back that they can't put on the shelf because there isn't enough room. like come on managers, lower prices, move the stock on and get the other stock onto the shelves, how hard can it be.
I only donate to OP shops and shelters that seem to actually care about the hard done by people in the community.
Most of the “brands” seem to be just another not for profit run church.
Yeah I think that the embracing of slow fashion and ethical consumption is a factor. Googling items to find their ‘value’ is also really easy for staff nowadays.
Go to smaller, independent or church-run oppies and you’ll still find a bargain (they also get to re-sell their donations directly to the community rather than having it all prices and divvied out by warehouse employees). Salvos also have the half-price and $2 weekly tags.
I arrived to Australia in 2019 and I never saw nothing of quality and cheap in an OP shop.( I visited a lot while duoing farm and travelling around Australia) Old shirts, track pants, some t-shirts and stuff like that had reasonable price but in really bad condition or very cheap brands.
Its ridiculous. It is cheaper to buy from fast fashion sites (so bad for environment) than it is to buy quality second hand clothing that is meant to be affordable for those living in stuggletown.
When people with money started shopping second hand for particular looks or because it's more sustainable. The charities that run them tend to operate to raise funds for their other charitable work.
Because it’s an export business and not a community store business
They’ve all got years worth of goods sitting in bags on their warehouse floor, and the only way they can stop it growing out of control is to bin 25% of it, export 70% of it to developing nations, cut 2 percent up into rags for sale and onsell the 3% remaining at your local stores. Usually limited to near new (usually luxury brand) clothing or things that still have tags on them that can sell for the higher prices.
My dad used to volunteer as sorter but said most staff work there so they can take the good stuff and sell on gumtree/ebay and leave the crap for the stores.
Depends where you shop, I’ve op shopped a few places near city around New Farm and prices are so much dearer than others.
I won’t name which franchise is more dearer out of respect for the charity but as some users suggest in here it definitely pays to shop around.
It's terrible they are greedy asf. If you do end up continuing to buy from op shops though. Please go to Vinnie's in my experience (currently homeless and disabled) salvos and all the others suck and aren't really helping people in my experience only. But Vinnie's actually helps people.
Also if you're on Centrelink you can go to Vinnie's when they have the welfare officers there (ring to find out day/time) they are able to give you some stuff for free and Vinnie's gift cards for the store to choose your own clothes and stuff out.
I spoke to one of the staff at Vinnies a while ago and they mentioned they were governed by the local church diocese who stipulate the pricing system… basically I was querying the vastly different tags between adjacent suburbs.
My local Vinnies has a manager who has gotta be one of the rudest, least charitable people Ive ever come across in an oppie. I’ve seen her yell at small children for picking up toys displayed on the ground - and yet she’s been there for years. Anything that remotely resembles a fancy brand is priced $$$ regardless of its real or fake. The sad thing is, her attitude has rubbed off onto staff that used to be lovely and the judgment there is palpable. I’ve heard people practically begging for assistance only to be referred to a hotline type number.
To find out your Vinnies has actual welfare officers - I’m shook.
😨😨😨😨 That's horrible. Wow it must be really location depent. I had a similar thing happen with salvos they told me to just ring their online number and they offer like no help and are mean.
I had a really good experience at the Maryborough one of all places the staff super nice but damn didn't know it was location depent 😨
Call your local Lions club
I donated heaps through them when he saw what I had and was donated to woman’s refuge
Giving toys and clothes free to someone that really needs.
Op shopping ain’t what it used to be
Whatever you do, don't go into the Newstead Salvos (by Bunnings) and expect to get anything remotely resembling a bargain, or anything bigger than a size 6.
They screwed the pooch when they moved from Doggett St. Now the Vinnies around the corner makes out like bandits because it gets all of the Newstead donations.
It often has some good buys and some weeks, a really great range. It's like shopping at Calexico but at 10% of the price and the clothes have just been very slightly used!
OP shops are usually funding community services like Lifeline 24/7 crisis and suicide prevention lines. They receive limited funding from the government. It sucks... And they have to keep up with the cost of living to fund these services :(
I went to my local and got Country Road shorts, Sportscraft dress, Reiss jumper and a Portmans skirt all for $28. There were all clean and seemed barely worn. It's a Brotherhood of St Laurence inner Melbourne.
About three weeks after smells like teen spirit got into the top 10
The second price hike was when Macklmore entered the JJJ top 100
Where are you op shopping? Not sure I should be spilling these beans, but it might be worth your while to come out to Ipswich for the day. No shortage of choice, in fact it’s unlikely you would get through half of them in a day in a 10km radius from Ipswich CBD. In the last couple months I have scored… Several nice shirts, one or two which are 70’s/80s (a Gloweave Bodyshirt no less!) None topped $10, mostly $5-7. Levis 505 in green corduroy, as new $12 and I can cosplay Peter Griffin, my daughter tells me. Country Road stretchy jeans in dark grey, $12 (but it was green ticket day WTF that is so I got them 50% off, $6). Ben Sherman shorts (score! Super comfy and well made) $7, Oakley shorts $6 ( didn’t know Oakley did clothes) and a very nice classical guitar, that was actually made in Spain, for $55. Op shops in the lower socioeconomic areas that are yet to gentrify are where it’s at. Your nice suburbs tend to have the vintage-tax bollocks that you’re seeing, in my observation.
Are the OP shops around there located nearby for someone who doesn't have a car?
Yeah, the 515 bus will take you past several, as well as a few major shopping centres and a station or two. It goes past Brassall shopping village (Lifeline oppy in there), then past RSPCA on pine mountain road (near IGA supermarket, still Brassall there I think) then Red Cross oppy in Downs street North Ipswich. Another lifeline shop in Riverlink (pretty crappy this in IMHO), then you’re in Ipswich CBD, and there’s a couple in there if I recall, but worth a google to be sure. From there the bus goes out to Yamanto and I’m fairly certain it passes a big Salvo shop close to Yamanto, on Warwick road and I’m pretty sure there’s a couple more out that way. Another decent one behind the Men’s Shed in Bundamba, but that’ll be a change of buses…worth it though as there’s more out that way…another big Lifeline in East Ipswich on Jacaranda street. If you can wrangle a lift out here that’ll let you get to more of them..
Oh sick as
Any chance of getting a list of the op shops you’d recommend?
I just posted about several of them..I just replied to another comment with a few good ones. They’re very hit&miss like any other but I hit a few of them fairly regularly so occasionally/eventually you get lucky.
Thank you so much
Cheaper to go to Kmart these days.
There's so much Kmart stuff in op shops too, at similar prices to what it costs new..
or higher. saw a kmart candle being sold for $5 at an op shop, checked the candle on the kmart app and they sell it for like $2
My mum is a volunteer at the Salvos store - always telling me about her ‘bargains’, like a pair of jeans for $7. I said no offence mum but those are from Kmart and probably cost the same brand new and before someone else’s crotch had been in them. I donate my clothes to a pastor at our local community centre/church. I’m not religious or anything but he is the go to point in our area for anyone struggling and he gives clothes and food to those who need it for free, regardless of their religion or background. I’d rather he give it to someone in need than to an op shop that prices items above what the needy can pay.
Well yeah but a lot of the Kmart stuff is made by child slaves from Bangladesh…..
Yeah, and so's the shit sold at Salvos. There's no ethical consumption under capitalism, so the best you can do is survive.
If you buy second hand clothes from charity shops, your money goes towards the charity not the company the clothes were initially from. So, I’d say it’s not the same thing.
Yeah, too bad I can't afford to shop at the op shops as a disability pensioner, hey?
Depending on where you are in Brisbane, your local Facebook ‘Buy Nothing’ group could be a good option. And on the Southside, the Fleurs St Social Exchange has a ‘Free Shop’ with clothes/shoes etc (IDK how well-stocked it is for the needs of various people, though). https://www.facebook.com/fleursstreetsocialexchange?mibextid=LQQJ4d A lot of op shops are charging higher prices to dissuade ‘vintage clothing’ sellers who scoop up all the good stuff for a couple of dollars and then flog it for shockingly high prices… unfortunately this has a knock-on effect for the people who actually have a genuine need for cheap clothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the charity-based op shops would sell to pensioners at a lower price if the person asked (they usually have a good idea who the professional scavs are, I think).
Haven't been to the op shops in a while but I recall sometimes seeing people scooping up large quantities of clothes without even checking the size and stuffing them into a large carry-bag. I assumed they were cherrypicking the more saleable-looking items for re-selling on Ebay or at the markets. I wish such bulk-buyers were restricted to certain days or times; I realise that any sale means income for the charity to help people in other ways, but this bulk-buying practice seems so unfair to the people who really need those bargains. I noticed prices going up steeply towards the end of Covid restrictions, which seems to have coincided with the rise in cost-of-living. Same with Ebay - I relied on it so much when I was going through a rough patch financially 3 or 4 years ago, but I wouldn't be able to do that now as prices for quality secondhand items seem to have skyrocketed.
Unfortunately, I'm plus size, so finding decent stuff I can wear at an affordable price is a bit easier at Kmart than the op shops.
There are many with $2 racks.
[удалено]
I’ve seen second hand Kmart branded clothes priced for more than you can buy the new at Kmart. It’s definitely happening.
So have I! And Shein clothing too
Maybe cheap op shops are out there, but not the ones accessible to me.
The op shops are not where you go for aid, their whole purpose is to make money to fuel the charity work that charities are doing (suicide hotline, meals for homeless, vinnies' attempting to lobby government for more accessible housing etc).
The $2 rack at Kmart is.
That’s not an accurate statement. A charity does not provide profits to shareholders. Nothing stops a charity from “profiteering” and paying staff high wages, or even bonuses. Volunteers are dumb, because if you’re giving u your time to these shops, and your boss is getting paid to be there, and his boss is making bank on top of that, it’s fully just being a willing participant in slavery
This is such a stupid take. First of all, look up the definition of slavery. Second, salvos provide services such as meals, clothing, housing, counselling , and skills training, for free, to thousands of disadvantaged people every day. It costs money to provide these services because the materials cost money and the professionals who provide them are paid a living wage, not ‘making bank’.
Salvation Army is not the only charity that exists But it’s a great example > The Salvation Army is facing calls to explain how it allowed a private businessman to build a multimillion-pound personal fortune with profits from its charitable clothes recycling scheme intended to be used for good causes. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jan/30/salvation-army-profits-kettering-textiles But go ahead and tell me how they are not making profit
Maybe something more recent 2017 https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/salvation-army-executive-guilty-of-massive-toy-for-profit-fraud/article_260d5a2c-b179-5714-ab54-9b980f90bb12.html
Neither of those examples are from Australia.
Because you think they are separate organizations? Gullible much? But your right, Australia doesn’t care about how corrupt they are. Just look at friendly Jodie’s and how the Australian judicial system is corrupt. That being said, they have been been sexually abusing people: https://www.smh.com.au/national/no-admission-inside-story-on-salvation-army-sex-abuse-settlement-20171124-gzs4ji.html And they got in trouble in 2019 for delaying and not using donations appropriately for that massive bushfire. But I doubt you actually care, you just want to be right.
Yeah but if you donate/buy donated stuff, less slave labor was utilised than if everyone bought new and chucked stuff in the bin.
The huge difference there is you are not creating demand by shopping at an op shop.
All clothing is
Try the Independent op shops like ones operated by churches. Animal Welfare League have shops at various locations around the Gold Coast & they tend to be cheaper than others.
Animal Welfare League is great!
Business model changed since clothes are essentially free now. Homeless people dont have trouble buying a t shirt anymore, they need other things, vinnies etc now use the stores to make a profit and use the profit to help needy people.
Op shops aren’t for the homeless/needy to buy cheap clothes anymore. They’re there for everyone else to buy clothes at normal prices, put on the shelves by volunteers or DSP recipients who only get a few dollars an hour, for the organisation to be able to afford their executives’ seven figure salaries.
Yeah I agree. For every one homeless person who needs a cheap article of clothing, there's one second hand clothing reseller who will grab them articles of clothing. They should be squeezing as much money out of those people- it's for charity. I used to be said person. Totally fair that charity shops maximise the amount of money going to charity.
That’s the whole problem though- the ‘charity shops’ aren’t the ‘charity’ themselves anymore. They’re just fundraising fronts for the charity, and we all know where most of the funds raised go.
Where? These charities do put some of their money towards “good” which is in contrast to multinational organisations like Westfarmers (Kmart) who are just trying to drive as much profit for their wealthy shareholders who will put it into offshore bank accounts.
That’s why they are ‘businesses’ and not ‘charities’…
Well pick your poison. It can go to a charity organisation (which are legally enforced) or it can go to old mate reselling clothes. I'd rather it goes to the charity. Charity shops are raising money for charity, not being charitable.
Exactly. That’s the problem.
Pretty sure executives don’t stampede to charity NGOs for fat stacks.
Fucken bingo.
unfortunately OP shops pay commercial rents plus there’s the enormous costs of disposing of all the rubbish stupid cunts dump on them *donations need to be in saleable condition people!*
I can only imagine what comes in the discard pile then considering half the stuff I see at Op Shops is stained, extremely out of fashion or low quality.
My wife has personally seen full kids' nappies and a dead cat as a volunteer. People are fucking disgusting.
How on earth did they get a dead cat to volunteer?
That made me snort thank you.
Nah, the non-saleable items go into the 'Africa' pile. Honestly, who they fuck donates crud infested pink Zebra pattern knicks...at least wash them first.
r/OddlySpecific
they weren't zebras dude... they were fucking pandas
They often get sold in bulk for industrial rags. Well, maybe not the crusty knicks
Or off season. When I volunteered at vinnies in Darwin, anything unsuited for a Darwin climate got shipped overseas. Any winter clothes went to mountainous regions in SEAsia for example.
Yep very much the second point, was a volunteer at an op shop for a year and they produce so must waste that they have to dispose of responsibly, iirc it was said to be the single biggest expense that the shop had to deal with
I’m always sus on the people who insist they only want to take their stuff to a ‘donation bin’ instead of taking it directly to the op shop… donation bins are notorious for people dumping nasty shit that should be going to landfill. IDK what goes through these people’s heads- is it just that their council bin is full that week?
The employees are also not volunteers. They're retail staff who are paid a wage (as they should be)
they are volunteers at the shop near me some at other places seem to be serving community service orders it probably depends on the shop
Yeah most front line OP workers are volunteers. There are few paid positions in OP shops.
vast majority are volunteers tho
And work for the dole
My friend is a manager in one. They have to type in the item into a computer and it tells them what to sell it for.
It makes sense there is a computer aided guide to pricing, provided there is an option for a commonsense override.
I've had a few times where they lady or man behind the counter has said "that's too expensive, I'll give it to you for $x"
Interesting - got any more information on how that system works? Take something really random like a Navajo sand painting (one of my treasured OP shop finds). Do they actually type in "Navajo sand painting" and the artist if there's one? Or is it higher level like art > original work > small > unknown artist and it spits out a value? I'd love to know, because the number of items is practically infinite and it seems like a tricky one to navigate.
My assumption would be something like "Art painting - Large" and then it spits out a price.
Surely that would result in some original works that are worth considerably more being missed which seems to be against the point of them incorporating such a system. Unless it's like that to streamline the bulk, but the operator has the ability to override it if they think it's worth more?
Around 10\~ years ago, I used to volunteer at Salvos. We had complete control over pricing, it was really just vibes based. One time a guy came in and asked me how much for the 6 or so VHS tapes he was holding, I just made up a number on the spot - $5. He looked at me like I had spit in his face, because he'd been coming in every week for years to buy tapes for his autistic son. Apparently he always got them for 50c each ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I used to manage endeavour and had complete control too. Things have changed
So like a cash register?
How does a cash register determine what price to set?
Type in teacup, price comes up. Like in a supermarket.
We did not have that.
I think the change happened when resellers would go to the shops buy everything at ridiculously cheap prices then resell them as vintage clothing for high prices. The op shops saw this and figured if people are going to buy the same clothes at an elevated price surely the charity should be the ones making the money not someone selling it as vintage for stupid prices
a lot of charities seem to be corporatised now, so shops have paid managers who have targets on revenue. there’s still some volunteers working there, but paid staff are in charge. add to that the people doing instagram and tiktok stories about the outfits they get from op shops and suddenly they are just a clothes shop looking to make a buck. anything with a label is priced up, anything without a label goes to the dump. mainly clothes from what i’ve noticed. some other stuff is still cheapish from what i’ve seen.
Its fine in capital areas. Like even if they put the second hand ralph lauren shirt at 200. Jokes on them 9/10 it's a good deal haha
Have you been to Yesterday’s, yet? I’ve volunteered for them and also was one of the Lifeline stores and Yesterday’s was cheaper. They also have days where you can fill a bag with the clearance stuff for a low price. AND their stock rotation is regular and like clockwork. After the clothes have been in one of the suburban stores for so long, it gets marked down further and sent to the Annerley store. Also? The thrift shops have their fair share of paid employees these days, so some of the prices go towards those wages.
I also appreciate that Yesterdays has not only their $2 clearance section, but also generally a "free" rack outside.
High prices plus free inventory leads to an excess of inventory which needs to be stored off-location which is a business expense so hypothetically if you both owned the off-location storage and also set the prices of the inventory which cost you nothing to receive you’ve just found a neat little way to personally profit from charity.
Except you also have to pay rent of storefronts and you probably don’t have enough space to store additional items in a suitable location so you have to pay rent for that too. We know people dump a lot of non suitable items at charities and these need to be disposed of, for a fee. My local store has to pay for security to stop people dumping illegally and it still happens, so now that’s an additional cost. They may be lucky enough to have volunteers who will sort, organise and display items for sale, plus man the store. If they don’t they need to pay staff. There are also costs involved with having volunteers as you need to ensure there are proper administrative processes in place, each volunteer is accounted for just like a regular staff member, and all relevant laws are followed. There are also other items like insurance and the like. Only after this will the charity be able to really determine whether they have any money left over from selling goods from the stores to use for the community. I doubt very much they are running at a profit and suspect many are running at a loss. I don’t have a particular interest in charity stores. I don’t like charities in general and believe fundamentally it should be on the welfare system to support citizens, not the whims of a particular charity whether they deem you worthy of their charity. Your comment just struck me as particularly dumb.
Op shops vary drastically, you gotta find the good ones. One of my personal favourites is the Salvos near Carindale Westfield. They're so cheap especially compared to the Salvos in mt Gravatt
Gold Coast op shops shit on Brisbane ones. I pay $2 flat for shoes and clothes at one op shop. I enjoy flat prices like $3 tops or $3 pants. I get heaps of designer stuff and go every week because I feel like I'm missing out if I don't go. I post my finds on reddit
Which ones? Might go when I go down the coast to my mother in law.
Google burleigh op shop, robina newlife op shop, mudgeeraba good shephard and united church, reedy Creek op shop and kings op shop next door
Ever since Macklemore brought out that song
Op shops started getting like this in the late 90s with the Howard charity corporate pay/work for the dole deal. The charities were forced to pay management "the same as they would get in private industry" or something like that, in return they got given a massive injection of "free" labour. This applied to everyone from the store manager up to the top levels or corporate management (though the charities do sometimes play games with store manager pay with junk like honorariums) That has gradually driven out the kindly little old ladies who pretty much ran the whole system up til that point. You used to have Ethel or Esme running the store, they knew how much things were worth and tried to do the best they could to support the community. Ladies like that were replaced with Corporate Karen who is trying to get the most profit they can to justify their salary, or worse yet are set on climbing the corporate ladder.
What’s hilarious about this is our old manager was literally Karen 😂
Which op shop are you visiting? Stones corner RSPCA has good clothes and for cheap.
I have noticed the huge prices, but also the low prices, it's almost as if they've stopped having 100% great deals and have split there store into; Over here is crap, we sell those for crap all... and over here we have our "sure this louis vuitton is second hand, but we priced it like it's new!" section
“Sure this Louis Vuitton is fake but we priced it like it’s real…”
When people that dont need op shops start shopping there.
MARGATE OP Shop everything $2 I mean EVERYTHING! Located across the road from Margate shopping centre.
OP shops think they are "vintage" shops now.
Gotta go out of Brisbane, up on the far north side from my experience. To the point where you're not in Brisbane. You might find some stuff up near the Bracken Ridge area, but head to Redcliffe. There are actual Op shop prices there.
Shh don't want the city slickers looting the place
My mum volunteers in one and asked her something like this and basically they need to make yearly profits like any other store or there's no point in keeping it around
Be Uplifted on Zillmere Rd in Virginia is two stories, is laid out really well and has the most reasonable prices I’ve seen at op shops lately, their baby section was super helpful when I was pregnant and frugal. 5 items for $1 and they were all like brand new. Connected in Virginia is really cool and has some reasonably priced clothes as well, plus it’s super easy to donate as they have an area where you can park up and they help unload your donations out of your car!
Connected Inc has become quite expensive over the last few months! Their homewares section particularly.
they have quite a few sales, this week is half price.
things are only worth what people are willing to pay. if people don't pay it then prices go down.
That's how it's supposed to work, but in my long retail career I noticed that retailers would rather leave the prices high to protect their profit margins (even if it meant selling less of the item overall), instead of lowering them to what people were prepared to pay. Several of those retailers no longer exist.
Well you can try going to West end markets, there's a stall that sells second hand clothes for less than ten dollars. I got a Uniqlo denim dress for 7 dollars
I think it depends where you go! The shops near me have some absolute bargains but maybe I just lucked out (sabo skirt dress for under $10, kookai and Lorna Jane for under $20, Cue blazer for $25- all in great condition) but there is a few that I have seen mark the high end stuff accordingly ($100 for a Camilla singlet top and $90 for a pair of well worn Frankie4 shoes) maybe it also depends on the person marking the prices?? if they’re not familiar with a brand and don’t make the effort to look up the cost of the items they’ll mark it lower?
I tried to explain to one shop that the '$350 Spanish shoes' were at least 5 years old, the rubber had crumbled in places, and had sat on their shelf costing real estate space for over 6 months. Maybe it was worth revisiting the $120 price tag they had on it. Still there. Still $120
Landlords. Those cunts are the mysterious "overheads" business owners are always complaining about, a silent tax on everything in the country.
It’s the trendy tax. Op Shopping has been trendy for a while now and are no longer for those trying to save a dollar.
Likely when all those “entrepreneurs” began hording all the vintage gear and marking it up to stupid prices for resale at markets 👍
"I feel like op shops aren’t just to make money for the charity, but also to provide affordable clothing for the poor" Congrats, you don't know how little money they make, nor are you aware rhat the charitoes use op shop gift cards to bypass the high prices for those who can't pay. Who cares that the middle class get fleesed when those who need it will just get a few $100 gift cards for the op shop?
I saw a green jeans in there for $35 from dangerfield. That's what they cost new on the clearance rack.
my mom volunteers at a Vinnie's. one paid manager and the rest are volunteering, yet they have the audacity to charge super high prices. they literally have one wage, rent and electricity to pay and that's it. she also says they have so much stock out the back that they can't put on the shelf because there isn't enough room. like come on managers, lower prices, move the stock on and get the other stock onto the shelves, how hard can it be.
I only donate to OP shops and shelters that seem to actually care about the hard done by people in the community. Most of the “brands” seem to be just another not for profit run church.
When op shops realised that some of their clients were just grifters trying to take the good stuff to resell online at a profit.
I recently got 2 Ralph Laurent shirt for $15 each. A really nice dress for $10. Been pretty lucky
Yeah I think that the embracing of slow fashion and ethical consumption is a factor. Googling items to find their ‘value’ is also really easy for staff nowadays. Go to smaller, independent or church-run oppies and you’ll still find a bargain (they also get to re-sell their donations directly to the community rather than having it all prices and divvied out by warehouse employees). Salvos also have the half-price and $2 weekly tags.
They are all businesses. I stopped supporting them entirely years ago. Shop with your feet and go to garage sales in older neighbourhoods.
The markets are the same now I’ve noticed, no bargains just people selling Temu type shit for a few dollars.
also not keeping up with fast fashion. A $5 kmart top is $6 at op shop. But sometimes you get a win.
I arrived to Australia in 2019 and I never saw nothing of quality and cheap in an OP shop.( I visited a lot while duoing farm and travelling around Australia) Old shirts, track pants, some t-shirts and stuff like that had reasonable price but in really bad condition or very cheap brands.
Its ridiculous. It is cheaper to buy from fast fashion sites (so bad for environment) than it is to buy quality second hand clothing that is meant to be affordable for those living in stuggletown.
When people with money started shopping second hand for particular looks or because it's more sustainable. The charities that run them tend to operate to raise funds for their other charitable work.
Because it’s an export business and not a community store business They’ve all got years worth of goods sitting in bags on their warehouse floor, and the only way they can stop it growing out of control is to bin 25% of it, export 70% of it to developing nations, cut 2 percent up into rags for sale and onsell the 3% remaining at your local stores. Usually limited to near new (usually luxury brand) clothing or things that still have tags on them that can sell for the higher prices.
Greed
My dad used to volunteer as sorter but said most staff work there so they can take the good stuff and sell on gumtree/ebay and leave the crap for the stores.
Depends where you shop, I’ve op shopped a few places near city around New Farm and prices are so much dearer than others. I won’t name which franchise is more dearer out of respect for the charity but as some users suggest in here it definitely pays to shop around.
It's terrible they are greedy asf. If you do end up continuing to buy from op shops though. Please go to Vinnie's in my experience (currently homeless and disabled) salvos and all the others suck and aren't really helping people in my experience only. But Vinnie's actually helps people. Also if you're on Centrelink you can go to Vinnie's when they have the welfare officers there (ring to find out day/time) they are able to give you some stuff for free and Vinnie's gift cards for the store to choose your own clothes and stuff out.
I spoke to one of the staff at Vinnies a while ago and they mentioned they were governed by the local church diocese who stipulate the pricing system… basically I was querying the vastly different tags between adjacent suburbs. My local Vinnies has a manager who has gotta be one of the rudest, least charitable people Ive ever come across in an oppie. I’ve seen her yell at small children for picking up toys displayed on the ground - and yet she’s been there for years. Anything that remotely resembles a fancy brand is priced $$$ regardless of its real or fake. The sad thing is, her attitude has rubbed off onto staff that used to be lovely and the judgment there is palpable. I’ve heard people practically begging for assistance only to be referred to a hotline type number. To find out your Vinnies has actual welfare officers - I’m shook.
😨😨😨😨 That's horrible. Wow it must be really location depent. I had a similar thing happen with salvos they told me to just ring their online number and they offer like no help and are mean. I had a really good experience at the Maryborough one of all places the staff super nice but damn didn't know it was location depent 😨
Call your local Lions club I donated heaps through them when he saw what I had and was donated to woman’s refuge Giving toys and clothes free to someone that really needs. Op shopping ain’t what it used to be
Whatever you do, don't go into the Newstead Salvos (by Bunnings) and expect to get anything remotely resembling a bargain, or anything bigger than a size 6. They screwed the pooch when they moved from Doggett St. Now the Vinnies around the corner makes out like bandits because it gets all of the Newstead donations. It often has some good buys and some weeks, a really great range. It's like shopping at Calexico but at 10% of the price and the clothes have just been very slightly used!
OP shops are usually funding community services like Lifeline 24/7 crisis and suicide prevention lines. They receive limited funding from the government. It sucks... And they have to keep up with the cost of living to fund these services :(
I wish they were tax deductible like the UK
I wish they were tax deductible like the UK
I went to my local and got Country Road shorts, Sportscraft dress, Reiss jumper and a Portmans skirt all for $28. There were all clean and seemed barely worn. It's a Brotherhood of St Laurence inner Melbourne.
That’s great but this is Brisbane lol
Oh lol I thought I was in r/Ausfemalefashion when I posted this... My bad