| Does the way in which charity shops display their | | | | DVDs or ornaments, until the furniture unit is sold and |
| wares or utilises their shopfittings and retail displays | | | | a new display stand is required. In short, they make |
| have any impact on sales in the current economic | | | | the best of what is available. Which is best? Well, as |
| climate? | | | | long as the charity is supported and gets the |
| During a recent shopping foray into a range of | | | | donations and business from the public it needs, it |
| charity shops, I was surprised at how quiet they all | | | | shouldn't matter a jot. Or does it? |
| seemed to be. One of the charity shops I visited | | | | In the past, I would visit the charity shops in turn and |
| recently noted that while numbers of shoppers | | | | buy from as many as possible to try and 'do my bit'. |
| visiting had increased since the financial crisis began, | | | | But times have changed. We are in recession and the |
| takings were actually down. | | | | Credit Crunch is biting deep. Yes, the mainstream, |
| The range of charities represented on my excursion | | | | branded charity shops are well-lit, airy and don't have |
| was an assorted mix that seem to fall into two main | | | | so much of the musty, 'second-hand clothes' smell |
| categories: Local - i.e. the local church, or hospice, etc. | | | | about them as, say, the local shop, but this also |
| - and then there is what I call the mainstream - | | | | seems to me to be reflecting in the prices they |
| nationally recognised charities. | | | | charge. From the shops I have been into, both in the |
| Some of the mainstream shops appear to have | | | | bigger cities and in the smaller market towns, many |
| adopted a typical, countrywide look in their branding, | | | | items of clothing all now seem similarly priced to |
| down to colour co-ordination and colour-wheel-type | | | | some of the popular mass-produced, low-cost, |
| segregation of their clothing; standardised shopfittings | | | | clothing chain stores. In this respect in these frugal |
| and carpets, with Managers trained in Retail. In short, | | | | times will people support the charity, or buy new? |
| a very slick, retail operation no different in principle to | | | | The local charity shops, on the other hand, still seem |
| the main high-street chains. | | | | to have much lower priced items by comparison, |
| By contrast, some of the local charity shops seem to | | | | offering the same range and quality of donated |
| be set up in whatever shop space is available. It can | | | | products. |
| often be seen that the layout in the shop is random, | | | | With money in people's pockets getting ever tighter, |
| much like a Bring and Buy, or Rummage Sale. It may | | | | the hunt for a bargain will hold even charity shoppers |
| be poorly, or unevenly lit; donated furniture and | | | | off from parting with their cash until the very last |
| cabinets acting as the shop displays for Books and | | | | possible minute. |