Sunday 6 May 2012

Charity Shops: the good, the bad and the ugly

There has recently been a boom in the amount of young people looking around charity shops. More and more people from the younger generations are now going charity shopping, and i'll admit it, i'm one of them! Charity shops can be full of vintagey clothing at amazing prices just waiting to be snapped up.

OXFAM and British Heart Foundation - image from fundraising.co.uk

However, a lot of the charity shops nowadays are hit and miss: and i'll tell you why.

Firstly, they know what we're up to! Some charity shops are now hand-picking through their items and making a 'vintage' section in their shops. This may seem a good idea at first, but to my horror they are actually charging extremely HIGH prices for such items! To me, that defies the whole idea of going to a charity shop. I do not like it. At all.

My nearest city is Leeds, and as every other big city, it is full to the brim of charity shops. Unfortunately, these shops are also full of young girls such as myself looking for vintage buys. By the time I get chance to mooch around the city charity shops, all the unique items have been bought and everything tends to start looking the same.

So i'll provide you a solution for this problem: go to charity shops in small villages. Okay, lets be realistic, not every shop is going to have amazing clothes or retro bags, but every so often you can stumble upon an item which you instantly fall in love with.

And now, to prove to you that you CAN find amazing bargains in charity shops, here are two photos of my favourite bags. Whats more, the brown satchel was only 50p! 50P!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhh bargains do make me happy! 


Satchel - 50p at Salvation Army



Retro Chiltern bought by my friend!
So, do you go charity shopping? If so, where do you go? And which charity shops do you like going to? xxxxxx


10 comments:

  1. I've been in Chester but didn't find anything.
    In my town, a small town, they all have junk and smell like must so I've always avoided those.
    My sister-in-law's best friend found a legit Louis Vuitton though. Not sure what town it was in! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah a lot of charity shops are hit and miss, but when you see something you really love it makes all the rummaging worth while! :)

      Delete
  2. I can't stand going in charity shops, the smell is just so overpowering and horrible :( I'd probably get bullied if I went in them too, Essex is a horrible place! However when I was little I helped my mum find a Forelli bag for £1 before :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thats such a shame, you can pick up some really nice things! xxxxxx

      Delete
  3. Lovely post. I like your blog, I just found it! It is wonderful and I will be stopping by again soon.
    Carlee

    http://allthingsaveragegirl.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. the 2 bags are amazing, im in looooveeee, deffo going to a charity shop next time im in town! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. i agree with you 100%, i used to go in the charity shops when everything was pretty much under £1, and now some things are up to like £7!
    it makes my day when i come back home with tons of amazing things, and have hardly spent anything:)

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  6. they're both great bags! I haven't been charity shop shopping in quite a while! Loving yuor blog :) xxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. I live in Central London so most charity shops charge quite high prices :( I do love charity shopping, but the charity shops around me would charge £4 for a Primark top 8-} And most good-used condition items are nearly the sale-off prices, so not that big of a bargain for me.

    http://agirlwithsmile.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love your blog by the way! Yes! I agree with you completely on this. I am planning on going round all the charity shops where I live today. If I am honest, I think that most of the younger, fashion aware people don't go in charity shops yet. I know this because I get dirty looks when I venture in haha. But I have noticed vintage sections cropping up, which would be cool if they were seperating it from the modern stuff, but they're doing it to knock the price up a few notches! I knwo it's all money for charity, but not everyone can afford to pay almost high street prices for clothes. Rant over! Love that satchel! Following :)

    Laura xx
    prettyprettypenny.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete