Is the cost of living crisis threatening charity shops?

UWS Newsroom

Oct 16

By Anna Konovalenko

Photo by Anna Konovalenko

The living cost crisis greatly affects Scotland in almost all areas of life. As surprising as it may seem, charity shops also might be at serious risk. As winter approaches, people are worried they won't be able to provide themselves and their families with the most necessary things.

Charity shops are vital for providing many families with basic necessities. Right now living cost crisis threatens their livability. At the beginning of the year, charity foundation Mary's Meal announced that it would close its stores all over Scotland starting from September 2023. UWS newsroom talked to a councillor and some charity shops to let people know what to expect in the upcoming winter.

An anonymus councillor commented that not so much inflation impacts charity shops but the cost of living crisis:

'I think the cost of living crisis has a huge impact on charity shops.'

'I am hearing from people I know. I find that more people are using charity shops instead of buying new things. I think it ties into both, of course, the cost of living crisis. It's cheaper to buy something second-hand than it is to buy something new. And the second, I think, is also that people are more happy to recycle clothes or things like that than they were five years ago.'

They also emphasized that the government is helping the stores to operate:

'I think the government is doing quite a lot already. For example, if you're a charity you don't need to pay your rent, you don't need to pay tax which other businesses need to do.'

People turn to charity shops because things there are at least 5-10 times cheaper than the usual mass market price. Instead of overpaying in ordinary stores, people go to a charity shop, buy themselves a new thing and thereby donate money to charity.

Image from Flickr

UWS Newsroom visited a range of charity shops and asked them how they are operating now and what it is to expect in the upcoming months.

The shop manager of the PDSA charity shop, doesn't seem to be worried about her charity shop being shut down, but at the same time, she expressed her concerns about fewer donations coming in.

'I find it (PDSA charity shop) affected (by inflation) as in a slightly positive way. A lot more people are coming into the charity shop, people that hadn't maybe occurred to do it before. We are getting a lot of younger people through the door that are very conscious of the environment and in recycling things. So that had a positive effect on charity shops.'

'What I have noticed is the quality and quantity of donations is starting to decline. We are fortunate that we've got the landlord that kept our rent pretty stable.'

Indra, manager of the Cats Protection charity shop has also noticed a decline in donations. However, because Cats Protection is not working entirely on fellow contributions, they are less vulnerable to living cost crises:

'I would say probably decrease (in donations). I think people are probably selling them (clothes) more themselves online just to get some more money.'

'It's quite hard to see the effects of inflation as well because we are a non-standard charity shop, so our prices are higher anyway cause of the brands and the kind of clothes that we sell. Even though we have new clothes, we buy them in, so we still have to have the higher markup but it would be probably around 50% or 60% even less than the original price.'

Indra also commented that they've been very busy this year compared to the post-Covid-19 period :

'Previously, you know, just straight after Covid, people were maybe a bit afraid to go out and go shopping, but now definitely more and more busier. Summer was very busy, now coming to Christmas as well even busier too.'

Rosalin who works as a retail assistant at the Cancer Research UK charity shop highlighted the noticeable rise in customers this year :

'I'd say we are busier now because people are looking for cheaper items, second-hand. Plus there's a big emphasis on recycling, so people are more into helping the environment and getting second-hand stuff rather than going into town to get new stuff. There's a mixture of a range of ages like from students to older folks.'