Favourite charity shops (UK)? Barnardo's just ditched its commitment to sustainable fashion.

My nearest Barnardo's is one of the most beautiful charity shops I've been in. If it wasn't for the branding and the slat wall, you'd soon forget you were in a charity shop. My second nearest Barnardo's is also great for clothing, but today I was informed by the volunteers *all* Barnardo's stores have been banned from selling jewellery. Despite all the beautiful displays, they're not even allowed to put jewellery in their window displays anymore - not even on the mannequins. Apparently the ban comes in place from Friday.

Where's it going? All donations of jewellery now have to go to their central eBay warehouse, where a team of 'valuers' will sort it. Anything worth more than £20 secondhand (eBay sold listings) will be listed individually, everything else will be bundled into 5-10kg bags and sold as a job lot (5kg makes £50-80 apparently). These job lots include costume jewellery that could have been sold in-store individually, and BNWT costume jewellery which could have been sold in-store for higher prices.

If that wasn't bad enough, volunteers who work for Barnardo's just to value and/or merchandise the jewellery have been told they either take up other tasks or leave. The one who oversees jewellery in my nearest store used to work for a major auction house specialising in jewellery! Store Managers and their pad staff have also been told they'll receive formal warnings if they refuse to comply with this ban. Apparently senior managers believe volunteers are costing the organisation too much money by 'missing gems' so the best option is to send it all to eBay. Madness!
SO, I 100% refuse to shop at Barnardo's anymore. Which charity retailers are generally more fashion conscious these days? I am not very keen on the sort of generic 90s style charity shop but I guess it depends on the stock? I just latched onto Barnardo's as I found my local ones to be great. Also, which have the best people management practices? I don't really want to contribute to charities who treat their staff dirty. And where do you all donate your clothes to? Any preferences?

Submitted May 20, 2023 at 05:50PM by Boomtape https://ift.tt/obA0LyM