Books

[juliet]

So, I hauled 2 bags of books and a bag of random clothes & stuff down to the charity shop on Monday, only to discover that they're no longer taking donations. Bother.

I have a vague recollection that there are places online where you can give books away (other than Freecycle). Anyone able to point me in an appropriate direction?

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

This is bad business. I might go in and offer them some consultancy. If you're not paying for stock, you're a pure volume business, and being full suggests you're Doing It Wrong...

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I think charity shops are reluctant to throw out shit that wont sell. It is a shame really.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

I can understand being reluctant to throw stuff out, but they could try making it lots cheaper (50p is better than 0p, and 50p+new stock is much better than 0p+turning new stock away - and a lot of their prices aren't actually that cheap to start with, compared to what charity shop stuff cost in my day).

I know they only have volunteers, but also if someone could do an hour sticking a little flyer through letterboxes round those bits of Bermondsey which have lots of young families saying "we have kids toys going cheap this week" or whatever. This is I'm sure the sort of thing lots of people like me who don't have the time or inclination to sit running a shop would happily do.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Yeah - things could be done.

[juliet]

I think the trouble is that the elderly volunteers who work there just don't think like that. I think you're right, though - lower prices and higher turnover is clearly a better bet.

(I wonder if there's also an extent to which Primark et al are undercutting business. For some people, buying NEW is a very important thing.)

[lovingboth]

Yep, or reducing prices on stuff that's still there after a while...

Certain shops have a large stock of various items because they have an unrealistic view of how much it's worth.