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Charity Shops

felix

felix

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Apr 30, 2005
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We're always trying to trim down the amount of stuff we have lying about, so what's everyone's thoughts on the best places to give to?

Our main street is full of them, so which one is best and why? :)
 
The organ shop. Ran by the chinese and nothing like ye olde organ shoppe that you grew up with.

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I think we usually give to our clothes to Oxfam since they send them onto needy people in Africa on the whole. Better than putting them up for sale even if it is to raise funds for charitable needs.
 
No I hadn't! I kind of assumed that clothes would be going places where said textiles were not reaching for one reason or another... do you know what it was called?
 
Just found it - The Secret Life of Your Clothes - that linky should hopefully work.

And yeah, really was a bit of a shocker. The last thing you'd expect to happen to clothes given in good faith to charity shops is for them to flog them on to wholesalers who then dump them on the very countries you'd kinda assume the money made from sales was going to help. Of course it's a bit of a mishmash cos whilst on the one hand it's destroying local industry it's also fuelling a new industry based on selling on our auld tat for more than it'd go for in charity shops here in some cases and - for the real tat - clothing folk who could never afford the stuff made locally.

Gotta <3 globalism <3
 
On the subject of the textile industry, I watched a documentary about the sex trade in Cambodia a week or 2 ago. Women caught working in brothels there get detained until they agree to take up a new career (usually in the textile industry) if they don't they get held until they do.

The conditions/pay are usually so bad the women actually want to return to prostitution rather than work in the sweatshops, many moonlight as prostitutes at night in addition to their jobs to be able to feed their family. Pretty shocking really.
 
We tend to give clothes and household 'stuff' to the Salvation Army, I'm no Christian but they seem like a decent lot in terms of actually, directly helping people.

I've given away electrical and bigger things via local groups, round here that currently a Freegle group, you just post up what you have and others contact you to come and take it away
 
I would and have rather give warm clothes/blankets/toiletries etc to a local homeless drop in centre. My personal preferred charity shops for donations are my local hospice charity shop, the money they raise goes towards all kinds of help for people with terminal disease and their families or MIND ...mainly because I think they are a great charity, they offer free advice and counseling-again MIND have 'drop in centres' and will often be very willing to take warm/practical clothes and distribute them to their clients directly.

edit-also if you have a local homeless drop in centre, they often help people with a move in to accommodation-people that have gone from being a rough sleeper for years will need everything for a start up home. So odd knives and forks/plates/duvet covers, stuff that charity shops won't make much on would be gratefully received by someone in the position I mentioned--everything and anything pretty much.
 
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Yep.. I prefer to donate to the smaller local charities.

Shambles said:
You see that recent doc about unsold British charity shop clothes being dumped on African countries and ruining their existing textile economies, Chat? Was quite the eye-opener.
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Huh, I'd never realised that would happen. Interesting, shall watch the documentary soon. These days I buy 90% of my clothing/etc second-hand as I figure that's the (very slightly) more ethical way of doing things. Plus it saves me a fortune.
 
felix said:
We're always trying to trim down the amount of stuff we have lying about, so what's everyone's thoughts on the best places to give to?

Our main street is full of them, so which one is best and why? :)
Click to expand...

Here in Dallas there's a thrift store called "out of the closet" and they contribute their profits to aids research, they do free HIV testing and give out rubbers and have good prices.
 
swampdragon said:
Huh, I'd never realised that would happen. Interesting, shall watch the documentary soon. These days I buy 90% of my clothing/etc second-hand as I figure that's the (very slightly) more ethical way of doing things. Plus it saves me a fortune.
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I buy all clothes aside from pants 'n' socks from charity shops and more or less always have done. Primarily for cost reasons but also happens to fit better with my general views on the overall iffiness of the clothing manufacturing industry. Also tend to find far more interesting clothes second hand (or at least did when I was a bit less *ahem* generously proprortioned :!) so all-round win really.

If more people did the same there'd be less stuff dumped on poor countries to bugger with their existing economies but given the sheer scale of the industry that would seem unlikely. Even the most style-conscious are unlikely to be buy by the tonne and shipping container. Whilst I can kindasorta see the benefit of ultracheap clothing for people who have precious little to spend on anything it also seems a false economy and generally a bit of a wrong turn to be creating yet more reliance on throwaway, disposable clothing based on clothing that's already been thrown away and disposed of from at least one previous owner. Nice that the stuff has some value and use beyond the initial value and use but not so great that the whole set-up relies so heavily on essentially slave labour to keep the supply side so overflowing.
 
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