Charity shopping
Friday 18th July, 2008 - 04:57 PM
Morag Bruce takes a look at the effect of the bargain clothing industry on her Oxfam shopping basket...
There was a time, back in the mists of the mid-Nineties, when a visit to a charity shop meant digging through a midden of clothes, having a nice wee chat with an old lady, then skipping off with a bag full of Biba, Danish mid-century ceramics, copies of Nova, and change from £20.
Without wishing to be dramatic, the noughties charity shop is a vapid, soul-sapping shell of its former self. Yes, eBay has had a hand in this transformation, and yes, there are more like-minded folks on the bargain search. But what's mucked things up most is the small, muddy puddle that was the bargain clothing industry swelling into the full-scale oil slick it is now.
Dirt-cheap clothes bought in a mild frenzy, are worn once, then used as dusters or cast off to the local charity shop. From the charity's point of view this is a bit tricky. If it usually sells jeans at £5 a pop, it might be that their new ticket price is higher than what they cost new. And rubbish quality for more cash is hardly going to draw in punters is it?
Perhaps I'm just being bitter, longing for that day when Murano glass was a fiver in my local Oxfam. And perhaps a challenge is good, so when pickings are thin, finding a Rive Gauche jacket is all the more thrilling. And if everyone shopped in charity shops then I wouldn't be a happy bunny would I – there would be even fewer items of interest. Hang on… yes, ahem, sorry, no problem here, forget I said anything.
Morag Bruce
Acting deputy chief sub-editor
For more blog entries from the Livingetc team, visit livingetc.com/blogs
Without wishing to be dramatic, the noughties charity shop is a vapid, soul-sapping shell of its former self. Yes, eBay has had a hand in this transformation, and yes, there are more like-minded folks on the bargain search. But what's mucked things up most is the small, muddy puddle that was the bargain clothing industry swelling into the full-scale oil slick it is now.
Dirt-cheap clothes bought in a mild frenzy, are worn once, then used as dusters or cast off to the local charity shop. From the charity's point of view this is a bit tricky. If it usually sells jeans at £5 a pop, it might be that their new ticket price is higher than what they cost new. And rubbish quality for more cash is hardly going to draw in punters is it?
Perhaps I'm just being bitter, longing for that day when Murano glass was a fiver in my local Oxfam. And perhaps a challenge is good, so when pickings are thin, finding a Rive Gauche jacket is all the more thrilling. And if everyone shopped in charity shops then I wouldn't be a happy bunny would I – there would be even fewer items of interest. Hang on… yes, ahem, sorry, no problem here, forget I said anything.
Morag Bruce
Acting deputy chief sub-editor
For more blog entries from the Livingetc team, visit livingetc.com/blogs