Shop was somewhat enthralled by last night’s episode of Mary Queen of Charity Shops, and not just because it featured Emap’s wonderful office premises at Greater London House.
Charged with the task of doubling takings at Save the Children’s Orpington branch to £2,000 a week - a mission fulfilled in superlative fashion - Portas ended the programme with a rather prophetic cry, heralding a: “Revolution in Charity Retailing.”
While Portas’ merchandising expertise, unflagging energy and ability to inspire and motivate are without question, the absolute metamorphosis of an unprepossessing charity shop into a lean, mean retail machine - in a concept that’s soon to be rolled out throughout the UK - left me filled with some nagging doubts.
Early in the episode some of the elderly volunteers appeared scanalised at the £15,000 of funds it took to transform the shop, with swish design consultancy Conran & Partners enlisted to create an atmospheric retail space. Elsewhere a browser complained that it all looked a bit too ‘middle class’ and potentially off-putting for the poorest customers, since prices had been put up to reflect what Portas and her new shop manager thought products on show were worth.
While he did appear rather scroogelike and was soon put in his place by the irrepressible Portas, it does seem reasonable to beg the question as to whether charities should be run like commercial businesses, given the possible (even likely) scenario of unfair competition towards other retailers and other ethical concerns.
In the wider charity sector, meanwhile, there is concern that Portas may not exactly have done charityretailers a favour, with one reader commenting to Marketplace News that: The series was good to highlight some of the problems that charity shops need to work with (eg some of the awful donations) but I have seen some charity retail chains asking supporters not to listen to what Mary Portas says, and that they do still want all of their stuff (eg http://www.weld-hospice.org.uk/about-us/latest-news/all-textiles-are-valuable-to-us/ and http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Charity-shop-s-plea-donating/article-1066472-detail/article.html ), So it’s difficult to decide whether she’s done more harm than good in this area.
The story is reported in full on Marketplace News, but we’d like to invite your comments on this subject, seeing as we’re ‘threatened’ with revolution!
www.theglobalparty.com
on Jun 17th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I think the clear issue is whether the effort in running a shop is worth the return to the charity. It strikes me that it largely isn’t, and as you point out here, if the shops were to become wildly successful there is an issue with other retailers (particularly given the charity shops are given low rent deals in many areas).
With particular reference to this example, the sales appear to have been raised to something close to £100K per year. Of this, £15K went to the manager (hardly a good wage given the responsibility) and £15K for the shopfit, leaving £20K return on the investment over what they were taking before. To me, that isn’t really much to write home about.
It strikes me that charity shops are coming under intense competition from the low priced clothing shops, and are evidently failing to provide lower priced items to people who cannot afford more expensive things. I doubt many would buy denim jeans from a charity shop for £3 they could by from Primark for £5.
That being the case, I’d guess that the vast majority of charity shops will close because the costs of operating them will become far too great.
on Jun 18th, 2009 at 9:23 am
In hard times the great perform, whilst the inept fail. It’s no different for charity shops. The great charity retaillers are already transforming, expanding their product range to include new product ranges, electrical and large furniture. Taking advantage of vacant Woolworth’s and other prime locations to expand. Whilst charity shops that haven’t adapted to the changing market are finding it hard, despite increased custom as people loose their jobs and are forced to discover charity shops for the first time.
All publicity is good publicity, so Mary QOS hasn’t done any real harm to the charity retail sector. Although my blood pressure did go up watching her make so many novice mistakes! As for a revolution, nothing Mary did was actually new, the sector has been here many times before, Oxfam especially pioneered many of Mary’s new ideas.
on Jun 18th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Elaine Fryer, customer services administrator for Art Marketing writes:
After reading your article on Mary Portas, reading about it in Gracia and also watching the series, I really do believe it is the way forward for the majority of charity shops. I for one would never have dreamed of shopping in a charity shop previously and have also been guilty in the past of using them as a dumping ground.
Now that the programme has educated me on what to do with my outcast clothes, I put all the clothes I think won’t be of interest into the big “green bins” for Barnados or local Hospice charities and my “shall I shan’t I” clothes that I possibly have never worn, I actually take into the charity shop rather than dumping it outside as I am quite proud of my donations.
I would also like to say after watching Mary and seeing her at the Spring Fair last year, what an inspiration she is – I always feel like jumping out of the chair and “getting on with it”.
on Jun 19th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Yes, the benefits of a rebranding and modern shop refit are not exactly unknown to the charity sector. Oxfam worked with the Fitch agency in the 1980s to overhaul all its shops (remember the blue and yellow fascias?). And at that time Oxfam had more outlets than M&S (although M&S naturally had far more retail space).
While Mary Portas did highlight many of the key issues facing charity shops (quality of donated material, expanding number and range of customers, valuing and pricing goods effectively, working with volunteers), she did have a £15,000 budget for the refit. Does SCF have the same budget available to apply to all its stores? If so, then I reckon any competent SCF retail team could achieve a similar impact in their other shops.
on Jun 21st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
I work for the CRY charity shop in Jersey. We have moved into furniture sales as well in the last 2 years & found it very profitable. I think the publicity is good to make people venture into charity shops - especially younger people for the first time, & to encourage a better quality of donations. We still sell bargains, but we also try to have a high standard- nothing dirty, torn, broken cracked etc so we do have to throw away often more than 50 % of our donations- good donations are fantastic & they sell straight away! Please keep them coming in at all our charity shops.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
A leader in this field in terms of pioneering these ideas has been TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development). It launched ten years ago to change the face of charity shop retail by stocking high quality hand sorted clothing, it launched the original and best charity fashion label TRAIDremade (exclusively using textiles that would otherwise be thrown away), it runs an education programme to raise awareness of how fast fashion impacts on lives and the environment, and its profits fund international development charities.