Charity shops across Britain are struggling to cope with surging volumes of donations, many of which are soiled, worn or unsaleable, forcing staff to spend time sorting through rubbish instead of stocking shelves with quality items.
St Raphael's Hospice charity shop in Cheam, south London, receives between 30 and 50 bags of donations daily, sometimes exceeding 100. Store manager Colin French said the stockroom is so crammed that staff can barely move. "Sometimes, there's only [enough] floor space to tiptoe," he said.
Caroline Worley, the shop's commercial manager, described typical donations: smelly or soiled bathrobe, tatty trainers, heavily bobbled jumpers, old socks and empty jewellery cases. The shop is also inundated with low-quality fast fashion.
Worley attributes the shift to changes in donation habits during the Covid pandemic. As people spent more time at home, they listed their best items on online resale platforms like Vinted instead of donating them to charity. This left secondhand shops with the remainder, lower-grade stock that customers are unlikely to buy.
The flood of unwanted items creates a dual problem. Charity shops must spend resources sorting and discarding unsuitable donations, reducing the floor space available to display items they can actually sell. Meanwhile, customers shopping at these stores face less curated selection and quality choice.
The issue highlights a tension between consumer intentions and actions. While donations to charity may feel good, better-quality items increasingly flow toward personal profit on resale platforms. This has transformed charity shops into repositories for items donors no longer want but cannot sell, rather than sources of genuinely useful secondhand goods.
Worley's observation offers practical guidance for donors: items worth selling online should go there. Charity shops work best when they receive goods donors truly believe others will want to wear or use.