Talk:Charity shop

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Charity shop was the UK Collaboration of the Fortnight for the fortnight starting on January 27, 2005. For details on improvements made to the article, see Past Collaborations and History

Not all thrift stores are charity shops. I have seen privately-run ones, though most others are for charity. Since not all are charitable, the broader term of thrift store should be used for this article.   –radiojon 17:39, 2004 Sep 13 (UTC)

It's only broader if you've heard of it. The term is completely unknown in the UK, Ireland, Australia NZ etc. Plus the article is primarily concerned with charitty shops, perhaps the articles should not have been merged. Mintguy (T) 18:10, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

For what it's worth, since I'm the one that merged the content, I have to say that I agreed with the request to merge -- the original thrift store article and charity shop article duplicated a great amount of content on the basics of how these organizations operate. At the time, it wasn't obvious which term would be better to use -- someone pointed out on the duplicate article page that "Charity shops" had only a very small lead in terms of Google hits, and both articles were very well written. So, I flipped a coin, and the new article used the term "Thrift store." The charity shop article seemed to go a bit more into the details of these establishments in the UK, while the thrift store article gave better general information and cultural signifigance, hence the reason why the merged article seemed to focus more on the specifics of charity shops. My thinking at the time was that someone with better knowledge of which US thrift stores are notable or not at a national level, or possibily the history of thrift stores in the US, would come along and hopefully add details as appropriate (I'm only familar with a few local ones).

Also note that, in quotes, Thrift Store gets a lot more hits that Charity Shop. The only thing I particularly object to is the term "Thrift store" has been placed in a parenthetical note in the opening sentence, and I'm changing this back. - RedWordSmith 03:07, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Please, please do not use Google hits to try to establish that one particular term is more popular in the world than another when one of the terms is mainly restricted to the US, I have had to say this so many times that it is becomming extremely tiresome to have to keep on pointing this out. All that it proves is that there are more web pages in the United States than in the rest of the world. Wikipedia in not an Internet Encyclopaedia, it s an encyclopaedia that just happens to be on the Internet. The cultural dominance of the United States on the Internet should not be used an excuse to ignore or demerit usage in the rest of the world. Mintguy (T) 11:11, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I do not believe it is appropriate merely shrug off 158,000 vs. 59,800 as bias that way. All of this, however, is entirely academic, as the article is currently more or less fine as it is. - RedWordSmith 18:06, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I agree that thrift store should have its own article, not because it's the more appropriate term (it's not), but because there are many thrift stores in the U.S. that are for-profit businesses run by companies and individuals. "Charity" is not applicable to some of these large multi-store chains and small mom-and-pop shops.

Since the articles are already merged... maybe it would be better simply to have a section in this article detailing the nature of different resale shops / thrift stores. That section can then distinguish the charity-based (Salvation Army-type) stores from the for-profit (Value Village-type) ones. 74.101.236.85 18:09, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The title should be changed, because, as has been observed, not all stores that sell used merchandise are charities, so the title is inaccurate. The article should describe in general what a thrift store is (or whatever the article gets renamed) , and then have sections describing the charity and for-profit stores. I'm fine with the title "second-hand store". While "thrift store" is far more common in the US, "Second-hand store" is sufficiently well-known in the US. If the term "second-hand store" is used in the UK, as stated in the article, the should be an accurate title which should be satisfactory.--RLent 14:08, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Contents 1 Against charity shops 2 First Oxfam shop date 3 "Resale shop" 4 Christianity?

[edit] Against charity shops

Playing Devil's Advocate here: I know that many small businesses and town/borough/city councils in the UK and beyond are appalled at the increase of numbers of charity shops. I thought that this transcript from evidence before a parliamentary committee (UK) might add some fuel to the article.

• Proceedings of the Joint Committee of the Draft Charities Bill

Gareth Hughes 20:33, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I agree that this is true, however this isn't the fault of the charity shops who only exist to make money for their cause. Charity shops in the UK pay full rent (very few landlords would give this for free for more than a short period). The UK Government chose to give rent rebates of 80% to charity shops and many would still be extremely profitable if this 'tax rebate' didn't exist. Charity shops that don't make a profit are closed so in a way the views of the small businesses are moot - they are competing against other profitable businesses, the difference being that these shops covenant 100% of their profits to another cause. You may also claim that charity shops have an unfair advantage as they are reliant on volunteers but nobody forces the volunteers to work in them.

The Charity Shops Association have an interesting counter paper to the Joint Committee of the Draft Charities bill but I can't find it! Maybe someone can post it if they happen to have a copy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.141.232.154 (talk) 13:36, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] First Oxfam shop date

I note that an earlier editor changed the date to 1948. I've changed it back, on the basis both of Oxfam's own PDF (mentioned in the edit summary) and of a photo I took the other day, which can be found here and shows a plaque with the following text:

"The first permanent OXFAM shop began trading here in December 1947"

Loganberry (Talk) 02:17, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm probably the "earlier editor" you're refering to. The reason that I changed it to 1948 is that http://www.oxfam.org.uk/about_us/history/index.htm (History of Oxfam) says "1947: Office acquired in Broad Street, Oxford, used as a collection point for donations. A gift shop opens on the ground floor in February 1948. The first permanent charity shop, it is still open today." I've no idea how to reconcile this with the statements you mention. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 02:41, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

I've had a go at editing that part of the article slightly - it is a little bit unwieldy like that, but does at least manage to reconcile the two dates. Loganberry (Talk) 15:56, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Resale shop"

I'm from the U.S., and I was under the impression that the term "resale shop" was used for for-profit shops. People who run them usually go around to garage sales and even cheaper thrift shops and buy the nicer stuff to sell in their stores. Oh, actually, this is already mentioned in the thrifting article, with the same usage as I've detailed here. Anyone object to my removing the term from the intro? --Galaxiaad 14:21, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Christianity?

By no means all charity shops have any connection with Christianity. Not in the UK anyway - some have religious affiliations (YMCA, Salvation Army), but they are probably a minority. Check the list here: http://www.charityshops.org.uk/members.html I'm not at all sure that categroy belongs here. Any other views? ProfDEH (talk) 14:13, 29 April 2008 (UTC)