Readers' letters: Your Shout

[Tony]

Why charity shops are charging more, don't just blame surveyors for the crash, pensioners in a fix over Isas and yet more dents from airport parkingTaken to book over charity shop pricesYour correspondent Martin Lawrence asks why prices in charity shops are rising (1 August).The charity shop I...

Readers' letters: Your Shout (external link to Guardian Consumer Affairs)

[Chutzpah]

Completely agree with the responses. Charity shops don't "have" to be cheap.

Did anyone see Mary Queen of Shops? You might remember her arguing with an idiot bemoaning the fact that the goods had become more expensive. He was upset that he once bought a squash racquet from there for something silly like 50p.

As she argued, what gave him the right to just give the charity 50p? If he felt it was worth more, why didn't he pay more?

[Rachelle]

Chutpah - you have a point and of course we should be happy to generating more funds for good causes. But, I guess, it just feels one more step away from the good old days when charity shops were cheap and cheerful and full of bargains, etc. It gets harder and harder these days to find a bargain. What bargains has anybody else found - I never seem to!

[Chutzpah]

But the point remains that, aside from the bargains, most of it was horrendous tat.

I'm glad to see standards improve, and absolutely adore the much more modern charity book and music stores that have sprung up. I even bought some of my Christmas presents from a British Heart Foundation store last year, the books were good as new!

[Rachelle]

And I actually tried on a pair of trousers yesterday in a charity shop (didn't get them but they were lovely!). It's so true isn't it - the charity shops have gone upmarket ...