What did we do to charity shops?

The dwindling high streets I spoke of a few days ago seem to have benefitted charity shops as more and more seem to be appearing, especially in small towns and villages, some have moved into high streets and even occupy former Woolworths stores. An increasing professionalism seems like it may not be as good for them as they would like.

I must confess to never having been a big frequenter of charity shops. If it's a good cause I will wander in and have a look around every now and then. It's nice to buy a unique gift for someone special and believe you're doing some good at the same time.

In the early days of Ebay there were people boasting of how they had been buying up items in charity shops and reselling for massive profits, I'm all in favour of free enterprise but often felt that this was a step too far.

It seemed to become self regulating as the charities began to check more of what they have and some even started to employ people to check items and list the more valuable ones directly on Ebay, so appeared stories of charity shops selling items for thousands on Ebay when they would have previously just sold for pennies.

Having visited a few charity shops lately it seems they are now on the other side, with no bargains at all, one I recently went in didn't have anything priced under £3 when some of the items wouldn't sell for 10p on Ebay or a car boot sale. I actually suggested to my wife that it would make a good bargain hunt type programme to try and find something you could buy that could be sold for a profit, such was the steepness of prices.

Don't get me wrong I want the charity shops to take as much as possible, but it seems they are over pricing to the extent that they will lose customers. People like to help charities but they also like a bargain too, so be commercial but be aware of commercial limitations. Some help from high street gurus might help with their pricing, future plans and prosperity. Perhaps they could consult Sir Stuart Rose, retired supremo of M&S or even Mr. Fred Goodwin, see if he can't get his knighthood back by helping charities work to capitalise on their new found capitalism.

People are really quite nice

Pierre Omidyar who founded Ebay believed (and am sure still does) that people are honest and trustworthy.

Pierre Omidyar

Sadly we read more and more of those who aren't, stories of nice people don't sell newspapers or fill tv and radio airtime. We all encounter the odd nasty person, but they are in the minority. I don't get mugged every time I go out, people don't spit at me or shout at me, they smile, ask me how I am, some people I meet even tell me they'll "see me later", I do worry sometimes that these poor souls who I briefly met at a checkout in some shop spend their evenings hunting me down just so they can be true to their word.

It may not be a fashionable thing to say but people are nice, my customers are nice, I like to be nice.
Yesterday two customers paid me extra, one said I had undercharged postage and sent more, the other gave me extra when I agreed to drop off a parcel at their local address. Both of these took me by surprise, it was unexpected and not something that happens every day, two actions that made me stop and look at what I take for granted every day.

Every day grateful and nice people say nice things about me via Feedback, currently 99.9% appreciate me, that 0.1% tends to bother me in a much bigger ratio than the 99.9% pleases me. I really don't like getting things wrong, I like it less when people think I've wronged them.

That's probably the problem with the human race, we magnify the negative and minimise the positive. Pierre Omidyar was right, people are basically good, yet Ebay has had to spend more of its time focusing on the negative aspects, there will always be a negative, I often wish we let the power of the positive diminish it to the tiny part it is and keep making it smaller.

So thank you for being nice, I'll see you later.

The UK's closing high streets

Earlier this week I was feeling a little guilty, probably not for the reasons that many men of my age have. I heard a news story about the changing face of the high streets in towns and cities across the UK and that the worst was Stockport town centre.

Stockport town centre is almost a third unoccupied. So why do I feel guilty? Well for over 20 years my parents were shopkeepers, they had various shops with varying degrees of success, the shops were petering out as they were retiring, the final one closed in about 2000. So I do wonder if I should be fulfilling my destiny as a shopkeeper rather than relying on internet sales.

The world has changed radically in the last ten years, the internet is mostly responsible for that, I don't think that that is the main reason for high streets failing though, so I absolve my guilt and do so for several reasons.

The first is that I and many other people still shop in the real world, I go in big shops, little shops, multi nationals and family run stores, I always will, I like to see things, touch things, find something I didn't know I wanted, I can do most of that on the internet too, but there are glaring differences.

The second is that high streets are suffering in a recession yet the councils and property owners are increasing rates (or whatever they feel like calling it) and rent without giving anything back, if your expenses are £1000 per week before you've switched on a light or employed a member of staff then many businesses will struggle. Councils and landlords rarely offer incentives and when they do they aren't always good enough. The councils should be twisting the arm of landlords to rent out their properties and in turn the landlords should be persuading the councils that the only way they will be able to do so is if the councils help them out. New businesses should be encouraged to start on local markets and then encouraged to move up to a shop if/when they can. The more the councils enforce and increase rates then the more businesses will close down and the less the councils will get in revenue. Sadly councils aren't run like businesses, they're run by elected representatives and civil servants who have little or no experience in running a business and what that entails.Governments and councils can do so much to encourage businesses and so much that would actually earn them money rather than cost it.

Thirdly (and this is my business blog!) I do sell to small businesses and hopefully offer them a chance to buy well priced wholesale stock without massive outlay, I know that some are on high streets around the country, so I'm not all bad!

I also sell retail items to people who can't get to the high street, be they in remote parts of the country or house bound. It is often overlooked, and occasionally by me, that many people aren't as fortunate as some of us in being able to get to the high street, the internet has opened up (literally) a whole new world, where they can buy what they like, when they like, so much better than relying on one local shop or the help of friends and relatives.

So for now I'll be selling online and only online but if any councils or shop owners want to tempt me, I'm easily bought!