“Online doesn’t quite work for us. Everybody thinks, ‘just do online’. That’s sloppy thinking.” Most sell only a fraction of their products online, such as furniture, or rare and designer objects, that could fetch a lot more through websites than in store.
They use websites like eBay, Amazon, and because of coronavirus, even millennial app for second-hand clothes, Depop. But similar to discounter Primark, which refuses to sell online, it would actually cost charities more money to pick and post the majority of their products.
At BHF, the UK’s largest chain, which has almost as many stores (732) as Marks & Spencer (900), online accounts for “well under 10pc” of its retail turnover, says Mike Taylor, the commercial director.
The outbreak has meant that the sector’s army of 233,000 volunteers, a significant part of whom are either “shielding” or elderly, who help run the shops, cannot return. Robin Osterley, the chief executive of the Charity Retail Association, says: “They have large numbers of donations to process, which is terrific, but they’re anticipating having a shortage of volunteers.”
Voluntary gesture
The CRA is working with the National Citizen Service to encourage teenagers to work in charity shops over summer.
Tens of thousands of people who agreed to volunteer for the NHS as the outbreak took hold and “weren’t used”, says Osterley, are also being targeted. A new website will allow volunteers to sign up and they will be matched with vacancies around the country from this week. Then there is the lack of storage to triage goods as people clear out their cupboards and lofts.
Most charities are trying to secure extra warehouse space, especially as they have to quarantine all donations for 72 hours, so that the chances of the virus surviving are minimal.
Osterley says some charities are even thinking of encouraging people to take items to depots directly.