30th September 2011

I love charity shops.

Untold bargains and designer clothes all purchased at a low price that helps a Charity undertake its charitable work.

There’s a definite feel good benefit that results from shopping in a charity shop.

There’s also the fact that you’re not likely to bump into David or Samantha or George, even in posh London charity shops.

Recently I arrived at a Trustee Meeting of a charity I support to be greeted at reception with a pleasant, you look smart today.

My shirt had cost me £1 50, my Jaeger tweed jacket £3 50 and my cords £4 00, all from charity shops.

Smart and all for under a tenner.

Result.

But there is something wrong in the state of charity shops today.

I was reminded recently by a friend that my rule of thumb was always:

Designer labels? Check! Denim? Check! Leather? Check!

Then move on.

But now there are rarely any designer clothes, leather or denim to be found.

My guess is that it is all on ebay.

It is an intriguing clue to the state of the economy.

People are making things last longer and, when they want to change their wardrobe instead of filling a black bin bag with their stuff and taking it to Oxfam they put it on ebay.

My last visit to a charity shop revealed mainly F&F, the Tesco brand, George, the Asda brand and the inevitable Marks and Spencer.

So whatever Mr Osborne might claim to the contrary it is a definite thumbs down for his economic strategy.

People are strapped for cash and my totally unscientific observation is folk are buying in the supermarkets and when they do have something of value they no longer need, rather than give it away, they will sell it.

Obviously there could be other reasons; there are scams, the bags that get shoved through the door from organisations that claim to be recycling the goods only for them to be sold for profit.

So folk think right well if there is a profit to be made I might as well make it myself.

You can also see that some of the bigger, more professional charities will sort the better stuff and send it off to the bigger City shops, leaving the lower priced stuff to sell in poorer areas.

But my theory is that charity shops are a barometer for the real economy and a much more accurate reflection of where the pinch is being felt and by whom.

Given that without charity shops some of our high streets would look even more run down than they do imagine what will happen if the charity shops can no longer trade profitably and have to close down themselves.

Then we really will have a broken Britain on our hands and what’s more we will know who broke it!