ABSTRACT
The vast majority of charity shops rely on donated goods for the bulk if not totality of their retail offering. Even chains such as Oxfam and the Save the Children Fund, known for their new goods, generated 85 per cent and 73 per cent of profits respectively from donated goods in 2000 (Goodall 2000a). This concentration on the sale of donated goods is also legally and fiscally significant as it affects the tax status of the shop operations. For example, as mentioned in Chapter 2, the sale of donated goods is currently free of VAT in the UK, as the transaction is considered to be ‘realisation of a gift’ rather than a sale (Horne and Broadbridge 1995). Charity shops compete with one another for second-hand goods as the sector has grown arguably to saturation point. They also face competition from private for-profit opportunities for resale of second-hand goods, including car boot, table top and garage sales, ‘Nearly New’ and 50/50 shops (known as Consignment shops in the USA), as these opportunities combine with the general public’s awareness of the increased value of second-hand goods (Benaday 1997). The result is that people are donating less to charities (Mintel 1997).
