Charity begins to get more expensive (From Stroud News and Journal)

Charity begins to get more expensive

SO when did charity the shops stage their price hike?

Must have been when I was looking the other way because the last time sauntered into the local thrift shop to snap up a bargain I ended up gawping at the price tag. A shirt for more than 50p? What gives?

It seems like only yesterday the people pricing up the clothes seemed frankly clueless when it came to gauging their real value and you could pick up a new outfit for a couple of quid.

Nowadays you could be forgiven for thinking the so-called thrift shops are fighting a fully-blown price war with Peacocks and Beewise. What makes the matter worse is you can't go making a fuss, it's for charity for heaven's sake!

I always had a bit of trouble with that niggling pang of conscience when I bought a good-as-new coat from the old lady behind the counter for 20p, it was a transaction that had a touch of a mugging about it.

But for years I consoled myself with the thought that charity shops were a two, or even three, way street.

The charities made a bit of money, you spent virtually none and people could throw away perfectly good gear guilt-free. Everybody was happy.

Now it seems their prices are fast approaching realistic and the skintflints among us are considering dawn raids on the bin bags full of goodies that build up on their doorsteps over night.

I'm dreading the day when I'm caught with my arm wedged up to the elbow into the clothes recycling bin in Cheapside and a guilty look on my face.

And with the district council pulling the plug on community skips, where are we going to get our furniture? It looks like scrounging could soon become a dying art.

I swear that in years to come we'll look back misty eyed at the days when second hand shopping was a pastime for all, not the reserve of an ethical elite prepared to spend over the odds for the moral buzz of helping a good cause.