Goodwill Pricing

We use a mixture of strategies. Stuff sold on the Internet
(not a large proportion) gets the standard Amazon price..
Exactly WHAT is the "standard Amazon price"? Are you saying you
ask the Amazon new price for used items? With most books --
both new and used -- there is a whole range of Amazon prices,
unless someone has the only copy of something.

We mainly use Amazon to sell as-new recently published academic books.
There is a clear market rate for those. Cheaper stuff is not worth
the hassle of mail order, more expensive stuff is better sold through
the storefront (if we know there's a local buyer) or sent to an auction
house.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

The point of [charity] shops is to make money for the charity,
not to provide bargains for the customers.
Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe charity stores are
different in your region. Basically, in Southern California,
people go to thrift stores and library donation stores to find
bargains.

A current text on gastroenterology at a third off new *is* a bargain.
We can get that via Internet sales. Other stuff has to be priced
lower for the walk-in market, but not that much lower.

There are far less "thrift" shops in the UK than there used to be.
Most charity shops using the same model we do, albeit less effectively.
Our customers are not poor, they support the aims of the charity and
like to see their money going towards it, and they don't see a copy
of "On the Road" with the cover off as any sort of bargain.


Anyway, you sort of give the impression that you think people go
into thrifts and donation stores for altruistic purposes. That
is silly. They go there looking for bargains. Period.

I get to talk to our customers, you don't. I *know* why they come.
People don't throw their change into the donations box on the counter
when they're looking for the last word in bargains.

Remember that there has never been anything like Goodwill in the UK.
Charity shops are always fundraisers for specific charities. Each
cultivates an image that relates to its aims. And none of them has
a primary mission statement like "supplying tatty mediocre books to
the destitute at rock-bottom prices". There is still be the odd rack
of cheap crappy paperbacks hidden behind the polyester lingerie in
general charity shops in back streets in poor areas, but none of the
specialist charity bookshops works that way any more - look at any
Oxfam bookshop.


Around here (and most other places I've been), many (most?) of the
customers in the thrift shops are there because they can't afford to
shop elsewhere. They are obviously low-income folks who are looking for
children's clothes that don't cost an arm and a leg, or pots and pans
for their kitchen. The book selections are usually pretty bad, so it
isn't as if book collectors are making regular trips to buy quality books.

That doesn't describe our clientele at all. We're in a middle-class
shopping street and we have some customers who will spend 200 pounds
at a time.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

On Mar 25, 1:19 pm, "Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 24, 12:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:
I can't help wondering why certain thrifts and library donation
store managers have such a hard time grasping the fact that their
business depends on their prices being considerably lower than
those of typical used or rare book stores. After all, the selection
found in a thrift or library donation store will never be comparable
to that of a good used book store. People don't patronize thrift
shops and donation stores because they have a "great selection."
We get complimented on our selection all the time. We aren't as big
as some of the local used book stores but we are better than most of
them.

Instead of trying to jack their prices up as high as they can,
they should keep their prices low and work on getting more book
donations. They are not doing their organizations any favors
by driving away paying customers.
Don't work in one, do you?

The point of these shops is to make money for the charity, not to
provide bargains for the customers.

[...]

Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe
charity stores are different in your region.
Basically, in Southern California, people go
to thrift stores and library donation stores
to find bargains. I have never seen one of
such places that comes close to competing
with any used book store in the vicinity.
(Most of the used book stores in the area
are reasonably professional -- the net has
in effect run the really crappy ones out of
business.)

Anyway, you sort of give the impression that
you think people go into thrifts and donation
stores for altruistic purposes. That is silly.
They go there looking for bargains. Period.
And since, around here anyway, there is no
thrift or library donation store which comes
close to competing with any of the used
book stores as far as selection, then the
only thing drawing customers is the quest
for a bargain. After all, if the customer's
only interest lies in giving the charity
store their money, they can mail a check.

Around here (and most other places I've been), many (most?) of the
customers in the thrift shops are there because they can't afford to
shop elsewhere. They are obviously low-income folks who are looking for
children's clothes that don't cost an arm and a leg, or pots and pans
for their kitchen. The book selections are usually pretty bad, so it
isn't as if book collectors are making regular trips to buy quality books.

I think a lot depends on the area. Thrift shops in
affluent places often have outstanding pieces of
wooden furniture on sale for twenty or thirty
percent of what any for-profit used furniture store
would charge. You often find people with plenty
of money visiting such places regularly. On
the other hand, thrift shops in downscale areas
usually are about they way you suggest,
dreary, dingy, places that rarely have anything
of quality to offer. But with the better-area thrift
shops, it is not -- at least with many of the customers --
a matter of being poor as much as it is a matter
of being a habitual bargain hunter. There are
plenty of millionaires who are delighted to pay
$100 for a wooden cabinet any for-profit entity
would charge at least $800 for, or, for matter, pay
$2 for a scarce book they might have to pay
$50 for on the net.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Technology is a way of organizing the universe
so that man doesn't have to experience it. -Max Frisch- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On Mar 25, 4:25 pm, wrote:
As expected. Another wet-noodle attack
from Spankard Finnan. Give it up, Bob.
You look pretty silly wriggling around on your
belly while flailing those wet noodles at me.
You are close to becoming another famous
spankard like 'Louse-monkey" Hausmann,
"The Dumpster Rodent," "Lousy" McLemon,
and a few hundred others. Actually, your
pathetic "lames" belong in alt.flame, but as
you well know, you would readily be toasted
to a humiliated crisp over there too. Cheers.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

Poor, poor palmjob. In a world of tuxedos, he's a pair of brown shoes.

wrote:

On Mar 24, 12:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

I can't help wondering why certain thrifts and library donation
store managers have such a hard time grasping the fact that their
business depends on their prices being considerably lower than
those of typical used or rare book stores. After all, the selection
found in a thrift or library donation store will never be comparable
to that of a good used book store. People don't patronize thrift
shops and donation stores because they have a "great selection."

We get complimented on our selection all the time. We aren't as big
as some of the local used book stores but we are better than most of
them.


Instead of trying to jack their prices up as high as they can,
they should keep their prices low and work on getting more book
donations. They are not doing their organizations any favors
by driving away paying customers.

Don't work in one, do you?

The point of these shops is to make money for the charity, not to
provide bargains for the customers.


[...]

Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe
charity stores are different in your region.
Basically, in Southern California, people go
to thrift stores and library donation stores
to find bargains. I have never seen one of
such places that comes close to competing
with any used book store in the vicinity.
(Most of the used book stores in the area
are reasonably professional -- the net has
in effect run the really crappy ones out of
business.)

Anyway, you sort of give the impression that
you think people go into thrifts and donation
stores for altruistic purposes. That is silly.
They go there looking for bargains. Period.
And since, around here anyway, there is no
thrift or library donation store which comes
close to competing with any of the used
book stores as far as selection, then the
only thing drawing customers is the quest
for a bargain. After all, if the customer's
only interest lies in giving the charity
store their money, they can mail a check.

[From the upstairs office.]


I agree. Given the selection at most thrift stores, if the prices were not low,
I would not bother. At a used book store, I can at least expect to find (where
appropriate) the owner's representation that a book is a first edition. And I
would not trust any such representation from a thrift store. They deal mostly
in clothes, not books. Usually, when a thrift store (or library book sale)
prices a book above normal, I find that they got it wrong and the valuable book
is the one I bought at the regular price. They tend to think that reprint sets
of an author's works are valuable. They price bibles higher than normal books.
They up the price on illustrated classics that are ex-library and look it.
Condition is not a term that matters to them with books, though it does with
clothes.


Francis A. Miniter

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
The point of [charity] shops is to make money for the charity,
not to provide bargains for the customers.
Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe charity stores are
different in your region. Basically, in Southern California,
people go to thrift stores and library donation stores to find
bargains.

A current text on gastroenterology at a third off new *is* a bargain.
We can get that via Internet sales. Other stuff has to be priced
lower for the walk-in market, but not that much lower.

There are far less "thrift" shops in the UK than there used to be.
Most charity shops using the same model we do, albeit less effectively.
Our customers are not poor, they support the aims of the charity and
like to see their money going towards it, and they don't see a copy
of "On the Road" with the cover off as any sort of bargain.


Anyway, you sort of give the impression that you think people go
into thrifts and donation stores for altruistic purposes. That
is silly. They go there looking for bargains. Period.

I get to talk to our customers, you don't. I *know* why they come.
People don't throw their change into the donations box on the counter
when they're looking for the last word in bargains.

Remember that there has never been anything like Goodwill in the UK.
Charity shops are always fundraisers for specific charities. Each
cultivates an image that relates to its aims. And none of them has
a primary mission statement like "supplying tatty mediocre books to
the destitute at rock-bottom prices". There is still be the odd rack
of cheap crappy paperbacks hidden behind the polyester lingerie in
general charity shops in back streets in poor areas, but none of the
specialist charity bookshops works that way any more - look at any
Oxfam bookshop.

Around here (and most other places I've been), many (most?) of the
customers in the thrift shops are there because they can't afford to
shop elsewhere. They are obviously low-income folks who are looking for
children's clothes that don't cost an arm and a leg, or pots and pans
for their kitchen. The book selections are usually pretty bad, so it
isn't as if book collectors are making regular trips to buy quality books.

That doesn't describe our clientele at all. We're in a middle-class
shopping street and we have some customers who will spend 200 pounds
at a time.

I think that there may be basic differences between what are called
thrift shops in the UK and what are called thrift shops in the US (just
as there are between what are called suspenders in the UK and what are
called suspenders in the US :-) ). Here, many thrift shops
(particularly the Salvation Army, but others as well) are as much to
provide low-cost clothing and housewares for the poor as to provide
income for the charity (and in the case of Goodwill, to provide
employment as well).

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Technology is a way of organizing the universe
so that man doesn't have to experience it. -Max Frisch

On Mar 25, 9:15 pm, "Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote:
Here, many thrift shops
(particularly the Salvation Army, but others as well) are as much to
provide low-cost clothing and housewares for the poor as to provide
income for the charity (and in the case of Goodwill, to provide
employment as well).

All true but many people (not just the poor) visit Thrifts looking for
offbeat chotchkes and other bargains.

On Mar 25, 6:15 pm, "Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote:
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:





The point of [charity] shops is to make money for the charity,
not to provide bargains for the customers.
Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe charity stores are
different in your region. Basically, in Southern California,
people go to thrift stores and library donation stores to find
bargains.

A current text on gastroenterology at a third off new *is* a bargain.
We can get that via Internet sales. Other stuff has to be priced
lower for the walk-in market, but not that much lower.

There are far less "thrift" shops in the UK than there used to be.
Most charity shops using the same model we do, albeit less effectively.
Our customers are not poor, they support the aims of the charity and
like to see their money going towards it, and they don't see a copy
of "On the Road" with the cover off as any sort of bargain.

Anyway, you sort of give the impression that you think people go
into thrifts and donation stores for altruistic purposes. That
is silly. They go there looking for bargains. Period.

I get to talk to our customers, you don't. I *know* why they come.
People don't throw their change into the donations box on the counter
when they're looking for the last word in bargains.

Remember that there has never been anything like Goodwill in the UK.
Charity shops are always fundraisers for specific charities. Each
cultivates an image that relates to its aims. And none of them has
a primary mission statement like "supplying tatty mediocre books to
the destitute at rock-bottom prices". There is still be the odd rack
of cheap crappy paperbacks hidden behind the polyester lingerie in
general charity shops in back streets in poor areas, but none of the
specialist charity bookshops works that way any more - look at any
Oxfam bookshop.

Around here (and most other places I've been), many (most?) of the
customers in the thrift shops are there because they can't afford to
shop elsewhere. They are obviously low-income folks who are looking for
children's clothes that don't cost an arm and a leg, or pots and pans
for their kitchen. The book selections are usually pretty bad, so it
isn't as if book collectors are making regular trips to buy quality books.

That doesn't describe our clientele at all. We're in a middle-class
shopping street and we have some customers who will spend 200 pounds
at a time.

I think that there may be basic differences between what are called
thrift shops in the UK and what are called thrift shops in the US (just
as there are between what are called suspenders in the UK and what are
called suspenders in the US :-) ). Here, many thrift shops
(particularly the Salvation Army, but others as well) are as much to
provide low-cost clothing and housewares for the poor as to provide
income for the charity (and in the case of Goodwill, to provide
employment as well).

That may be true in some cases, but certanly
not in others. A number of thrift stores in my
area clearly see at least part of their goal as
one of raising money which is used for
providing services to those in need. They have
learned that they can raise money faster by
selling donated items at bargain prices to
rich people as well as poor. They help the
poor more effectively that way, because they
can raise more money faster. Of course, I
am basically referring to thrift shops in
affluent areas; in poorer areas the thrifts
might not have enough customers to buy
the nice antiques and so forth that affluent
people shop for, so all they can do is as
you suggested, sell needed items to the
poor at low prices. In other words, they
have found that by selling to the "non-poor"
they can raise money FOR the poor and
accomplish more faster than they could
if they saw their only task as selling needed
items to the poor at low prices.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Technology is a way of organizing the universe
so that man doesn't have to experience it. -Max Frisch- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

In article ,
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Look up the Kohlberg moral development scale sometime.

Thanks for the reference (in spite of the accusatory and somewhat
condescending attitude in which it was framed). Pretty interesting
stuff. Found a great link about this:

http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm

Also, thanks for the info about the difference between US "Goodwill"
type shops and British Charity shops. Most enlightening.

I was enjoying the discussion until Palmer and Finnen started their
nonsense again.

--
Scot Kamins
Maintaining the Modern Library collectors website
at http://www.ModernLib.com

On Mar 26, 11:17 am, Scot Kamins wrote:
In article ,
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Look up the Kohlberg moral development scale sometime.

Thanks for the reference (in spite of the accusatory and somewhat
condescending attitude in which it was framed). Pretty interesting
stuff. Found a great link about this:

http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm

Also, thanks for the info about the difference between US "Goodwill"
type shops and British Charity shops. Most enlightening.

I was enjoying the discussion until Palmer and Finnen started their
nonsense again.

Not so fast! If you back track on that thread,
you will see very clearly that our wet-noodle
flailing spankard attacked me out of the blue
before I addressed a syllable to him. Finnan
is just another spanked ("painfully lampooned,"
that is) sore loser who is hurting so much
now that he can't refrain from waddling after
me with his wet noodle "lames" (feeble flame
attempts) anytime he sees me post on any
thread. Further, if you have been reading
this thread you will see that I added a good
deal of topical material thrift and donatation
stores. Our waddling, wet-noodle flailing
zero added nothing but his ludicrous flame
attempts. Sad.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

--
Scot Kamins
Maintaining the Modern Library collectors website
athttp://www.ModernLib.com