I started shopping again at the charity shop at the end of my road recently after about eight months of not going in there since “the incident ” earlier this year. It was difficult going in as the staff were quite upset and hostile whenever I went in although the episode was never to do with them…only the manager.
Since I have been shopping there again they have had a change in manager..again a male manager. He has implemented the changes in the store which meant that the shop is packed to the rafters with clothes …including a lot of winter coats…..really old ones at that. One can barely get through the store in some places and I heard the manager telling a lady with a pram that the store is no longer pram friendly.
On Tuesday when I was in there I saw a whole roll of curtain fabric and after enquiring how much it was I bought it and arranged for my husband who was due back from England the next day to pick it up. He has been visiting his very ill mother. So the manager then asked me if I could use scraps and pieces of fabric and fabric sample books as he had some and was going to throw these things out as he no longer had room for them.
My husband came with me to get them after he arrived yesterday, I thought it would keep him awake and distract him from the upset of his mother’s condition in England. We arrived there and the manager was away…the roll of fabric was there to pick up and an enormous bag of fabric scraps. About a square metre am not kidding…had no idea how to get it home. My husband took the roll of fabric home after saying “have you paid for this” repeatedly. I started to put some of the fabric into other bags so that it would be easier to transport it home.
The staff seemed a bit preoccupied but I put that down to them being over burdened with all the work they have to do now that the shop is packed to the rafters with clothes. They could not find the fabric sample books which had absolutely stunning samples in them …no wonder with all the goods there. As I transferred the fabric I could see the quality of the fabric pieces and became quite concerned. I said to all the staff that I knew that I would like to pay for this fabric as it was too good to throw out. I said this repeatedly. They just looked baffled.
When I got home I sorted through the fabric…no easy matter with our tiny loungeroom full to the brim with Christmas decorations in boxes ready to be put up. So I ended up with some piles of fabric out on the balcony as there was just so much fabric. Metre upon metre of the very best quality furnishing fabric..the sort of thing one sees in magazines at three hundred dollars a metre. Metre upon metre of silk dupion dress fabric…upon metre…. it is at least twenty dollars a metre here.
As I sorted through these fabrics I became more and more distressed as this is even worse than what happened last time. At least I had managed to save these things but what else had been thrown away? This bag had not even been opened I am sure. One of the reasons I am so upset about this is because my husband works for the charity and is in fact a manager and a more scrupulously honest person you could ever meet. I know how hard they work there to make the kind of money that the charity needs to help the refuges and all the charitable organizations that they support.
I was also distressed because this puts me again in a difficult position. When I complained about this last time I was assured that the managers were told of the value of donations but here we go again with the new managers making up the rules as they go along. I feel that either I am being given a special deal because I am the wife of staff and that makes me feel like a thief or that untold amounts of fabulous goods is being thrown away. I do not know which is worse.
People donate to charities for many reasons but one of the reasons that they are so successful apart from the economy is because in this day and age we are all about recycling and saving the planet. I went into the whole betrayal of the person donating the goods last time…or think I did. for these things to be successful though there needs to be transparency of the methods used in these places. Let us face it if we knew our precious donations were going in the bin would we even bother donating? Or for that matter if we thought staff were the ones to end up with their choice of the donations?
I know my husband is impeccably honest, though he discovered how these places can be used for evil purposes early on in the game. When he was working for the charity many years ago he noticed that when the manager was not there they regularly made around three times as much as when she was there. He took his concerns to the area manager and they set up a sting…and sure enough the manager stole the money which was unaccounted for. We estimate that she could have taken that charity for over fifty thousand dollars in her time there. And not surprising considering that she had on an ankle bracelet monitoring system as part of her home detention for embezzling a bank where she worked previously out of over one hundred thousand dollars. She did come clean to the charity about the home detention and her conviction but the charity still allowed her to become a manager and therefore in my opinion put her in a position where she was able to reap the rewards of others good works. So you may understand why all of this leaves a sour taste in my mouth?
I went up there today to try to talk to the manager but he had left for the day. After saying that I wanted to pay for the bag of fabric scraps that had been given to me yesterday I had a talk with the staff present and found out they had no idea what was in the bag as they had never even seen it to check if it was rubbish or not. They were deeply distressed and it appears angry with me until I explained to them what had transpired. So I paid a token twenty dollars which is what the area manager told me to do when it happened before and I signed a receipt so that the staff were covered as well. After having a long talk with the staff I told them I would be contacting the area manager and I did that this evening and cc’d it to her boss as well just to cover myself.
Again like last time my husband is not happy that I am going to report the manager. He said it would cause bad feelings and create a scene for me in that shop, he is worried about me and thinks it will cause trouble for me and nothing will change in the store. But I find it hard to see how it is right to report a manager for theft of money but not for misappropriation of goods. Who knows how much in monetary value has been tossed out by these managers of this store over the past year?
I am one of those insanely honest people who give money back if the wrong change is given and I recently left that charity shop having paid for my shopping to find a handbag and several things inside tucked into it that I had forgotten about. I went back in as fast as I could and the staff were not surprised that I came back…only that I had forgotten they were there in the first place! I am one of those awful people who if you ask if I like your hair will say no it does not suit you…I am truly honest to a fault. I cannot abide lies and deceit it sickens me…literally. I am honest even if it is going to embarrass and pain me and I cannot abide liars and cheats.
So I hate that for a split second I was tempted to keep this fabric, because this is truly my weakness, this stunningly glorious fabric which I could never afford to buy full price and probably never could even second hand…because there is so much of it you see. Is that what caused the temptation…the sheer abundance of it? I do not know but I do know that if they had done their jobs properly I would not have been in that position…not for a despicable second.
