Op shop battles
Charities compete for custom
Op shops frequently had a reputation for being dark, cramped and even a bit smelly. Which is why Nurse Maude Hospice Shop marketing manager Sue Bramwell, had to do some very fast talking to secure the lease on her first premises opposite Christchurch’s up market Merivale mall nine years ago.
‘‘I had to swear that it would not look like an op shop, that it would look like any other retail shop.’’
Another six shops later, Bramwell is very clear about what her customers want.
‘‘They’re not into dingy shops or unwashed clothes or bobbly jerseys, they want good clothes for a good price’’.
Over the last decade, opportunity shops have become the ‘‘in’’ way to help fill charity coffers, and the online New Zealand Op Shop Directory lists more than 300 run by churches or charities.
A chat with some of the main players reveals they are taking a more professional approach to store branding and making greater use of social media to deal with growing competition.
Several have hired national managers for their op shop operations, and although they still rely heavily on volunteers, there are more paid staff.
The Salvation Army has 133 stores throughout the country, contributing $12m annually to its $160m community work budget.
Gareth Marshall is the Sallies’ new national family store manager and part of his brief is to maintain standards.
That will include training staff to become more discerning in processing donations. ’’There’s not much point in selling a $4 T-shirt from The Warehouse second hand’’.
St John is in expansion mode, with plans to almost double its op shop numbers to 60 over the next five years.
General manager northern region Gwen Green, has oversight of the shops and says the volunteers who run them have a say in how the profits are spent in their area.
Stores reflect the communities they serve, and Green says that’s their strength.
‘‘[That] helps us stand our ground alongside the cheaper clothing chains and homeware stores. The likes of Kmart and The Warehouse, their stock is very generic, whereas the stock in our stores, we know what people want to buy.
‘‘Dunedin is a really good student market. Quite often they will get pairs of jeans, cut the legs off, turn them into hotpants and sell them for the same price as a full pair of jeans’’.
The Red Cross opened its first op shop in 1915 and now has more than 50.
Red Cross general manager social enterprise Garth Dawson, reckons the last decade has seen a tripling of organisations involved in second hand retail, and says a lot of effort has gone into improving the retail experience.
‘‘In the customer surveys we’ve done, more people think that our stores are attractive to visit, they don’t smell and the clothes are in good condition’’.
As well as competing against each other, he says second hand clothing outlets are up against retail giants such as Zara and H&M which have the advantage of economies of scale, and the ability to order stock in specific sizes, styles and colours.
Op shops don’t have that luxury and people often clear out summer clothing in winter ‘‘so we have to keep that until it fits the season,’’ says Dawson.
Disposing of poor quality items costs Red Cross tens of thousands of dollars a year and centralised processing centres attempt to minimise the amount sent to landfill by sorting out saleable rags.
Rising overheads are another challenge.
‘‘People complain about the prices, but our landlords don’t give a charity discount and our utility providers charge commercial rates’’, says Dawson.
Rental costs are a major issue for SPCA op shops in Auckland and chief executive Andrea Midgen, says they recently closed their Avondale store because the location did not generate sufficient revenue.
‘‘One of our best ones is at Three Kings which happens to be right next to a supermarket with lots of foot traffic and with a socio economic mix of wealthy and poor. That’s good for an op shop for receiving goods and selling them’’.
Trade Me has also had a major impact on op shops because people who previously might have given items to charity now sell them online.
Some charities use Trade Me to sell larger and more valuable donations and Bramwell says it has worked extremely well for Nurse Maude.
‘‘We list between 350 and 400 a week.’’