Charity Shops Spark Anger Over Unfair Competition in Leeds

Tuesday 09th of March 2010 04:17:10 AM

Charity Shops Spark Anger Over Unfair Competition in Leeds

Charity shops are opening up by the dozens for a reason. First is the fact the recession has created a great need for affordable clothing. Second is the fact that reselling gently used clothing is a good environmental practice. But the problem that arises is due to the fact that charities get a tax break and many for-profit shop owners believe this gives the charities an unfair competitive advantage in many cases.

In Leek, the local shop owners are upset because the Salvation Army has opened not one or two stores. They have opened 13 stores. One or two charity stores would not have garnered much attention. But when the Salvation Army opened the 13th store there were many expressions of anger from trades people.

Charity stores sell everything from house wares to sweats.

Leek in the UK is not the only location where charities are popping up either. North Staffordshire has 72 charity run stores and the same tale is told from city to city. In the UK, over 600 million pounds of donated goods are sold each year. This equates to approximately 120 million pounds of profit used for charitable projects.

Trades people don’t have a problem with charity stores, but they do have a problem with them opening so many stores. The Federation of Small Businesses regional organizer, Karen Woolley, summed it up when she said, “Small businesses generally are not against charities and support the vital work they do. They therefore welcome the presence of charity shops on the high street., but their concern is that the bigger charities are using their charitable status to undercut businesses.”.

The charities like to point out that consumers obviously appreciate and support charity businesses, otherwise they would not donate so many millions of pounds of goods. Charity supporters also want people to understand that the profits enable a lot of good work to be done that would have to be paid for with public funds otherwise.