Charity shops: why they beat the rest of the high street as a retail experience

By Esther Pugh, Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Leeds Beckett University

A bone china teapot, a pair of leather brogues, a poetry book, a velvet coat, an embroidered tablecloth and a saucepan. These are just a few of the things I have recently bought from charity shops – where someone else’s trash became my treasure.

I have also donated a big bag full of unwanted toys and games. Hopefully, my cast-offs are destined to become the precious discoveries of others too, stumbled across in a serendipitous browsing session.

This circular relationship is just one of the many joys of charity shops. They extend the usefulness of objects, which instead…

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