I hate the stench in charity shops.
I hate the way charity shops are taking over the High Street — where once there were newsagents, bakers, hardware stores, there is now a spreading rash of charity shops.
I hate the crap they sell.
I hate the way they price the crap they sell — One volunteer to another: “What will we sell this for?” “Sell it for a pound. You can’t buy anything for under a pound these days.” —They sell it for a pound even though that grubby, tattered, ancient crap isn’t even worth 1p.
I hate the way charity shops bring the constant reminder of sickness and death and poverty to the High Street.
I hate the way charity shops fleece their customers.
I hate the way they sell books and then ask you to return the book when you have finished reading it so that they can sell it again.
I hate the way you buy a used, scratched, scuffed DVD from a charity shop and then find it being sold new and pristine and cheaper in a (non-charity) shop a week later.
I hate the way charity shops collect used spectacles.
I hate the way their buckets of used spectacles remind me of Auschwitz or Buchenwald.
I hate how dirty I feel after I have been in a charity shop.
I hate the way charity shops employ shop security like cctv and security guards.
I hate the way charity shops use volunteers.
I hate the way charity shops pretend to be charitable.
I hate the way charity is used to manipulate people.
Ok. The simple solution to cure your emotion is to ignore the stores. We have them here too but, here they allow those on tight budgets to get things they could not afford to buy new. It helps all around.
The first post is an elegant mix of lamenting how badly we care for the poor, while sneering with disgust at the poor, how they look and smell and carry themselves. I could draw comparisons with certain political philosophers I was forced to study, but I won’t.
I am a little shocked by the amount of “hate” the OP has for charity shops - such a harmless and usually inoffensive entity.
Could be guilt/shame/anger projection?
Harmless? Yes, like the Malaysian orchid mantiss, a preying mantiss which looks like a flower, or even the good old crocodile which disguises itself as a helpful log which you might think to float across the river on. Business gets away with murder by the use of disguise. It has been so successful that many people actually trust business nowadays, many people actually think that some of the things they do are for the good of society or their customers. Businesses are malign. They are out for no one but themselves. You should know this. You should start from here. THEN, when you see something that looks like an orchid, but you know it is a business, you will keep your distance and watch and wait until it gives itself away.
“Could be guilt/shame/anger projection”? Don’t be ridiculous! PSYCHObabble. If you’re not careful it’ll jump out at you and stab you in the shower! Oh wait, it already HAS stabbed you in the shower. That’s why you’re spouting out that nonsense from a hole in your head that’s not connected to your brain. Geez. Give me a break.
Like I can agnore the smell of the abattoir on the other side of town? Like I can ignore the smell of sewage from the nearby sewage works? You sound to me like somebody who has been living in their own stench for so long that they are no longer aware of it. THAT’S what you are asking me to do. And if I ignore it, I condone it. If I ignore the stench of the abattoir and the sewage works, those responsible will take it as licence to locate these delights nearer the centre of town, and then when I don’t complain, right on the High Street beside the baker’s and the butcher’s. I live in a shrinking world. Once I could step outside my own front door and reach the garden gate before I was assaulted by the abuses of our society. But because people like you do not COMPLAIN, make a VIRTUE out of NOT complaining, of seeing the good in everything, I can’t even open my front door — in fact, the abuses are banging on my front door threatening to invade my home — what am I talking about? Do I not have a telephone and a TV and a radio…They have already found the way to get into my home.
“The simple solution to cure your emotion is to ignore the stores.” — if you really believe this then you are living in a Fool’s Paradise. The more fool you and you will pay the price of paradice. Definition of a fool: he who knows not, and knows not he knows not.
Well, if it bothers you so much gather others, and bitch at your government. Don’t stop til it changes make a legal pest of yourself. If that does not work paint “fuck you all I am leaving” on your door , then move. Whining is useless unless you gather numbers that whine with you at the government.
Complaint is so unpleasant to hear.
It’s the admission of defeat and impotence.
And it’s all most people have against “the market”.
The market has noticed people respond to “helping people”, so people have set up a means to either do so, or at least appear like it does so - perhaps a mix of the two.
Hence charity shops. And charity in general.
The choice to not participate does nothing so long as others do.
Complaint is the only active force against such things, short of physical protest.
As mentioned in the OP, the worst stench of charity shops is their dishonesty.
I am for their removal, which has nothing to do with government - and everything to do with private business pretending to patch up its holes.
Sil, the objects in charity stores would be heading to a landfill if they were not given to be sold at a massive discount. Salvation Army employs handicapped, teaches them and gives them an opportunity to be something other than a human stuck in a backroom or communal home. It gives them a life. Is this so wrong?
I assume Charity shops are in the UK.
I only know versions in other countries. I like them. Sometimes a lot. You can find weird and great albums - I know, I am old. I have found my favorite sweater at one of these. People would walk up and ask me enviously where I bought it (and I told them). I like that the stuff is not ending up in landfills.
I hate stores that sell handbags or shoes for over 1000 bucks.
Yes. And why?
Because they’re headed to a landfill in the first place. And they’re headed there because of the ethics of private business - waste.
Salvation Army gives the Handicapped a life? Well if employment is life, and private business won’t give them one then… . It’s more waste.
Charity shops stink of the failures of private business, like a stench of a stench.
