Thanks for your support at store (From Dorset Echo)

Thanks for your support at store

11:27am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Your letters

Duane Sharpe’s view of charity shop prices (Have your Say, February 4) is valid, but there are also other considerations.

The shop where I have volunteered for over four years has had an ever increasing struggle to maintain its fundraising for a charity serving people in the Dorchester area.

Although the charity has homes around the UK and wider, our shops are not part of a national chain, have no business model infrastructure that I am aware of, and have therefore managed to maintain a reputation for reasonable pricing.

All our funds go to people living locally.

Sadly, however, costs continue to soar whilst the number of good quality donations have dropped.

Landlords demand ever higher rents, heating costs have rocketed and people are holding on to their possessions rather than replacing them.

Customers do not just buy from us to save money. Many do so because it is a way of giving whilst also reusing goods, so it is environmentally sound too.

Without this goodwill, we should be lost, so a big thank you to all those who continue to support their charity shops through tough times.

Charity shop worker Dorchester