Emmaus Preston

In times when credit crunch have become two of the most popular words world wide, there is a big opportunity for charity and second hand shops. But, something is rotten in the state of charity shops.

Anyone who was blind to the dormant credit crunch last year, has been called back to earth and to be honest, the credit credit crunch has been looming since Fannie Mae became under pressure in 1999. In this excellent article from the NYTimes, Peter Wallisons warned us for the dangers of the new form of lending, as introduced by Fannie Mae:

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

Today, 9 years later, the crunch has hit the global economy and there seems to be no hiding from the depression. In only one year the Dow Jones has dropped from 14000 points to 8000 and companies with significant cash in their reserves have seen their market cap drop daily for the last 8-10 months. Even the otherwise rather untouchable Silicon valley does not escape the credit crunch.
Fact is the credit crunch is there and it will take several years to recover.

All in all these should be exciting times for charity and second hand shops. Sadly, when having a look at the actual situation and prices at those stores one can only be surprised by the often irrational pricing policies several national groups apply. More than once I have heard from our visitors, customers, that charities such as Oxfam and The British Heart Foundation are way too expensive for their budget.

There is no wrong price™!

At Emmaus Preston we have set out with another pricing policy: there is no wrong price. From the beginning we decided to operate a low price strategy in direct competition with the hardest discounters, because we want our shop to be attractive to those on the lowest incomes. Like other organizations, it would be simple for us to create high overheads and have an expensive pricing strategy, but at the end of the day, we believe in fair pricing^[1] and helping those that need it most.

When pricing items in our shop we try not to forget that our stock has been donated free to us and we are very grateful to those who support us with their donations, but even more, we want to ‘add something to Preston’. And one of the things Emmaus brings to Preston is a great shop, accessible to those who need it most!
Obviously as an Emmaus group, we have to think of our costs and make sure the community becomes self-sufficient^[2], but even people with low incomes will be able to buy furniture from us.

Credit crunch, what crunch?

1. Analogue to Fair Trade [↩]
2. We believe that our prices are extremely competitive and maintain a no discount policy [↩]