The Uncharitable Charity Shops of Singapore.

Singapore is a funny place: even the charity shops are out to con you. I shall explain.

In the UK, there is a tradition of having charity shops on most major High Streets. These are shops which resell donated goods at very, very low prices. If curiosity has ever led you into one of these places, you cannot have failed to have been surprised at the quality of the goods on offer, and the low prices for which they are on sale.

There is, for instance, a charity shop in one London High Street, well known for having designer clothes on sale, for a few pounds each. These are clothes that would cost perhaps a hundred times that, if bought new. Yet, oddly, the clothes look new because they have been donated by people who had only worn them a few times before tiring of them. So, a lucky shopper in any such shop can end up with some very good bargains indeed.

Now, let us compare the UK situation with that in Singapore. There is a shop here called the Salvation Army store. It is built on the same model as the UK stores - it resells goods that are freely donated. Yet, there is a very big difference between the UK charity shops and the Singaporean ones. Here, in Singapore, the items are resold at pretty close to FULL price. There really is very little difference in price between buying the item new, in a conventional store, and secondhand in a charity store - at least, this is true for most goods, excluding books, which are very cheap (because they are usually in very bad condition). This judgement on pricing is made with reference to the differentials observed in the UK between charity shop goods and the original price and the same goods on sale in Singapore's "charity shops".

I found this situation rather startling when I first noticed it. You see, the Singaporean situation goes completely against the idea of a charity shop, as it was originally intended. In the UK such shops are intended to provide a service to people of lesser income so that they can access goods that they might not otherwise be able to afford. In Singapore, however, it is clear that the idea of a "charity shop" is to profit as much as possible from the freely given donations of the people. There is no sense of doing a service to the community - or, at least, the pricing of the goods in the Salvation Army store does not lead one to believe that service is their primary goal.

In a way, it is sad, for it indicates that the pursuit of the almighty dollar (the national obsession of Singapore) has corrupted even the charity sector. There is no real sense of wishing to do a service, here, to help the community: there is only the opportunism that comes from recognizing that goods freely donated have not been paid for, cost nothing and, therefore, if sold at close to the original price, will generate very good profits indeed. How sad.

I cannot recall seeing such uncharitable "charity shops" in any other nation, but Singapore. Perhaps, then, this is another "No.1" that Singapore can be proud of: No.1 in being as uncharitable and mercenary as possible.

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