I can't afford to buy things from charity shops!

These days (I sound 100 years old now don't I?) it is so easy for some kind of trend to start. Mostly it stems from some online buzz. For example right at the minute, it seems to be some drinking game that people are dying from and before that some weird game you can get on phones. Whoopee. Something for the masses to talk about. Something for them to feel like they are with the "in crowd".

Something utterly pointless.

I thought one trend that would have stopped which hasn't, is people buying things from charity shops. Not that there is anything wrong whatsoever in buying things from charity shops. But the problem is a few years ago when a few world famous couples went into charity shops to donate some of their clothes, there seemed to be a massive surge of people who were all of a sudden "doing their bit" by purchasing things from charity shops because it's "all for a good cause" and because "you can find some amazing bargains" and also because some people may be hopeful that they could actually own some celebrities' garment to wear, smell or do whatever they felt necessary in order to...feel closer to them.

There used to be a time when you could go into a charity shop and pick up bargains. You would of course get what you paid for. A ragged hat for 50p, a torn up bow-tie for 25p or a book with half the pages ripped for 10p.

Now charity shops aren't even charity shops. Everything is so expensive! A hat I saw for £27, a tie for £14 and books are behind displayed glass cases for prices that I didn't even want to look twice at.

I saw a dress in the window which was £450. Four hundred and fifty pounds! What the hell??

They have volunteers but managers get paid a full-time wage so they have to make vast amounts of profit and the volunteers get free tickets for festivals and the theatre and whatever else they may be interested in and fuck me isn't it COOL to volunteer in a charity shop.

For customers, buying from these shops is FASHIONABLE. It's FASHIONABLE to pay for overpriced goods, it's FASHIONABLE to tell your friends "I bought this from a charity shop, HOW FUCKING FASHIONABLE AM I and also VINTAGE. Oh I am so VINTAGE."

Gone are the days of the actual humble charity shop where decent people used to go in as they simply couldn't afford to buy clothes, books or whatever else from the, simply because they hardly had any money and couldn't afford to go into normal stores.

There are two Oxfam stores on Oldham Street in Manchester. One is called Oxfam essentials and there is nothing "essential" in the shop whatsoever. The other is called Oxfam EMPORIUM. It should just be called "EMPORIUM" without the Oxfam.

The sad thing about the whole situation is the delusion it creates for people who think they doing something awesome and hip by buying stupidly overpriced bollocks in these shops when there are people out there with no clothes and no means to buy any. These charity shops should be for them so the little money that they may come across, they can maybe buy some much needed clothing to help live.

Instead the rich posh idiots are now going in INSTEAD of it being a win-win situation where people can get rid of any items they may not want so poorer people can get something that they need with the money going to charity-not to "managers" of the shops.

There have also been cases of clothing being found cheaper in normal department stores and more expensive in these "charity" shops. Do some staff buy clothes from these department stores and then sell them on for a profit that they can pocket?

It's just another blow for the poorer people in this world. It doesn't surprise me that people turn to stealing if they can't afford to buy anything from what is supposed to be something that was created for them.