Business has never been better for South Gippsland’s op shops, but while they are attracting record numbers of visitors, the quality of donations has also plummeted.
Foster Op Shop boss, Kathy Hymas, told the Prom Coast News that donation quality has slid in the four years she has run the place. Last year, she witnessed an even more significant drop, with more than 30 per cent of the clothing dropped off in the shop’s bins deemed unusable and needing to be taken to the local tip. “Our bins are full of the most disgusting clothes, broken toys and other waste,” she said.
Foster Op Shop’s story is mirrored throughout South Gippsland, with other stores reporting anything from 30 to 50 per cent of donations as unusable.
Meeniyan Op Shop stopped placing bins outside its store because, in the words of long time volunteer Ethel Hanks, “we were getting so much junk. Campers were dumping dirty clothes in the bins on the way back to Melbourne.”
Pam Irving, who also volunteers as Meeniyan, noted that “there were still plenty of quality donations, including from online orders which didn’t meet needs.”
Volunteers point to a number of factors for the fall in quality, in particular, the cost of taking rubbish to the tip. Taking a boot load to South Gippsland Shire’s transfer station now costs $49.50, while it’s around $100 for a ute.
Anne Bray, a volunteer at the Welshpool Op shop/nursery, reports that “council tips are expensive, so people dump things here.”
It’s a tale of two halves. More people are looking for bargains, driving higher sales, and reducing demand for landfill, but just as many want to avoid waste transfer station fees, meaning that trash is left at the local op shop. Volunteers say it means staff have to spend more time sorting rather than meeting retail demand.
Increased sales and donations are also becoming a challenge for the big operations like Vinnies and Salvation Army. The latter has reportedly reorganised to reduce in-store hours for paid staff so they can fulfil other roles for the group.
But it’s not all a tale of woe, because foot traffic and sales are up. Last year, the Foster Op Shop was able to return a record combined $210,000 to its owners, local aged care providers, Linton Court and Prom Coast Aged Care. The Foster store is one of the biggest in the region. It was acquired by Linton and Prom Coast Aged care in 2019 when local mechanic Ray Dower sold his premises. The shop is run by three paid staff and 45 volunteers, and they are always looking for more. John Durie
