{
  "id": 17435764,
  "title": "UK charity shop profits plummet amid shift in secondhand clothes market",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/31/uk-charity-shop-profits-plummet-amid-shift-in-secondhand-clothes",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-31T15:10:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Guardian Business",
    "slug": "guardian-business",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/31/profits-uk-charity-shops-oxfam-shift-secondhand-clothes-market"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The British charity sector is facing a significant decline in profits due to changing trends in the secondhand clothes market. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has announced plans to close 150 stores after making a £3.3m loss in the last financial year. Oxfam, one of the UK's best-known charity shops, reported a 23% drop in its retail profit to £4.9m, despite UK spending on secondhand clothing quadrupling over the past decade to £8.8bn a year. The decline is attributed to the rise of online platforms like Vinted and Depop, where people directly sell clothing to other consumers, reducing donations to charity shops. Chinese companies have also increased their presence in developing countries, particularly Africa, where secondhand clothing has traditionally been a major market. Oxfam's head of retail operations, Lorna Fallon, acknowledged the challenges and said the sector would face painful consequences. Charity shops remain vulnerable to costs such as high street rents and inefficiencies in collecting, sorting, pricing, and storing clothes. The quality of donated clothing has also deteriorated, as people use charity shops as convenient dumping grounds for unwanted purchases. While the rise of online platforms has positively influenced people's attitudes towards secondhand shopping, making it more normalized, the wholesale shift in shopping habits and increased costs have put pressure on the traditional charity retail model.",
  "summary": "British Heart Foundation describes ‘exceptionally challenging’ trading after Oxfam’s retail profit reportedly fell 23% amid rise of platforms such as Vinted Profits at some of the UK’s best-known charity shops have plummeted as they face a number of pressures, including from online secondhand clothes platforms, prompting claims that a key part of the sector’s fundraising model could be under…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}