KEY POINTS:
Op-shops are expanding as families short of cash turn to second-hand stores to clothe their children.
Budgeting agencies say their clients are abandoning mainstream department stores to look for bargains in the op-shops, as waiting lists to see a budget adviser lengthen to two weeks.
The Red Cross is expanding its op-shops from 38 to 50 nationally over the next two years to meet what it says is a growing need.
And the Salvation Army's Auckland services manager, Gerry Walker, said yesterday that his shops were seeing a new phenomenon of working families clothing their children with other families' cast-offs.
"We are seeing a new group of people accessing our family stores over the past couple of months. By their attire and so forth, you can see that they've had to revise where they shop," he said. "It's not something we've seen before. We've always had students and so forth, but we are now seeing working families."
Red Cross national retail manager Patrick Cummings said his shops were being squeezed between more customers and dwindling donated goods, as families stopped buying new clothes and hung on to the clothes they had.
"We are expanding across the country and putting new shops in because there is a need out there," he said. "There has been a noticeable increase in the last two months. I'd put it down to the petrol increase - it's really knocked people."
He appealed to families who could still afford to donate clothing to call their nearest Red Cross shop.
"We'll pick up. We deliver."
Budgeting agencies said they were starting to see people who had lost their jobs as the recession bites. Auckland Central Budgeting manager Pam McKenzie said she had had requests from factories and information technology firms to give advice to laid-off staff. "There seem to be quite a few businesses that are looking at closing and moving offshore."
Mangere Budgeting Service manager Darryl Evans, who leads a group of agencies called Associated Budget Consultants, said his group had run redundancy seminars for confectionery, clothing and wholesaling companies around Auckland in the past few months. His service runs classes to teach people how to cook for themselves and advises people to cut rising power bills by using buckwheat bags, which can be heated in the microwave and used like a hot-water bottle to keep warm for up to five hours. "We are incredibly busy," he said.
"This time 18 months ago you could guarantee to see a budget adviser the moment you walked in the door. Currently we are operating with a waiting list of two weeks. Demand is at an all-time high."
* Budgeting agencies are listed under "Budget advice" in the White Pages.
