• LANAH P has a completely different view of charity shops from that of many of their customers, including me, (Charity shops a symbol of inequality? Forum, June 22).

Not all customers shop at charity shops because they can’t afford anything else. For many, charity shops are a good place to browse for things you might not actually be looking for but like them when you find them.

For me that means mainly books and other non-clothing items as I have great trouble finding clothes that I like and that fit.

My charity shop “finds” include a Rosenthal vase, a couple of limited edition prints, a fantastic ceramic dish with a nude etched into it (I went back the next day for another piece by the same artist, but all five had gone) and a few really nice hardback, non-fiction, books which I didn’t even know existed so would never have asked for them in a bookshop.

Besides which, what would consumers do with things they no longer want if they could not donate them to charity shops?

MARCIA MacLEOD, NW6