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Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?


Some years ago I started investigating the common belief among book-collectors that there are fewer second-hand bookshops in the UK than t...

Some years ago I started investigating the common belief among book-collectors that there are fewer second-hand bookshops in the UK than there used to be. In a recent (2 April) article, ‘The problem with Oxfam Books’, for The Spectator, Alexander Larman confidently states: ‘If you’re ever wondering why many medium-sized, even large, towns and cities in Britain don’t have second-hand bookshops any longer, the simple answer is that the Oxfam bookshops have driven them out of business.’ This would include, as with all the other overall figures I’ve cited, not only “traditional” bookshops but also private bookrooms open by appointment, and antiques centres with significant book stocks, and even a few well-established market stalls.

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