4 August 2009

Bookshops

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/04/oxfam-shops-booksellers

"Oxfam is the Tesco of the second-hand book world. It is destroying the industry."

As someone who absolutely adores second-hand bookshops I would be very sad if this were the case.

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Well I would say the following.
If people didn't donate the books they would end up in land fill.
If second hand book shops accepted donations or even paid money for unwanted books then I would feel they have more right to say this.
Generally speaking, they seem to do neither.
I have often tried to sell my valuable unwanted books to second hand bookshops.
They simply do not want to know.

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As far as I can see the internet is surely taking away a lot of the business previously given to second-hand bookshops, in the same way as it is affecting the newspaper industry.
On the internet you can find what you want in seconds. At a bookshop it might take a bit longer.

There is still a gap between Oxfam prices and quality and McWaterstones prices and quality.