I’ve just waved goodbye to something over a thousand books. No, I haven’t been culling my personal library – perish the thought! This was the latest stage in the disposal of Crème de la Crime Mark 1’s leftover stock.
The good news is I could now take up cat-swinging (except I don’t dislike cats that much, so I don’t actually plan to) in my office. Room to breathe. Room to walk, even. Something of a novelty.
The other good news is you can still buy them from us, at least for the next couple of weeks until March 9th. Pepper Smith’s wonderful listing is still there at http://speedbump.peppersmithbooks.com/, and we have a few left of just about everything.
Yet more good news is the thousand which have just gone haven’t gone to the great library in the sky, AKA the pulping machine. Instead they will form part of the stock of several new bookshops opened by Oxfam, which will be a familiar name to UK-based Dead Guy followers, but may need some explanation over the pond. Oxfam is one of the biggest third world relief and assistance charities based here in l’il ol’ England, and they pioneered the concept of the charity bookshop: exactly like a charity shop where all the stock is donated, the staff are volunteers and the profits support the charity’s activities, but specialising in, yeah, you got it, books.
Opinion is sharply divided on whether Oxfam bookshops are a Good Thing. Clearly they’re a very good thing indeed for Oxfam. I’m familiar with two, and they’re always buzzing in the quiet, restrained way any bookshop buzzes. They’re a pretty good thing for people like me, for whom disposing of books (even still in printers’ packs of 50) comes close to drawing blood; it means our darlings are going to a safe and appreciative home, and will probably find new readers as well as raising funds for a good cause. And in more universal terms, bookshops in general are surely a Good Thing.
So how could they possible be a bad thing?
There’s a school of thought which claims Oxfam bookshops are putting other bookshops out of business through ‘aggressive marketing’ and deliberate positioning of the shops in a way which undermines the trade of conventional shops.
I’m familiar with the concept of aggressive marketing, but I’m not at all sure what it means in this context. They don’t advertise, unless it’s for a special event or national promotion. Attractive window displays? A staple come-on of any retail outlet. Low prices? Certainly no lower than other secondhand bookshops, and rather a lot higher than many. So unless businesslike is the new aggressive, I don’t get it. And why shouldn’t a charity be businesslike?
Deliberate positioning of shops etc etc – well, surely that’s just more good business sense. You place your shop where you think it will succeed. What’s the point in opening a bookshop in a town where no bookshop exists because three have failed in the past five years? And if the bookshop that’s already there feels the heat, shouldn’t that act as an incentive to take a good look at their own stock choices and marketing strategy?
Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing, and if there is I hope someone, maybe Robin, will point it out to me. But – great secondhand books, sensible but not stupidly low prices, all profits to the best possible cause. What’s not to like?
