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Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

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Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#11

Post by Henchman21 »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #2

Aren't brick-and-mortar bookshops, generally speaking, as viable as Apatosaurus today? Lately if I really must put hands on dead trees, the shelves of library sales, churches, and ordinary thrift stores are overflowing. Also — secondhand books are generally outdated, undesirable, and/or damaged — do collectors still find diamonds in the rough? No reason to waste real estate on any sort of dedicated seller. Goodness g…

> secondhand books are generally outdated, undesirable, and/or damaged

This is an odd take, to me.

When I was still in school, I’d seek out texts with as many handwritten notes in them as I could find! That was an added value for sure and one only available second-hand.

Now that eBooks are a thing I use them almost exclusively for schlock-type books: mass market paperbacks for well known SciFi franchises, for example, are all eBooks now. I wouldn’t buy these any other way now, but when I did buy paperbacks they went right to secondhand. The value for those was that they were cheaper.

But for any other type of book, if I am buying it, its a classic book. Maybe it won some awards, maybe it is even out of print!

None of this feels like a waste to me in any way, and I will admit I do not read a lot by the standards of folks here.

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#12

Post by shadowgovt »

Possibly, but gosh would it be hard for me to care.

In unrelated news, access to a pure, unfiltered spring drives out local bottled-water sellers.

We are in an era where even manufacturing physical copies of books is incredibly cheap. I'm not going to stress about charity bookshops disrupting scarcity in that ecosystem any more than I'm going to worry about libraries or the Internet doing so.

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#13

Post by NoboruWataya »

fidotron wrote: post #3

There's a subtext to this post that may not be obvious to non British people: UK High Streets (Main Streets) have in the last 20 years experienced an incredible explosion of charity shops (thrift stores) including many locations specific to books. Quite why this has occurred is a subject of occasional argument, but I've never heard a definitive theory on it, and it partly overlaps with the general decline motivated b…

I think a lot of people get the causal relationship the wrong way around when it comes to charity shops and the decline of the high street. It's not (IMO) that charity shops move into otherwise thriving areas and lead to a decline in local business by competing, but rather that they move into spaces that would otherwise lie empty, and therefore are more likely to be found on high streets that were already dying. Where I live we have a few charity shops but it's mainly chicken shops, vape shops and the occasional barber that are cannibalising the local high street.

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#14

Post by rendx »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #2

Aren't brick-and-mortar bookshops, generally speaking, as viable as Apatosaurus today? Lately if I really must put hands on dead trees, the shelves of library sales, churches, and ordinary thrift stores are overflowing. Also — secondhand books are generally outdated, undesirable, and/or damaged — do collectors still find diamonds in the rough? No reason to waste real estate on any sort of dedicated seller. Goodness g…

> secondhand books are generally outdated, undesirable, and/or damaged — do collectors

I buy up to 10 (mostly non-fiction) books on paper a month, always secondhand if available, via bookfinder. You typically get a very accurate description of their state beforehand; I don't mind most levels of use, I actually like it when they have history to them. Markings, notes of previous owners, etc, are all fine for me. Even if one prefers "clean" books there are usually plenty of copies available. I like how it is both much cheaper than new, and even more the reuse aspect.

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#15

Post by colechristensen »

amiga386 wrote: post #10

My experience has been that the second-hand bookshops have had thin times but nonetheless survive because of the internet. They tend to have a better selection compared to charity shops, i.e. not just cast-offs of holiday novels and celeb bios. Shout out to https://www.tillsbookshop.co.uk/ and https://www.armchairbooks.co.uk/ There has also been a growth in first-hand bookshops, especially specialists/curators (e.g.…

I've noticed a few book stores which intermingle new and used stock and they're great. (it's obvious when something isn't new stock but it's all pretty good condition regardless)

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#16

Post by csdvrx »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #2

Aren't brick-and-mortar bookshops, generally speaking, as viable as Apatosaurus today? Lately if I really must put hands on dead trees, the shelves of library sales, churches, and ordinary thrift stores are overflowing. Also — secondhand books are generally outdated, undesirable, and/or damaged — do collectors still find diamonds in the rough? No reason to waste real estate on any sort of dedicated seller. Goodness g…

> Also — secondhand books are generally outdated, undesirable, and/or damaged — do collectors still find diamonds in the rough?

Secondhand stores offer in general "better" products because of the double curation:

- someone found the good interesting enough to buy it in the first place (1st curation)

- the store found it good enough to buy it again from the first owner (2nd curation)

> Aren't brick-and-mortar bookshops, generally speaking, as viable as Apatosaurus today?

No, it's even better because of the limited space they have to display the goods they want to sell: while online stores can show their full inventory, brick-and-mortar need to select what's most likely to sell.

This adds yet another level of curation: the store found the good valuable enough to be exposed to buyers, instead of keeping it in the back (3rd curation)

I find great music by randomly buying second-hand CDs from brick-and-mortar secondhand stores, thanks to this triple-curation,

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#17

Post by 9283409232 »

stevage wrote: post #5

Interesting. I'm in Australia where I would also say that the number of second hand bookshops has greatly decreased in the last 20 years. New bookshops too for that matter. But I'm curious whether I'd also be wrong. We don't, afaik, have charity run bookshops, though. Lots of op shops, and they all sell books, but not exclusively.

Sounds like the problem with book shops in Australia is just Amazon.

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#18

Post by jdietrich »

fidotron wrote: post #3

There's a subtext to this post that may not be obvious to non British people: UK High Streets (Main Streets) have in the last 20 years experienced an incredible explosion of charity shops (thrift stores) including many locations specific to books. Quite why this has occurred is a subject of occasional argument, but I've never heard a definitive theory on it, and it partly overlaps with the general decline motivated b…

It's a symptom of the decline of high street retail and high long-term vacancy rates for many retail properties.

For commercial landlords, a charity shop paying little or no rent is usually better than no tenant at all - the property is less likely to be smashed up by vandals, burned down by arsonists or occupied by squatters if it's occupied. The landlord would be liable for business rates after three months of vacancy, but not if there's a tenant.

Charity shops get an 80% relief on business rates, pay nothing for their stock and get some or all of their staff for free; obviously this allows them to operate profitably in circumstances where no normal business could.

As I understand it, the landlords are holding on mostly in the hope that their properties will either be compulsorily purchased as part of a regeneration scheme, or granted planning permission for redevelopment as housing.

Re: Do charity bookshops drive out other second-hand bookshops?

#20

Post by charlie-83 »

Interesting analysis. I'm somewhat confused by why anyone would think charity bookshops replacing secondhand bookshops would be a bad thing (if that were to actually be happening as the article suggests there isn't much evidence of this). Surely, to the shopper, they are exactly the same except one helps a charitable cause as a bonus.
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