OXFAM IS A BULLY
Bullying is bullying - whoever does it
Author Susan Hill, in The Spectator Wednesday, 10th February 2010
Author pic by Ben Graville

Oxfam is a bully. I have several negative opinions about Oxfam: that they have a career ladder which provides large numbers of lucrative jobs and a grandiose set of offices, that a friend working for them in Africa swanned round in a new 4 wheel drive and stayed in smart hotels courtesy of the company but otherwise did not a lot, that they have fallen for the whole Global warming/climate change scam hook, line and sinker, and spent a fortune on a daft advertising campaign about how the poor are going to be drowned in the rising flood waters when the glaciers and the polar caps melt, blah blah, that they are by no means politically neutral.

But other global charities are guilty of some or all of the above. No, it is Oxfam Bookshops in the firing line here, and elsewhere. Strangely, I was thinking out this blog as I drove home yesterday from a pleasant market town some fifteen miles from me, only to find today that the Booksellers Association and the bookshops in one particular corner or London are up in arms against Oxfam too - only specifically against their bookshops which are spreading faster than Tesco once did. These people are, unsurprisingly, concerned that small bookshops and antiquarian booksellers are being bullied by Oxfam Bookshops and their aggressive expansion. Because Oxfam Bookshops are big business. They are now reportedly the third biggest bookseller in the country, which is a surprise. I daresay their profits have paid for all those ads about global warming.

Many a town has many a charity shop and most of them have a few shelves of books of varying quality, often tatty, usually paperbacks, rarely costing more than a quid. They are no threat to any bookshop, of the new or antiquarian sort. But Oxfam bookshops are well organised, clean, uncluttered and pleasant, they sell only books, with some CDs and occasionally greetings cards. Their stock is pristine, often brand new.

I ought to be attacking them on behalf of regular booksellers but, although I have much sympathy with them, in this instance it is other charity shops which concern me.

Some years ago, when Ottakars, the bookselling chain, were behaving like thugs, they had a clever tactic. They visited a medium sized town and looked to see if it had a good, thriving independent bookshop. If it did, they opened down the street. Two people I know had to close their previously profitable shops as an immediate result. Now Oxfam is doing the same.

Like all reviewers and general commentators in the book trade, I get a lot of free books. I give these away, some to my local library, where they put out a red carpet every time I show my face, and some to a charity shop which supports a particular children’s Hospice. The latter display their books, and indeed all their other goods, very well and professionally, they are smart and clean and the shops do not smell. They do not overcharge for their books, but nor do they give them away and consequently, mine, and those of everyone else, turn over quickly and help them a great deal. Hospices are local. People support their own. This one has a very small chain of shops in the county but they couldn`t open a hundred miles away where the people have their own Hospice to look after. National charities can open where they like and Oxfam is making the most of it.
Read the rest of Susan Hill's piece at The Spectator.