Oxfam is the largest retailer of second-hand books in Europe, selling around 12 million per year. Most of Oxfam's 600 charity shops around the UK sell books, and around 100 are specialist bookshops or book and music shops. A typical Oxfam bookshop will have around 50 volunteers, as well as a small number of full-time staff.[1] The charity makes around £1.6 million each month from book sales.[2]
Books are donated directly to shops by the public, or through Oxfam "book banks" in convenient locations around the country. The profits of the book sales support the work of Oxfam.
Following a revival in the fortunes of the new and second-hand book industry at the end of the 1990s, Oxfam began to rapidly expand its specialist bookshops. By 2003 it had 60 brightly lit and modern bookshops aiming to shake off the old 'dank and dusty' image.[3] Modern Oxfam bookshops typically boast professional fittings and a wide range of stock, including recent novels, specialist textbooks and out-of-print curios.
Small bookshops have complained that Oxfam receives unfair advantages in the form of favourable tax rates and cheaper waste disposal, amongst other things.[4][5] In response to these criticisms, Oxfam has said that much of the damage to small book retailers has come from supermarkets and online retailers, particularly Tesco and Amazon.[5]
France has two Oxfam bookshops in Paris as well as in Strasbourg and Lille. In Belgium, there are Oxfam bookshops in Brussels (Ixelles and Uccle), Liège, Namur, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Kortrijk and Hasselt.
There is one Oxfam bookshop in Australia, in the city of Adelaide, run by about 130 volunteers.[6]
Oxfam Ireland operates bookshops throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.[7]
^Pandya, Nick (17 January 2004). "Step forward - and step up". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^Flood, Alison (20 August 2009). "Dan Brown tops Oxfam's chart of most-donated books". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
^Cahal Milmo (31 October 2003). "Oxfam finds money grows with books". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
^"Oxfam Bookshops". TheBookGuide.co.uk.
^ abAnnie Riddle (30 July 2009). "Oxfam killed my bookshop". Salisbury Journal. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
^Wallace, Ilona (10 October 2018). "How a beloved Adelaide bookshop found its home". The Adelaide Review. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
^"Oxfam Shops". Oxfam Ireland. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
the end of the 1990s, Oxfam began to rapidly expand its specialist bookshops. By 2003 it had 60 brightly lit and modern bookshops aiming to shake off the...
In 2010 Oxfam was criticized by independent bookshops and the booksellers association. for aggressively expanding its specialist bookshops, using tactics...
operates over 70 specialist OxfamBookshops, making them the largest retailer of second-hand books in the United Kingdom. Other Oxfam affiliates also have shops...
notable Glasgow artist Alasdair Gray adorn the Ubiquitous Chip, the OxfamBookshop, and the Oran Mor bars. Stretching from Great Western Road at the Botanic...
Wheeler Robinson House, the ground floor of which is occupied by an Oxfambookshop. To the south are St Cross College and Pusey House, founded in 1884...
Turl Street colleges, the street houses several shops, including an Oxfambookshop, one jewellery shop, a café, a stationery shop (Scriptum Fine Stationery)...
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copies went out, including to The Times. Rave reviews led to orders from bookshops, launching her career as a cookery writer. Her books are characterized...
hatfieldandthenorth.co.uk. "Oxfam books blog: Jonathan Coe and William Sutcliffe create window displays for the Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop". Archived from the...
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(10 episodes). In 2009, Rankin donated the short story "Fieldwork" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors...
Agatha Christie". The Independent. 31 May 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2016. "Oxfam: Ox-Tales". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. "2011 Resident Participants...
took offence, and attempted to get the book withdrawn. They picketed bookshops and threatened to sue for blasphemy. Eventually they prevented the book...
time by an Oxford University student. Archer raised money for the charity Oxfam, obtaining the support of The Beatles in a fundraising drive. The band accepted...
the laws of war." Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, Oxfam, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, the United...
this month. December: First permanent Oxfam charity shop begins trading, in Broad Street. Its first dedicated bookshop opens in 1987, in St Giles'. City twinned...
List of attractions in Oxford List of Oxford architects Mayors of Oxford Oxfam Oxford bags The Oxfordian Age – a subdivision of the Jurassic Period named...
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Vaudeville performer Suzy Klein, TV and Radio presentator Hedy Lamarr, actress Barbara Stocking, former head of Oxfam Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia...
organization (ATO): that year, British NGO Oxfam launched "Helping-by-Selling", a program that sold imported handicrafts in Oxfam stores in the UK and from mail-order...
"Telling our own stories': African women blogging for social change". OXFAM. Retrieved 17 October 2016. Oreoluwa, Somolu. "Radio for Women's Development...
Retrieved 2 August 2014. Sweetman, Caroline (2000). Gender in the 21st Century. Oxfam. ISBN 978-0-85598-427-4. Retrieved 2 August 2014. "Press Release: Largest...
OBE, Director-General, Age Concern. Joel Goodman Joffe, CBE, Chairman, OXFAM. Adam Hafejee Patel, Vice President, Blackburn Community Relations Council...
only offer Lennon accepted was to design a Christmas card for the charity Oxfam. The illustration depicts a spherical robin, and is the same drawing that...
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