[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.

[Affric]

Charity bookshop workers in my experience know nothing about books and have no taste.

But charity bookshops have different motivations and appeal to different shoppers.

Essentially it’s only bad if you like reading good, hard to find books.

Or believe that others finding them when they might not particularly be looking for them is a common good.

[SpaceManNabs]

I have found that second hand shops tend to have a more diverse and rich selection and charity shops can have very rare gems.

Support both, and I wouldn't want to give up one for the other.

Also a bit of an aside, but charity shops are also more often part of national or international orgs so a lot of the "gain" isn't localized as the article discusses. Good or bad on a case by case basis. Not sure how it edges out.

[asciimov]

“Charity” shops in my area are for profit businesses. Sure someone is getting a small donation, but their board members pull large salaries. Never mind their free inventory and usually underpaid labor.

[danparsonson]

The directors getting paid doesn't make a charity for-profit - that's dependent on what they do with the remaining money after paying salaries. For-profit businesses distribute surplus (i.e. profit) to shareholders.

It's a common complaint that donations should not be used to pay salaries, but the important question should be how much leverage those paid staff can extract out your donation. Skilled people usually don't want to work for free, but they can magnify a donation by reaching more potential donors via advertising, more appealing shops, etc.

[vintermann]

Legally you are of course right, but there are certainly charity shops out there which are exploitative and even designed to enrich their owners. One well-known example is Humana People to People which is run by something probably best characterised as a person-worshipping political cult (Tvind).