The proliferation of charity and community bookshops is substantially the product of tax policy. Commercial property is taxed at ~50% of the nominal rental value, but charities are substantially or wholly exempt from this tax. Importantly, this tax is owed regardless of whether the property is occupied; for a commercial landlord, it is therefore preferable to lease a unit to a charity at a peppercorn rent if the unit is expected to remain vacant for some time. This has had a profound effect on the makeup of retail tenants, particularly in small towns with high vacancy rates, which some argue amounts to a harmful market distortion.
To be honest, I prefer charity shops to professional shops for 2nd hand books.<p>That said, I still visit professional shops rather more than I should (it depends on the shop.)<p>Of course charity shops are cheaper, that's part of the appeal, but I have more success in them because they are less discerning.<p>Over the years I've acquired a LOT of books, so now I tend to limit myself more. Mostly I now collect science fiction, with an emphasis on work pre 1970. These were made cheap, and are usually in "poor" condition now.<p>Professional shops won't shelve them, whereas charity shops will, so I have more success there.
A.Z. Fell has a decent bookshop but when I called recently they said: "Fell's Bookshop. We probably don't have what you're looking for and we wouldn't sell it to you if we did."
Well that was more positive than I had expected from the title.<p>It also mentioned, at the end, the trend I'd noticed for schools, supermarkets and others to have places to trade second hand books for free.