Second-Hand Bookshops in Britain: 2024 Report

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&#x27;s part of the appeal, but I have more success in them because they are less discerning.<p>Over the years I&#x27;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 &quot;poor&quot; condition now.<p>Professional shops won&#x27;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: &quot;Fell&#x27;s Bookshop. We probably don&#x27;t have what you&#x27;re looking for and we wouldn&#x27;t sell it to you if we did.&quot;

Well that was more positive than I had expected from the title.<p>It also mentioned, at the end, the trend I&#x27;d noticed for schools, supermarkets and others to have places to trade second hand books for free.