Are Oxfam the Tesco of the secondhand book trade?...

I'm not going to complain about the Oxfam book and music shop that's about to open in Tonbridge High Street. There'd be no point; it's all been said before by other members of the book trade who complain that their sales have halved in the face of such unfair competition and that they've held on as long as they could before being forced to close their doors for good. I won't even complain, no really I won't, that they pay only 20% of business rates and that their staff are volunteers. They have been described, not by me, as the Tesco of the secondhand book trade, with over 700 shops in the UK selling books and over 130 (and growing) dedicated to books only. They are the biggest secondhand book chain in Europe if not the world, but I'm not going to complain like many others, including the PBFA, the booksellers trade body. Like I said it's all been said before like in this Guardian report last year about what effect the Salisbury shop has had. There's no doubt about it that it will effect Mr. Books' trade probably more so at the bottom end of the market, less so on the more collectable books but I won't lose sleep over it;. After all Oxfam are a great cause and do alot of brilliant work in third world countries as has been demonstated with the recent Haiti emergency. Competitition is good, it sharpens you up, it makes you think how you have to improve your services to do better than the competition. I can always buy their best stock from them, look at how they price their books and learn from them. If all else fails I can always go and offer my services to them or go back and work in the media again if they'll still have me