Charity Shops: Retailing, Consumption and Society (Routledge Studies in the Management of Voluntary and Non-Profit Organizations)

In the late 1990s, there was a distinct rise in interest in the non-profit sector, and in retailing and consumption. Drawing together these two concerns this book provides a comprehensive and international account of the retail charity sector. Charity shops are now significant occupiers of the UK high street, and are becoming familiar sites of consumption in the USA, Australia, Canada and Ireland. This volume provides the first overview of the history and development of the charity shop, incorporating material from a variety of disciplines, including marketing, retailing, cultural studies and social geography. Presenting recent research from the UK, Europe, Australia and North America, this book fills gap in the literature of the field, and will be of great interest to all practitioners, researchers and students wishing to study the charity shop phenomenon. Preliminaries......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of illustrations......Page 7 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Introduction......Page 10 1 Consumption, identity and locality......Page 20 2 Retailing......Page 29 3 Customers and demand......Page 47 4 Materialising profit......Page 64 5 Staffing the charity shop......Page 80 6 Pricing and competition......Page 110 7 It's all in the mix'......Page 127 Bibliography......Page 146 Index......Page 155 Charity shops are now significant occupiers of the UK high street and are becoming familiar sites of consumption in the USA, Australia, Canada and Ireland. This volume provides an overview of the history and development of the charity shop. Material is drawn from a variety of disciplines, including marketing, retailing, cultural studies and social geography This volume provides the first overview of the history and development of the charity shop. Material is drawn from a variety of disciplines, including marketing, retailing, cultural studies and social geography Placing the charity shop in its theoretical context is a complex task, reflecting the character of the sector itself.