Sale of second Hand

Soon after writing the 3dmcp5 opening statement I started to look at how people see second-hand objects. Like most people, I’ve visited high street charity shops before and most people would agree that they have a certain “aesthetic”. I wanted to understand why.

So I decided to visit two Oxfam high street shops, one in the borough of Stretham, Southwest London and the newly opened premises on New Bond Street in Mayfair. Visiting the Stretham branch first, I found it to be the standard charity shop set up, albeit specializing in furniture. Short pile grey carpet tiles met beige walls, with a suspended ceiling. Inside this beige box was a jumble sale of ‘things’, mainly furniture, but also containing second-hand home and tableware. The furniture on sale showed signs of its use by previous owners, children’s pen marks on untreated 1990’s pine shelves, teacup ring marks of 1950’s sideboards. The objects were displaying a well-documented product story. There had been, however, no attempt to spruce up, and let alone to rebirth the products. This, to be honest, was what I had expected, all my memories of charity shops had lead me to this, and I wasn’t surprised.

Oxfam Streatham Hill London

My next visit was to the Oxfam “boutique” on New Bond Street, home to the most elegant and expensive shops in London. Some of bond streets other residents shops include Gucci and Armani and, the main street itself is home to contains more Royal Warrant holders than anywhere else in world. On the hour long bus journey from Stretham to central London, my mind ran wild with images of a flag ship charity store, a boutique shopping experience, an interior style reflecting its surroundings, clothes which were clean, pressed ready to be worn… Re-birthed. However, I was wholly disappointed when I arrived at Oxfam's, New Bond Street. The shop was obviously branded in standard Oxfam logos, but the window contained hand written pleas to the public to donate their quality garments, once again beige walls met suspended ceilings, although in the place of the grey carpet tiles customers were treated to were replaced with slightly more up market dirty beige ceramic floor tiles. Some attempt had been made to display the items in boutique style shelving, but the contents (all designer labels) were displayed in a disappointing, unflattering condition. There was no thought to rebirth, no attempt had been made to break the ties with previous owners, to cleanse, repair, to then allow new ownership to be easily achieved.

Oxfam New Bond Street London

This all sounds very sniffy but do not get me wrong. Of course there are good reasons why charity shops are like this. Firstly charity shops cannot rely on a constant supply of goods and, because of this they cannot build a brand based on a designed style or on the quality of their goods, and so by its very nature shopping in charity shops is a totally different experience to shopping in a normal high street chain store. It is product hide and seek, a case of rummaging the rails of clothes or digging through boxes to discover a bargain. This experience should be focused. The act of searching and discovering could quickly turn into cherishing and loving, encouraging the consumer to work for the product they are about to gain. But why should this all take place in such an uninspiring consumer environment? Why should all charity shops look the same? I’ve visited privately owned second- hand shops with completely different aesthesis environments, offering a different, individual experience.

The obvious answer is that charities cannot justify spending money on “sprucing up” their high street branches; this is simply not in their remit. The public give to charity to on the proviso that the bulk of their contribution is spent on the worthy cause laid out by the charity in advance. This is in Oxfam’s case to change and improve peoples’ lives, through long and short term development programmes across 70 countries around the world, and then to campaign to achieve lasting change in these areas. However the rent of a medium size business premises on New Bond Street, must be huge; almost comparable to a small African state’s GDP perhaps. How can they justify this expense without wanting to change the charity shop experience.? Perhaps it’s an attempt to improve the brands high street image? But wouldn’t the money be better spent rolled out over all the stores in a nationwide re-branding exercise rather than one ‘flag ship’ store that only a minuet proportion of the population will ever visit?

This essay is not meant to be a scathing complete criticism of Oxfam’s high street network. They operate a formula which is successful on many levels, providing cheap second hand products to the public within an instantly recognizable high street set up, whilst also generating income for their projects and raising awareness of their work. But I feel strongly that there is need for change. More attention should be paid to advancing individual product histories, the brand should capitalize on the popular second hand, vintage ascetic, as well as focusing on what people enjoy about charity shops, the act of product hide and seek. Making the consumer work for their right to own, building an instant memory of achievement and satisfaction.

Product re-birth is by no means suitable for every high street charity shop. Product re-birth is an act that is time consuming, not to mention expensive in terms the costs of packaging and branding. But re-birth is a sustainable act, and in an age when everybody needs to be aware of the depletion of the planets resources, humanitarian organizations like Oxfam need to preach sustainability as a viable way of living. Perhaps charity shops need to stop thinking they only sell pre owned, pre used products, and start focusing on the future of these items. For if the act of purchase is a memorable and pleasurable experience, a bond will develop between owner and object. A friendship will form based on a common past event and. This will quell the urge to replace.

The idea of changing the way people shop in charity shops is evident in the New Bond Street ‘boutique’. The bargains are no longer hidden, all the consumer now needs to do is ‘seek’ and they are guaranteed to find branded items of clothing. This of course, detracts from the experience of product hide and seek, but may suit many people i.e. those: People who are cash rich but time poor, who like the feeling of finding a bargain, but don’t have as much time to ‘seek’. EBay is a perfect example of this at work, it is the act of purchasing of second -hand goods, but where search engines do the seeking.

The positive side to losing the product hide and seek aspect of the charity shop experience is that it, leaves the high street branch the chance to provide a stimulating shopping experience in other ways. Having lost its challenging purchase experience, it can now focus on educating the consumer, raising awareness on a political level of the worthy cause it was set up to help, but also making them feel good about playing their part in slowing the depletion of the world resources.

I think that the current model of charity shops and the experience offered by them is outdated. Using the Oxfam network of high street shops as a case study I aim to develop a manifesto for change in high street charity shopping, not only changing the physical image of charity shops, but what they represent to the people. Allowing them to raise awareness of their work, to sell products that connect to the consumer in a sustainable way, and to sell them in a more conventional high street manner, all the while retaining the game of product hide and seek, and the joy of discovering a bargain. The manifesto will use elements of my re-branding and re-birth thesis, and will represent a strategy for the future of the charity shop culture.

• JosephStebbingSaleofsecondHandInterimPresentation