Our companion Chris is at the heart of our book donation operation, overseeing donations, pricing, displaying and recycling the many hundreds of books donated to us each week.
Emmaus Cambridge turns around books and media per month making this an extremely successful retail area for our charity.
Chris talks about what goes on behind the scenes to ensure we make the most of the huge array of donated books we receive:
We get about two metric tonnes of books per week because we’re in a good area here in Cambridge as we get a lot of people who donate books, as well as donations from the universities, so we get a lot of educational books too. We’re not a jumble sale and try to be as close to a book shop as possible.
Great value
We’re still really good value; it’s just £1 for a paperback and £2 for a hardback, unless individually priced, because we do have some books which are worth more, so we have to price them accordingly. For example, art brochures which are one-offs and will only be printed once are worth more.
Chris’s background
I’ve been a companion at Emmaus Cambridge for over 10 years. I started on logistics, then worked in the mezzanine (the upper floor in the shop used as a sorting area) and then the café and out on the vans, before doing books. I then went into the café and came back to do books again. Before I came to Emmaus Cambridge, I was working at Suffolk Central Library in Ipswich and also in the Samaritan’s bookshop in Ipswich.
Great gift ideas
Talking to customers you find a lot of people see books that would make ideal gifts for people they know. They’ll say: “Oh uncle Frank would like that. It’s a book an aquariums and he’s just got an aquarium, I’ll get him that.” We have sections: fiction and non-fiction paperbacks and hardbacks. Sci-fi and fantasy has its own section. A lot of the sci fi books once belonged to teenagers who go to college and the parents bring them in and get rid of them, because they’ve tidied their rooms.
The other section is Classics which is really popular. I started a bookshelf just for classics, as well as a bookcase for sci-fi and the other popular area is the non-fiction section.
Crafty move
I moved books on crafts to the craft area because they were just mixed up with the general stuff, so if you want a book on knitting, tapestry or pottery, it’s all now in crafts, with the knitting wools and fabrics etc.
Railways has its own section now and Art which makes a lot more money than the other sections, I don’t know why; it’s a bit like classical music, people pay a lot more for classical music.
We now do a Young Adult section – these books used to go on the Children’s shelf but if you’re 15 or 16, you’re not going to be looking in amongst the Paddington Bear and Noddy books and things like that! They’ve now got their own shelf and it’s very popular. Not only that, but the Young Adult genre sometimes deals with adult topics, like bereavement, transgender issues and so on, so they need their own section.
Pulp fiction
The books which are not saleable are collected by a company who generates pulp which is turned back into cardboard and new books.
Everyone has something they like doing, some companions like cooking, some people are less social and are happy cleaning the house or painting outside on their own. I do like books a great deal. I like the people who buy books and enjoy talking to the customers.
I do buy books myself as gifts for family or friends if anything appropriate comes in. For myself, I just borrow them, read them and bring them back, so it’s an ideal job for a bookworm like me!
Our Landbeach Shop opening hours and location can be found here.