So, here’s the Oxfam deal: I have been away for the better part of a month ( more on why in some other blog) and my first full day back is the day before the new area manager arrives.

We want to impress.

When I say we, some of the usual compliment of Thursday people are away – the one who broke their wrist on the May bank holiday and have been very sorely missed since, and the one who I have come to rely on for very impressive creativity and more, needed the afternoon off for all sorts of good reasons.

So, with what resources we had, we worked our socks off.

The volunteer who ‘does’ classical music but also likes books – though not bothered about film – re-did the Old and Interesting section and the DVDs – and I have to say, made them look a whole lot better than I usually do.

And, one of the big issues when you have people further up the food chain visiting, you may well not know, is culling.

You can skip this bit of you need to get to the part that relates to the blog’s title – please feel free, and it is right at the bottom.

Anyway, if you are interested in how Oxfam bookshops work, here is the stuff about culling:

Each and every book has a price, and a category so that we can tell that we are selling more history than self help (and yes, we do), and a number which tells us what what week it was put out for sale.

The theory ( and you will note that it is a theory,) is that there are volunteers akimbo who diligently work their way round the shop checking the dates a book was put out and culling those which have been out for too long.

(You need to refresh your stock or the regulars will get fed up of seeing the same books and not come back.)

But there aren’t volunteers who do that.

Instead, we have volunteers who take responsibility for a category of books.

One does academic – but he is in Italy with his four grandchildren under five.

One does paperback fiction, but is in France on her boat…

You get the picture.

So, on Thursday, after a month away and people away, things were pretty dire and I, with my colleagues went around the shop and checked every single book. 

Culled and re-stocked, and when there were not books to re-stock with, I have to say, dear reader, we just rubbed out the week numbers replaced them with the most recent week.

Paperback fiction was put in exactly the right alphabetical order. 

Crafts were put in categories – homes, sewing, calligraphy and painting etc.

The amazing woman who does the window, did the window with prints my Best Beloved had framed, of cycling sketches from a Sussex artist, and books on The Great Outdoors.

Here is a lovely book that went in the window – we had been keeping these books for months to make a good display.

( By the way we sold four of the six of prints on that day.)

I did the table with books that all had red covers – eye catching as you come in and, hopefully, impressive to the new area manager.

And, I did the front-facers.

All those books around the shop which are not just spine-facing but actually show you their cover.

But, I didn’t do biography because I reckoned (and I was shattered at the end of Thursday) that the area manager wasn’t coming in until 11 am, so we could squeeze in biography on Friday morning.

We, not just me, did biography and we found – to my delight – there were biographies on Marx, Lenin’s embalmers and Mao – this is not a political delight, but how nice a theme was that?

So, we had them front-facing.

When I went in on Saturday to talk to my manager, I had a look round the front facers to see what had sold.

Mao (surprisingly) had sold and some volunteer had put an autobiography of Audrey Hepburn in its place……

Marx, Lenin and Audrey Hepburn – who would have thought?

The area manger, apparently, thought the shop looked good – phew.