ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on some specific problems relating to trading by charities: direct trading; the use by charities of subsidiary trading companies; and the broader issues concerning tax and rating exemptions, the competition which charity shops represent to the small commercial trader, and the potential for confusion between a charity and its trading subsidiary. The year 1998 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first Oxfam shop in Broad Street, Oxford - possibly the first charity shop in the UK. Oxfam has some 850 charity shops, and in 1997, they raised some £16.5 million, almost a quarter of that charity's annual income. Charity shops are not the only means by which charities trade - there is also direct catalogue-mailing, and there is more specialised trading connected with the charity's purposes, such as the sale of equipment for the elderly or disabled.
