Oxfam

This is one of Colchester's better charity shops - and fits the quality level found in almost every Oxfam store across the country.

They sell a mixture of the following - clothes (mens, womens), books (fiction, nonfiction, children's), CD's (albums, compilations, singles and the odd boxset), vinyl records (pop, rock and classical), audio cassettes, DVD movies, video games (most systems), children's toys and a selection of new items including greeting cards. Out of this selection I am mostly interested in the music and video games, of which the range is average. On the CD's side I have found in the past some great deals including titles such as DJ Shadow's Endtroducing..... and The Wallflowers Bringing Down the Horse. Regarding vinyls again, a good selection and usually better titles than found in other charity shops in Colchester including titles from big 80s bands. Video games wise again a good selection, but its not very big and sometimes you can go in and they haven't got much of a range - usually see PC and Playstation games more than anything else.

Pricing in this shop is a little higher than some of the other shops, as it always is with Oxfam stores. Rarely is there a static price covering items, meaning that one CD might cost 50p/£1 more than another. With that in mind the audio CD's are usually priced between 50p for singles up to £2 for double disc compilations. Vinyls are priced anywhere from £1.50 for cheap budget LP's to £6 for high quality albums from popular groups - however most are usually sold for around £3-4. Video games are priced between 50p for Playstation (one) games, and either £1 or £1.50 for PS2/Xbox/PC games. DVD's follow the same pricing strategy as the video games with prices usually being around £1.50. Audio cassettes seem to now be at a static price of about 50p per cassette - however doubles/triples might be more.

Quality of the items is usually extremely high for a charity shop, I know that Oxfam employ a high degree of quality control with their donations and check sensitive media such as CD's, DVD's or Vinyls for visual defects. Most of the time you can always pop the disc to check yourself, but take my word for it - there is never a need to. Never have any of my purchases failed to play properly. From what I know from other friends who visit the store regularly, this level of quality is apparent with the other product lines.

The staff who work there are usually mainstays, and so faces soon become familiar. On a Saturday they will open up two checkouts on either side of the store, which allows you to be served quickly. Staff are always happy to serve you and help, and even give their opinion on various items.

The store seems to attract nice people, and isn't cursed by the horrible "musty, old people" smell that so many charity shops fall victim too. It also is usually very tidy, which makes it easy to find things. However I am less likely to "dig" through things, and thus spend less time in the store.

The store also stands out in the fact that it accepts debit and credit cards for almost all purchases. However as always when it comes to charity shops it helps to pay using cash.

Good customer service fab staff. Opening hours are 9-5/5.30 most days!

This is a lovely, clean, spacious store with friendly staff and very good prices.

A lovely branch, with kind and helpful people.

Extremely well organized books at great prices, thank you! I was able to pick up several slim volumes of British poetry due to them being carefully ordered. It’s lovely when staff goes above and beyond. A gem.

Excellent choice of second hand books.
Very good classification

Great charity shop for books.

Very nice atmosphere, excellent service