If you're looking to offload some books to a local thrift store or salvage centre, you may have some trouble.

Local thrift stores and salvage centres are having a tough time keeping up with copious amounts of used books.

General manager of Mission Thrift in Okotoks, Colin Rumary, has been able to pass excess donations of things like clothing onto other communities and organizations, but books are another matter.

"We go through all the books as much as we can, we try and take out as much as we can, we've got an offer to all the schools to come and get whatever they want, we've tried every way possible to find an outlet for what are beautiful things. I mean some of these reference books and so on, they've sat on people's shelves, and I swear some of them have never been off the shelf."

While books are still selling, Rumary says the sheer rate at which people are bringing them in is just staggering.

"People are still reading books, the book department is still my fifth-biggest department in this store in terms of sales, so don't get me wrong, I'm selling thousands of books, but I'm getting tens-of-thousands of books through the door!"

Unfortunately, not all donations make it to the shelves.

When it comes to things like encyclopedias, which would have sold for hundreds of dollars at one point, interest is so low that they aren't even taken for free.

They're often having to turn over inventory to the recycling centre, or in the case of things like excess VHS tapes, the landfill.

For Rumary, it's a symptom of how consumer products are designed.

"Our goal here is to try not to put something in the landfill but there just comes a point where that's where something has to go. We build stuff with obsolescence in it, I mean look at all the cellphones."

While you'll still be able to drop larger donations of books off at many thrift stores, Rumary says it's always appreciated if you call ahead to give a head's up, quipping that you might be asked to hold off for a little bit.

"I had a gentleman this morning phone and say 'I've got ten boxes of books, can I drop them off?' I said, 'Yeah you can, in 2023!'"

 

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