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The increasing number of charity shops in the UK's shopping areas contrasts with the slump in other retail. Jenna Pudelek visits Rochdale to see what's happening on the ground
I"t's the lunchtime rush in Rochdale and Dorothy Howarth is sitting outside a café in the sunshine enjoying a cigarette and a cup of coffee in Yorkshire Street, the main pedestrianised shopping area in this north-west market town.
She can see three charity shops from where she's sitting and says she likes buying second-hand books from them.Teople with big families and those on benefits find them useful, and there are a lot of people on benefits in Rochdale," she says.
But Howarth (below), aged 76, remembers when it was different: "It used to be nice here - there were independent shops. Recently, shops like Dorothy Perkins and Burton have all shut down as well, with charity shops in their places."
There are in fact eight charity shops in Yorkshire Street, which is about 1 00 metres long. A Mind sits two down from a Scope, which is opposite a British Heart Foundation furniture and electrical store. There is another BHF selling clothes, an RSPCA, a YMCA, a Barnardo's and a Cancer Research UK. Many other shops are payday...