Secondhand shop paradise: Inside the 10,000 sq ft Oxfam supermarket opening in Manchester

What a good day to have air conditioning. As the sun climbed higher and began to beat down hard on the tarmac of Manchester Fort Shopping Park in Cheetham Hill on Friday, shoppers entering the icy oasis of the new Oxfam supermarket breathed a sigh of relief at the relief from the heat.

But fifteen minutes before the 10am opening, as a queue snakes past the JD next door, you get the feeling that people would come here come rain, shine or snow. Because this is no ordinary Oxfam – it’s 10,000 square feet and the second of its kind in the UK.

The charity began in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. Since then, its stores have become a familiar sight on the British high street. The superstore concept is relatively new, however; there is only one in the country, launched in Oxford in 2019.

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The new Manchester store, which has created 15 paid jobs and 150 volunteer roles, will be located in a busy shopping area alongside other major retailers including Boots, M&S and JD Sports.

As soon as you walk through the doors it is immediately apparent that this is no ordinary charity shop. The usual Oxfam features are there, yes: rows of clothes, dresses, shirts, scarves in a technicolour, multi-print jumble; shelves of trinkets, egg cups, toast racks, jewellery boxes, picture frames.

There are stacks of CDs, crates of books and records, and an impressive selection of fair trade chocolate, handmade wooden bee houses and organic soap whose essential oils you can smell metres into the air.

The biggest difference is that this Oxfam store is palatial. Spread over two floors with tall windows and even taller ceilings, the staff have really made the most of the space. On the ground floor, there’s a huge women’s section with a rack of vintage dresses, a whole wall of shoes and a rack of South Asian clothing including salwar kameez and saris.