Oxfam begs people to stop donating 50 Shades of Grey
One small Oxfam shop in Swansea has received so many donated copies of Fifty Shades of Grey they've been able to make it into an erotica fort.
Oxfam in Castle Street, Swansea, have received so many used copies of Fifty Shades of Grey they needed to take to Facebook to beg everyone to stop, but not before they made a fort out of all the copies.
The store now has so many copies of the book, they may have to send them off to be pulped and turned into toilet roll.
The plea
That's polite charity shop talk for "everybody better cut this shit out RIGHT NOW".
Erotica fort
The charity shop waited until the problem with the E.L. James novel donations was so large they could make an office fort out of the erotica, before they asked people to stop. Because of course you would.
"We've had so many that we built a fort around someone's desk with SOME of the copies," Managing director Ashley Stamford-Plows said.
One Oxfam shop has received so many donations of 50 Shades of Grey that they've managed to build a fort pic.twitter.com/lFtZ7Ow3aK
— The QI Elves (@qikipedia) March 23, 2016
Toilet book
After being able to shift the books, the store now says they may have to send off the remaining copies (dismantling the fort) to be pulped and turned into toilet paper.
This is standard practice for any books they are unable to sell, and not something they have specifically decided to do just because of the book in question.
A little rougher than your average toilet roll. Not recommended for everybody.
Most donated book since Dan Brown's heyday
This isn't the first time Oxfam shops have had problems with too many donations of the same book. Dan Brown books were amongst the most donated books to charity shops a few years ago, only to be overtaken by E.L James's tale of a woman who meets a sex-pervert and then dates that sex-pervert.
Other Oxfam shops have also seen the same flood of donations, though none of them have yet had the decency to make a fort out of the copies.
Still want to read Fifty Shades of Grey? Good news! We have many copies in stock to get excited about ;-) See pic: pic.twitter.com/YU27SHx4wD
— Oxfam Books Skipton (@OxBooksSkipton) July 2, 2013
Whilst others have started filing the book under "crime" in a massive burn on E.L. James.
Oxfam stocking Fifty Shades in crime section, not sure if cultural illiteracy or pointed feminist commentary pic.twitter.com/tlXLl8ZIEg
— Naomi (@mangmangmang) November 11, 2015
Retirement home for Fifty Shades novels
Phil Broadhurst, who works in the store, told the Mirror that the branch had turned into a "retirement home" for the novels.
"We appreciate all the donations," he said.
"But less Fifty Shades and more Sixties and Seventies vinyl would be good. Enough is enough."
If you enjoyed this please donate to Oxfam. Though not Fifty Shades of Grey, for God's sake.