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shop that sold everything but bought nothing’. The store only made £500 profit in 1948, its first year – but by 1953, this had risen to £10,000. By 1971, Oxfam shops were earning over a million pounds a year.
Mitty was a consummate salesman. A lady told him she had left her donation outside the shop, and he managed to sell the donkey within an hour. On another occasion, a recently-divorced woman promised her diamond engagement ring if only she were able to remove it. Returning moments later with a bar of soap, he had sold the ring by the end of the morning. Joe Mitty built the Oxfam brand into the largest charity retail chain in the UK, with over 700 shops.
He retired in 1982 but continued to work as an ambassador for the charity, with its director describing him: ‘Joe changed the world forever, and for the better. He describes himself as a little old man, but he is truly a giant amongst men’. In 2006, Mitty sold Victoria Beckham a dress for £19.99 from the Notting Hill branch as part of a campaign to highlight the work of the charity. During his lifetime, Oxfam shops generated over half a billion pounds of income. Presenting a Pride of Britain Award to Mitty, the prime minister, Tony Blair, said: ‘Had he worked in the private sector, he would have been a multi-millionaire’. Awarded the MBE for his work for charity, Joe Mitty died in 2009.
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