Deep in the heart of the San Francisco Peaks, at an undisclosed location, in an anonymous warehouse, Bookmans employees are hard at work, salvaging what’s left of the store's books, music, movies, and video games.  We managed to save a good portion of the stock from the relatively undamaged, but definitely wet and dirty, back room.

Almost everything on the floor got soaked and ruined, probably from a broken water main.  Books on the bottom shelf expanded from the water, froze from the cold, and required a crow bar to pry loose.  Employees spent hours sifting through water-logged books and fond memories.  It was definitely bittersweet.  Some of us have been at this store for a long time and the walls were covered with funny found objects and inside jokes that have accumulated over the years that we had to let go.  On the other hand, it had been over a week since we had all seen each other, and I had forgotten how much fun it was to work with these people! Fortified by coffee, doughnuts, and double cheeseburgers, we made the best of the situation and quick work of the recovery job.

The upper level of the shelves and most of the product on tables and carts was salvageable.  The merchandise, along with all of the saved hardware, furniture, and supplies, was loaded into a couple of eighteen-wheeler trailers and transported to the new warehouse.

Once there, we set up an office and base of operations to tackle the next task— sorting through every recovered book, dvd, cd and videogame to make sure nothing we recovered was water damaged.  With books especially, water leads to mold which spreads like wildfire; a rotten apple literally spoils the barrel.

Once this is done, we will start organizing what we have left and start making room for incoming product.  This will include lots of sources, and we are currently considering ways to involve the Flagstaff community.  If you’ve already started a basement stash to bring to Bookmans for our new store, it may just be worth the wait. We are currently buried in an obscure location, but we’ll be back, and when we are, we’re going to need you Flagstaff!

All of us at Bookmans are so thankful for the huge outpouring of sympathy and love from our loyal customers.  Start saving your books, movies, and music, because we are all looking forward to seeing you all again in the near future!

Some pictures of Flagstaff employees sorting through merchandise (and goofing off) in the warehouse: