Bookstore reopens after damaging flood

Welcome back to Fox 9 All Day. Tim Blotz here with you this afternoon. My goodness, so many great conversations that we've had here. And we're going to have one more. And I know this is one that a lot of you are going to be excited about because we've got a new chapter for a beloved South Minneapolis bookstore. Nearly two years after they had just a huge flood that destroyed all of their books, about 100,000 books, the paperback exchange was all forced to shut down back in February of 2025 after that water main break but we're here to share that they've got some great news today Andy Hersey who's the store's owner is making a comeback in a brand new homey location so to speak andy thanks for joining us you got to tell us about this because i know you're excited uh we're we are super excited um and yeah it's a house it's not a commercial space but we're turning it from a house into a commercial space to be the bookstore again And it is actually, it's almost right next door to the old building that the bookstore had been in for almost 50 years. That's even better, right? Because your customers can still find you in a familiar neighborhood. Absolutely, yes. And yeah, we wanted to stay in the neighborhood, we didn't want to move. It was hard to picture running the bookstore anywhere else in a different neighborhood. So this kind of a silver lining to what happened is to find a space and to be able to figure out how to purchase it. And we'll be owning our own space, which is great because we had been renting for decades. So owning the space will give us the opportunity to hopefully exist forever, or as long as we want to, as long as people want to be reading books. And Andy, what I love about this new space, I mean, this really kind of works for your brand. I mean, think about it. You pick up a paperback book, and where are you going to read it? You're going to read it in a home someplace. So what a better place to go pick out a book than in a home environment, right? You can almost feel yourself reading the book, and I can just imagine now that you're going to have some rocking chairs or beautiful sitting chairs where people can just sit down and just scan through the book to see if they can picture themselves reading that book in their own home. Absolutely, yes, there's different rooms. I mean, it's still a house in there. It's going to look a lot like a house when it's done. We've got to make a few changes, but we're going to fill it with shelves and books and it's going to be a real cozy, homey space. And there's a fireplace in there. So imagine sitting by the fireplace, reading a book, or finding a room off somewhere in the house and sitting there and browsing and reading the book and hanging out and meeting people. That's awesome. We're really excited about it. So are you going to have like a children's room or children's section? Oh, absolutely. Yes, we did before, but we've got a space kind of picked out, which we think is going to be good for the kids. So we love when the kids come in and getting them started reading and they love it and we love it. So absolutely, yes, there will be kids books for sure. So Andy, have you been acquiring books since the flood? I mean, how are you building your inventory back up again? Yeah, somewhat, yeah, people have reached out and wanted to get us books. We're not quite at the point where we can just open the floodgates and say, start bringing your books in. We will be doing that, but it's a little ways off. We've got to get some work done at the space first. But yeah, definitely a lot of people have said, I got books for you. We're holding on to them, and it's going to take a little bit longer, but we will want your books. Most of our stock was destroyed last year, but we saved some, So we've hung on to those and they've been stored away. So we've got books stored in various spaces around town, but we'll be moving them into the new space and then asking people to start bringing their books in. Might be kind of sometime early next year, hopefully, if all stays on track here. You know, I think we've got a couple of pictures of the flooding that you've shared with us. We're going to look at some of those right now. I haven't seen these yet either. So we're going to look up the monitor as they put those up there. Oh, yeah, my goodness, right? That was a lot of damage that you had there. And, Andy, I understand that your supporters and the people who have loved this store for so long have helped you with a GoFundMe account. And that was a big reason, one of the reasons why you've been able to come back. Definitely, yes, definitely. because yeah you may not you may know that the city at this point didn't really want to step up and and take responsibility for the damage caused by the water main so but the community kind of did step up and the the GoFundMe was uh you know it encouraged us just uh encouraged us to think that we could do this and it you know financially it it kept us going and And it enabled us to ultimately purchase this house to be the new location. So it wouldn't have happened without the GoFundMe. The GoFundMe is still going. We still need to pay for some upgrades and renovations to the house. And what's the name of the GoFundMe there, Andy, so that people can go to it? Pardon? What's the name of the GoFundMe page? I think if you just do Paperback Exchange, get to GoFundMe, and then search Paperback Exchange Minneapolis, it should bring you right to it. All right, sounds good. And I know you're kind of looking for an opening maybe around next spring, around National Bookstore Day. As we get closer to that day, I tell you what, would you come back and let's talk about the exciting news? Absolutely, yes. We're shooting for Independent Bookstore Day, which is next April. Could be sooner, could be later, but that's sort of a goal right now. but uh yeah once the space is ready we'd love to have you out and and give you a tour it sounds good Andy Andy Hersey with the oh my goodness um the Paperback Exchange thanks so much and congratulations on on your new location we can't wait to hear how successful it is thank you so much yeah it's good talking to you all right we're gonna come back with more on all day here in a a moment.