With sadness, we are announcing
that Exodus Books will close
as of October 20th, 2017.
Early in July, we announced that we would be launching a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to save the store. While the early feedback from all of you was very encouraging (thank you!), we learned shortly thereafter that even if the campaign was successful, we would be unable to keep our promises to you. Thus, we have decided it is better for us to close than to continue.
We realize this will be disappointing to many of you! We, too, are heart-broken that we cannot keep going. We have dearly loved being a part of your lives for the last 25 years, and we will miss you all immensely. Yet, this definitely seems to be God's leading, so there is also a profound sense of relief that we can announce this decision now.
(If, by chance, you would like to purchase the store, we are certainly open to that possibility—please call us soon!—but not expecting that, we have to make plans that will best serve our family.)
So, there are less than three months before our last day. What can you expect from us?
First, many of you are already aware that we have stopped buying used books. This has the immediate effect of reducing our workload. We'll be able to better focus on serving you who are making plans for the next school year. We'll also have more time to work on repricing and selling sections of the store that are less visible and slower moving. We plan to continue our July sales throughout August (see below) and will continue to create specials on additional categories and publishers as soon as we can get to them. Follow us on Facebook for many other deals!
We plan to continue to restock most fast moving titles throughout August, but at the end of the month, we will cease reordering new titles and begin deeper discounting for September and October. We will also be selling shelving and other furniture and equipment.
Second, we are already losing our staff. Caleb has accepted a job elsewhere and is gone now. Emily, our primary customer service help and graphics designer, goes back to school the third week of August and will be done then. Ruth, currently handling shipping, will be leaving around then too. That leaves Lauren (working only Saturdays) and me—Eli.
We will have plenty of need for volunteers! If you can help us, even for a day or two, late in August or anytime in September/October, we'd be glad to have you! We'll be filling orders, repricing clearance books, listing products on Craigslist and Amazon, and cleaning out odd corners of the store.
Third, we hope to keep the website, with all its reviews, live for some time to come. That costs about $1000 a year to keep the domain active and the site hosted. We're hoping to monetize parts of the site with affiliate links and so on, but donations to keep it alive are welcome.
You can also help us a lot by simply:
- buying books and games from us,
- spreading the word of our closing to all your friends (and encouraging them to come in!)
- being patient with us, and
- praying for us.
Please call if you have any questions: I'll be happy to answer as best I can.
Thank you for your support and patronage of us! It means everything to us!
Yours sincerely,
Eli Evans
Exodus Books
503-655-1951
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