The Planned Parenthood booksale is coming to an end after 61 years

[progressoid]

Join us for the Planned Parenthood Book Sale on October 12-16. The event will take place in the 4-H Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

After 61 memory-making years, we have made the difficult decision that this October’s sale will be the last Planned Parenthood Book Sale. The decision does not come lightly.

https://plannedparenthoodbooksale.com/event-details

After over 60 years, we have made the difficult decision that this October we will host our last Planned Parenthood Book Sale.

The decision to end the Planned Parenthood Book Sale was not done lightly.

When the city told us about an important infrastructure project, the 2nd Avenue Corridor Project, they made a fair offer for the warehouse to avoid the eminent domain process and the legal fight for both parties. In this increasingly hostile landscape, Planned Parenthood is often fighting legal battles to protect the right of Iowans to access essential health care and much needed sex education. We often have to make hard decisions about where to allocate resources to support our mission. We recognized that by coming to a mutual agreement with the city with a fair purchase price for the warehouse, we could continue supporting sex education in Iowa and preserve our legal resources for the fight to protect Iowans’ freedom to control their health, bodies, and future. We are thankful for the city’s open communication and partnership in that process.

After a thorough analysis, we found that continuing with the Book Sale in a new warehouse location would generate less revenue for Iowa education programs than if we were to put the money from the eminent domain sale into an endowed fund.

Planned Parenthood North Central States will continue supporting comprehensive, medically accurate, and inclusive sex education program in Iowa at the same level as was raised by the Book Sale through an endowment fund established by the sale of the warehouse.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. What was Planned Parenthood storing in that warehouse? 747s?

Last edited Thu Oct 5, 2023, 06:19 PM - Edit history (1)

{Edited}

Oh,wait: that’s the 4-H Building at the state fairgrounds in the video and not the warehouse, isn’t it?

Never mind.

[progressoid]

3. LOTS of books. And records, CDs, DVDs, games, etc,

A few years ago it was over 400,000 books. It's one of the largest used book sales in the United States run by volunteers.

This years stats:

– Items for the book sale pack the 41,000 square foot 4-H Building at the Iowa State Fair Grounds.
– 4 semi trailers transport the books and wares from the Jacqueline N. Blank book drop to the sale.
– 12,000 customers from 37 different states and 139 Iowa towns attended the last book sale.
– 800 tables are filled with 200,000 books for each sale—and each sale features a completely new inventory!

[rsdsharp]

4. I remember pulling into the parking lot,

and rolling five bankers boxes full of books through the swinging door onto the rollers of the conveyor belt. I’ve got two more boxes I was going to take to them. When I tried, two blocks of the street leading to the warehouse were torn up — literally — and now it’s too late.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Digital books boom. Hard paper are still around, but not as much.

Surprised though they don't parcel it out in smaller bits and sell them online. Two employees could probably run it from a half dozen storage rooms.

Humor me. As if I know anything about their operation from a short video.

[SharonClark]

5. I'm working two shifts this weekend.

I’ve been shopping and volunteering at the Book Sale since the beginning when my Mom took me on $2-a-bag day. I have friends who have sorted and marked books for decades, they’ll all need to find new hobbies.