The Bookmans on Grant Road and Campbell Avenue–rumored to be moving–is in fact staying put, according to this here press release:

Bookmans Entertainment Exchange signed a lease agreement retaining its current location at 1930 E. Grant Road at Campbell Avenue. Previously there was question that the corner location would be slated for re-development, however the new lease option secures that the city landmark will stay put through 2013. Bookmans on Grant averages 1,800 customers a day, more than 670,000 every year.

“It is great news for us, and great for our customers who were concerned that we may need to relocate,” said Sean Feeney, Bookmans executive vice president. “We have a steady stream of regular customers who have come to this location to read, listen to music, and use our community room for events for more than 20 years.”

The Grant location opened in September1976, and since that time the local chain of used books, music, movies, electronics and free wi-fi has grown to six locations in Tucson, Flagstaff, Mesa, and Phoenix.

This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2007.

8 replies on “Grant/Campbell Bookmans Staying Put”

  1. Thanks for relaying some good news, Boegle! That Bookmans location has actually turned out to be an unintentional example of effective, heavy-traffic commercial re-development that did not wreck surrounding residential neighborhoods. Sets an example.

  2. Correction: Bookmans has been at Grant & Campbell since April 1, 1987. Before that it was located on Broadway. You’d think the person who proofed this would have caught that before sending it out, right? Sorry for any confusion and thanks for spreading the word.

  3. Seems good that it stayed — rumors it was going to get punted out had been swirling around since 2003/2004 (IIRC). This also bodes potentially well for the historic Catalina Theater, closed since May 2006, which IIRC was under threat as part of the redevelopment of that corner. By not knocking out the Walgreen’s/Bookmans, that means the space taken up by the theater is not nearly as useful.

    A discussed idea to place a Bookmans downtown was aborted last winter.

  4. Yes, Heather Cordova, you make the good point that Red Star intentionally passed over in comment #1 in order to make the larger point. It’s true that the original “Bookmans” was located at the SE corner of Tucson and Broadway in what went on to be torn down and rebuilt as a DeConcini law office. There were lots of old moldy National Geographics there for Red Star to flip through and even orange bookshelves and Red Star, new in town, a rake, a tall glass, but following specific volume and edition in Roman Numerals instructions, was eventually told by the girl clerk, “Oh.”

  6. I love Bookman’s. I used to find great records there, like the soundtrack to “Tron” and lots of strange records that I still own. I also used to find school texts there, mysteries, classics, weird counter-culture and art books, etc. I probably still own most of the stuff I got there.

    A good low-budget evening would consist of going to Bookman’s to look around, then head to Walgreen’s to get some snacks like trail mix, which would then be snuck into Catalina Theater to see the inviting combination of mainstream and artsy films they played there. (Sorry, Catalina, for not spending more money on your concessions….I was dirt poor.)

    A woman by the name of Victoria Galloway used to work there. Anybody know what happened to her? We went out once on a very unusual date. She was the coolest woman. She used to work the door of the U-of-A student union art gallery, clicking people in. She had bleached hair and thick boots and was the ideal Goth fantasy girl. Her equally likeable sister, Valerie Galloway, used to do Gothy photos for Doc Martens ads that appeared in the Tucson Weekly. I think there might have been another sister lurking around somewhere, possibly also with a “V” name.

    I used to know a guy named Billy Maytorena who also worked there. He drove a VW bug and had an unusual nervous laugh. We would drive past the graveyards on Oracle and the rule was you had to hold your breath the entire time you were going by. I am not sure we ever made it, because his VW was pretty slow. What ever happened to all these people?

  7. I was disappointed when Bookmans (officially, it no longer has an apostrophe) moved out of its old rabbit warren into that former supermarket on Grant. The atmosphere is now all wrong–too bright and open. A friend of mine who worked at Bookmans in the 1970s (when it was still Bookman’s) objected to the new building because it lacked a mezzanine. “Every good bookstore that size has to have a mezzanine,” he maintained. Maybe now he buys his stuff at the Barnes & Noble at Foothills Mall.

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