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# Shop’s contents to be stored in Long Beach
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/shops-contents-to-be-stored-in-long-beach/
- Published: 2003-02-28T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:41:05.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Special’s Web site. Roughly 150 people turned up to help box books from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday movers took the store’s bookcases and merchandise to a storage facility in Long Beach.

Midnight Special will set up a temporary office to carry on administrative duties while the search continues, said Jason Haldemen, the store’s assistant manager.

Though he said he would like to see the shop stay in Santa Monica, the store’s managers are currently considering locations throughout the Westside.

Bayside District Corporation board members at their meeting Thursday night expressed dismay over the store’s closing and said they hoped to keep Midnight Special in the area.

While Haldemen said he didn’t know where the store would end up, he said there was a common misconception that the store was closing down for good.

“We’re definitely going to have a new place,” he said. “We’re not shutting down and we’re not going out of business.

> “We’re not shutting down and we’re not going out of business. We’ll be back louder and better.” — – JASON HALDEMEN Assistant Manager

“We’ll be back louder and better.” Midnight Special began 32 years ago in Venice by civil rights activists, Ghiz wrote in a press release last summer. By the end of its first year, two of its founders had been arrested and jailed for refusing to give the FBI the names of their friends and customers who were attending anti- Vietnam War meetings.

"A proud beginning!" Ghiz wrote. While chain bookstores carry a large and wide-ranging inventory, Midnight Special focuses on political and social titles. Ghiz wanted to turn the purchase of a book into a political act.

As workmen disassembled the counter and carried bookcases out of the store on Thursday, one reminder of the book store’s spirit remained intact: the “war window” — a collage of community voices, announcements and news clippings protesting a possible military confrontation in the Middle East.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 28, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022803.pdf?ref=smdp.com)