How the floods helped major bookstore chain BookXcess start a new chapter

What first began as unprecedented bad weather soon took a turn for the worst when heavy downpours led to one of the most disastrous flash floods to have happened in Shah Alam late last year.

Homegrown bookstore chain BookXcess was no exception to the floods, for their warehouse, which housed millions of books to be sold in their retail stores as well as flagship Big Bad Wolf books sales, was also affected.

The tragedy damaged two to three million of their books beyond repair, leaving co-founders Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng to make a tough decision - piling all damaged goods into what they described as “mountains” outside the warehouse to be recycled.

Since Dec 17 2021, both the Big Bad Wolf Books Warehouse and BookXcess @ Wolf House bookstore, which is located in Section 33 of Shah Alam, were submerged in floodwaters for three days.

Total darkness enveloped both places and for the next five days, a generator was used to keep operations running as there was no electricity.

“It was a constant race against time to get our operations up and running,” said Andrew Yap, co-founder of BookXcess.

“It was vital that quality checks towards each pallet of books were inspected quickly to segregate the affected goods before the humidity could ruin further stocks.

Worried that such a traumatic experience might strike again, co-founders Andrew Yap and wife Jacqueline Ng were focused on salvaging the rest of the books they had left.

This had been the case, until they received a call from their security guard at 2am one night.

The guard alerted Andrew to the fact that there were people walking in and out of the warehouse.

Andrew went to the warehouse immediately after the call and noticed a family scavenging for books.

“I told them it was private property, and that they can’t just take the damaged books as they are hazardous to health once the mold sets in,” he said.

The aforementioned family, also victims of the flood from a nearby housing estate, told him that they did not mind drying the books, if it meant that their children would have something to read.

It was disheartening to see, which was why the next step came naturally to Andrew, who began allowing more and more families to come to the warehouse and take what they want.

It was then that a project long overdue began creeping back in his thoughts.

“I thought that this was the best time to kickstart the community library project.

“We started it by giving books to schools that were affected by the floods and lost their libraries as well as communities that have been hit hard,” he told Sinar Daily.

The goal was to build at least 2,000 community libraries nationwide, where residents can go to and borrow books for free at their convenience.

“There is a huge shortage of public libraries in Malaysia and building 2,000 libraries is not easy. However, with the support of our customers, we can make it happen,” he added.

This, said Andrew, was what BookXcess was all about in the first place.

“We want to inculcate a love of reading, but if reading is not made accessible or affordable, how will children develop that habit?

“I hope that our efforts will pay off and create a new generation of readers,” he shared.