Obama inauguration sparks run on newspapers

Judy Go, the manager at B&B Minimart on Crenshaw Boulevard, knows her newspapers might be stolen before she arrives for work and took extra precautions this morning to be sure she had inauguration issues for sale.

In November, the day after Barack Obama was elected president, Go said she came to work and all the Los Angeles Times papers she expected to sell were gone.

“Not even one,” she said.

Go said newspapers are generally stolen “on the big days” but that they are often taken if left outside even on regular days. This morning, Go said, she was hand-delivered the papers.

Across the street at the Liquor Bank, manager Jack Rhee said a handful of people were waiting impatiently for him to open shop at 8 a.m.

“It was crazy,” Rhee said. He said some papers were stolen as he tried to establish order and set a policy of one per customer.

Nearby, off Crenshaw Boulevard, Larry Hughes, 36, sold copies of today's Los Angeles Times for $5 each. He said he woke up early and went to The Times’ downtown office to purchase bundles of copies and had sold about 60 by noon.

Alex Condo, manager of the Mini Market near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Denker Avenue, said none of his papers were stolen this morning. Generally, newspapers are stolen only on the weekend, he said, when the issues are often too large to fit through a slot in the door.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Photo: People line up at the Los Angeles Times to purchase copies of the newspaper the day after the inauguration of President Obama. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times