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Powell's Books is a chain of
bookstores Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The foundi ...
, based in Portland,
Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
. Their flagship store, dubbed Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. In addition to Powell's City of Books, Powell's currently operates three other Portland area stores, as well as a satellite store in the town of Condon.


History


20th century

Walter Powell founded Powell's in 1971. His son, Michael Powell, had started a bookstore in
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, in 1970 which specialized in used, rare, and discounted books, primarily of an academic and scholarly nature. In 1979, Michael Powell joined his father in Portland, right after his father's store was not offered a lease renewal; within a year, they found the location that became its current headquarters. Michael bought the bookstore from his father in 1982. In 1984,Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
from the company's website. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
"Loehmann's Plaza gains 85 percent occupancy". (November 25, 1984). ''The Sunday Oregonian'', p. D11. Powell's opened its first branch store, in a suburban shopping center named Loehmann's Plaza (later renamed Cascade Plaza),"Beaverton retail mall rechristened". (June 2, 1987). ''The Oregonian'', p. D8. near Washington Square. The new branch was not a replica of its City of Books location; Powell was concerned that the "edgy" neighborhood of its headquarters location was limiting its customer base, so the new store was "fairly fancy" with white shelving, a tile floor, and banners over the aisles. It was also four times the size of the typical chain bookstore. A travel bookstore was established in 1985 on Pioneer Courthouse Square, and other stores followed, one a year for the next few years. By the early 1990s, Powell's bookstores were part of the resurgence of the
independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...
, which collectively made 32 percent of book sales in the U.S. The travel store closed in 2005.Nkrumah, Wade (February 7, 2005). "Food carts at Pioneer Square may be ousted". ''The Oregonian'', p. C1. Powell's established its Internet presence in 1993, beginning with email and
FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and dat ...
-based access to its technical bookstore; it has since expanded to incorporate fiction and other genres as a traditional
ecommerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile comm ...
site. Their website was established in 1994, before
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, and has contributed substantially to the chain's recent growth. The City of Books location grew to its current size after an expansion that opened in 1999; it included a new entrance facing the Pearl District which featured the "Pillar of Books", a Tenino sandstone carving depicting a stack of eight of the world's great books, on a base with the inscription "Buy the book, read the book, enjoy the book, sell the book" in Latin. For the year ending June 2000, Powell's revenue was $41.8 million.Powell's Books, Inc.
from fundinguniverse.com


21st century

In 2002, Powell's was cited by ''
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'' as one of America's 10 best bookstores.''USA Today'', January 21, 2002
"10 Great Places to Crawl Between the Covers"
Retrieved 2016-06-18.
In January 2008, Powell's announced plans to expand the downtown City of Books by adding as many as two floors to the store's southeast corner. The expansion was due to add at least of new retail space. Plans submitted to the Portland Design Commission in November 2008 called for a rooftop garden atop the new addition and an "art cube" over a redesigned main entrance. In March 2010, Michael Powell confirmed plans to hand over management of the business to his daughter Emily as of July. That same month, Powell's announced it would close its technical bookstore on the North Park Blocks, moving its sections on math, science, computing, engineering, construction, and transportation into "Powell's Books Building 2" at the corner of 10th and Couch Street, near the main City of Books location. The consolidation was in response to a five-year decline in
brick-and-mortar Brick and mortar (or B&M) is an organization or business with a physical presence in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases retail shops, factory produc ...
sales of technical books in favor of online sales. In October 2010, Powell's announced it had bought 7,000 books from the library of author
Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing ''The Vampire Chronicles''. She later adapted t ...
; Powell's offered these association copies on their website. The bookstore was revealed as a charter member of the
Google eBooks Google Play Books, formerly Google eBooks, is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five million ...
service when the news was announced by Google on December 6, 2010. In June 2011, Powell's participated in Google Offers during that service's first month of operation; according to
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—which characterized Powell's as a "Portland institution"—"5,000 Powell’s vouchers sold out in a matter of hours", making it "most popular deal in the month." Starting in May 2012, Powell's began offering access to print on demand books via the Espresso Book Machine. In early 2013, Emily Powell announced that Miriam Sontz, the company's chief operating officer, would take over as chief executive officer. In 2016, CNN rated it one of the "coolest" bookstores in the world. CEO Miriam Sontz retired in January 2019. Patrick Bassett, a veteran business consultant, is the CEO since October 2020. Emily Powell remains president and owner. In 2024, Powell's held its first-ever used book sale out of its Northwest Portland warehouse, drawing over 10,000 attendees, some reporting wait times of over four or five hours to get in. In June 2025, Powell's announced an intention to hold a second annual sale in July 2025..


Logos

File:PowellsBooksLogoOld1.png, Pre–2005 File:PowellsBooksLogo2000s.png, 2005–2013 File:PowellsBooksLogo2013-14.png, 2013–2014 File:Powell's City of Books (logo).png, 2014–present


Locations


Powell's City of Books

Powell's flagship store, dubbed Powell's City of Books, is located in the Pearl District on the edge of
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
and occupies a full
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. In a city with a grid system, the block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are th ...
between NW 10th and 11th Avenues and between W. Burnside and NW Couch Streets. It contains over , about 1.6 acres, of retail floor space. The City of Books has nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500 different sections. The inventory for its retail and online sales is over four million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books. As of 2009, Powell's was buying around 3,000 used books a day.


Former locations

In the 1980s, Powell's had a location across from Washington Square Mall in Tigard. This was the chain's second location. This location was eventually replaced by their Cedar Hills Crossing location. From 1985 to 2005, Powell's operated a travel bookstore in Downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Powell's formerly operated two specialty locations. Powell's Technical Books, which contained books on math, science, computing, engineering, construction, and transportation, was located adjacent to their flagship store in Downtown. Powell's Books for Home & Garden was located adjacent to the Hawthorne store. Both locations were closed, in 2010 and 2020, respectively, due to decreasing in-person sales of these types of books. Their collections were consolidated into the other locations.


Labor relations

In 1991, following some post-holiday lay-offs, some of Powell's employees formed an organizing committee, seeking to become part of the Oregon Public Employees Union (OPEU). They succeeded in getting more than 35% of the workers to sign union cards, but because less than 65% of them had done so—the OPEU's suggested threshold—they decided not to file for a union certification election.ILWU Local 5: A Brief History of Local 5: Powell’s Books, Inc.
from the ILWU Local 5 website
In response to issues identified by the organizing employees, Powell's updated and expanded its employee handbook in April 1992 with changes that addressed processes for problem solving and grievances, the probation and termination procedure, and other employee assistance, among other changes. In September 1998, an email from Powell's managers announcing reductions in employee's wage increases prompted the creation of a new organizing committee of 26 employees. They chose the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) because they could charter their own self-governing
local union A local union (often shortened to local), in North America, or union branch (known as a lodge in some unions), in the United Kingdom and other countries, is a local branch (or chapter) of a usually national trade union. The terms used for sub-bran ...
which would include about 350 employees serving in a variety of jobs in all stores and in the Internet, corporate, and shipping departments. By March 1999, they had filed for a union certification election with the
National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
. A month later, by a vote of 161–155, ILWU Local 5 became official. In September 1999, ILWU Local 5 met for the first time with Powell's management, to begin the contract bargaining process. After some early successes, 2000 saw a slowdown in the discussions, followed by rallies, filings of
unfair labor practice An unfair labor practice (ULP) in United States labor law refers to certain actions taken by employers or unions that violate the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 449) (also known as the NLRA and the Wagner Act after NY Senator ...
s, an unsuccessful decertification campaign, a one-day shutdown of the shipping department (accompanied by the slashing of a van's tire), and federal mediation. A three-year contract was finally announced in August 2000. In February 2011, Powell's announced the layoffs of 31 employees, over 7% of its unionized workforce, in “response to the unprecedented, rapidly changing nature of the book industry." It was the first round of layoffs since the store's workers formed a union. A union representative said that Powell's had reduced its workforce by about 40 in the prior year through attrition, but felt that layoffs were still necessary because of a decline in sales of new books and a rise in health care costs. In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Powell's announced the closing of its five locations and the termination of nearly all employees in mid-March 2020. CEO Emily Powell did not provide the precise number of layoffs in the letter she released on March 17, 2020. However, roughly 85% of the 400 members of the company's unionized workforce were terminated. The union noted that only 49 of the more than 100 former employees were union-represented, and the remaining managers were now performing front-line duties typically performed by represented employees. This was in response to a large surge in online orders. In July 2020, Powell's announced that the store and kiosk in the Portland International Airport would remain closed permanently. As Powell's gradually began re-hiring staff beginning in April 2021, former employees were forced to apply for open positions as new employees. Powell's claimed that their right to return to their old jobs had expired, and an agreement to extend those rights (and maintain previous pay levels) had not been reached between Powell's and the union. The majority of hired staff have been previous employees. Powell's employees went on a strike, and the store was closed on Labor Day, September 4, 2023.


See also

* Cameron's Books and Magazines


References


External links


Powell's website
including

{{Authority control 1971 establishments in Oregon American companies established in 1971 Antiquarian booksellers Book selling websites Bookstores established in the 20th century Companies based in Portland, Oregon Ebook suppliers Independent bookstores of the United States Internet properties established in 1993 Online retailers of the United States Pearl District, Portland, Oregon Privately held companies based in Oregon Retail companies established in 1971