Powell's Books
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in the Portland metropolitan area with origins in Chicago, Illinois. Powell's headquarters location, Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. [1]
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Powell's City of Books is located in the Pearl District on the edge of downtown, occupying a full city block between NW 10th and 11th Avenues and between W Burnside and NW Couch Streets. It is open 365 days a year, and contains over 68,000 ft² (6,300 m²) of retail floor space. [1]
The inventory for its retail and online sales is over four million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.[2]; since 2005 it has also offered DVDs, with an inventory of over 40,000, available online only. At its retail stores, it follows the somewhat unusual practice of shelving new and used books side-by-side. It buys around 3000 used books a day.[1]
Powell's has had an Internet presence which began as email- and ftp-based access to its technical bookstore and has since expanded to incorporate fiction and other genres.[3] Their website was established in 1994, before Amazon.com, and has contributed substantially to the chain's recent growth.[4]
The company was founded by Walter Powell in 1971. His son, Michael Powell, had started a bookstore in Chicago, Illinois in 1970 which specializes in used, rare, and discounted books, primarily academic and scholarly. Michael Powell soon joined his father in Portland, leading the expansion business to what it is today.[5]
Powell's is a member of the American Booksellers Association.
[edit] List of locations
In addition to its "City of Books" location, Powell's Books also has several smaller stores:
- a technical bookstore on the North Park Blocks, a few blocks east of the main store
- a 32,500 ft² (3,000 m²) general bookstore with the "largest children's book section of any book store on the West Coast", located at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton and opened in November 2006, replacing a decades-old location near Washington Square less than half its size;[6]
- another in Portland's Hawthorne District;
- a store with cooking and gardening materials two spaces east of the Hawthorne store; and
- three stores at the Portland International Airport, offering popular fiction and non-fiction, "choice" used books, games, toys, and a wide range of gifts.[7]
[edit] Other information
Some of the store's actions have made big news in Portland. When the Oregon Citizens Alliance qualified Ballot Measure 9 in 1992, an anti-gay rights measure, the bookstore actively campaigned against the measure. A few years later, a prolonged labor dispute between Powell's employees and Michael Powell over unionizing the employees tarnished Michael Powell's reputation as a champion of liberal causes.[8] Powells.com is the only major online bookseller to be unionized.
Powell's is a one-time sponsor of Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac.
Since April 2004, wifi has been available in Powell's main store from World Cup Coffee who leases space in the store.[9]
Fans of the bookstore include Chuck Palahniuk[citation needed], Patti Smith[citation needed], Tony Hawk[citation needed], Ursula Le Guin[10], Ralph Nader[11], and Susan Sontag.[10]
Michael Powell announced in June 2006 that he plans to hand over the business at some future date to his daughter, Emily[12].
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Powell's City of Books from the company's website
- ^ Internet Retailer Best of the Web 2006 from Internet Retailer
- ^ History of Powells.com from its website
- ^ Powell's success story, a Portland Tribune article
- ^ History of Powell's Books from the company's website
- ^ Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing from the company's website
- ^ Powell's Books at PDX from the company's website
- ^ Powell's owner and his workers, a Portland Tribune article
- ^ Powell's Books Has Wi-Fi, an AdSense-supported Wifi News website
- ^ a b ...Powell's City of Books is a book lover's bonanza, a March 2003 article from AAA's VIA Magazine
- ^ Powell's in the Press, with a quote from a January 23, 2002 article from The Oregonian
- ^ Powell's in the Press (English). Powell's Books. Retrieved on July 28, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Powell's website, including a tour of the City of Books and a monthly newsletter
- Powell's Bookstores Chicago
- Website for ILWU Local 5, Powell's employee's union
- Seattle Times article (registration required)
- Best of the Web summary from Forbes
