Powell's Books history

In 1982, 18-year-old Brian left his Appalachian Ohio home, and moved to New York City, where he found community, friendship, and love.

In 1984, Powell's opened its first branch store, in a suburban shopping center named Loehmann's Plaza (later renamed Cascade Plaza), near Washington Square.

A travel bookstore was established in 1985 on Pioneer Courthouse Square, and other stores followed, one a year for the next few years.

The store made its first sale of used books to the Pacific Rim in late 1986 with a large shipment of paperback novels and magazines to the Philippines.

By 1987, with 12,000 to 15,000 books in stock, Powell's Travel Store was meeting initial sales projections of $1,000 a day.

1990: Powell's enlarges its main store to 43,000 square feet.

In 1992, it organized the first major shipment of goods--books&mdashø Vietnam from the United States.

Powell's established its Internet presence in 1993, beginning with email and FTP-based access to its technical bookstore; it has since expanded to incorporate fiction and other genres as a traditional ecommerce site.

Their website was established in 1994, before Amazon.com, and has contributed substantially to the chain's recent growth.

1996: Powells.com becomes the web site for all store inventories.

In September 1998, email from Powell's managers announcing reductions in employee's wage increases prompted the creation of a new organizing committee of 26 employees.

Sales through the company's web site doubled each subsequent year, amounting to a little less than 10 percent of total revenue, or $3.3 million for the year ended June 1999.

For the year ending June 2000, Powell's revenue was $41.8 million.

Yet despite the size of its Internet revenues, Powell's Books' focus remained on used and hard-to-find titles in 2001.

In 2002, Powell's was cited by USA Today as one of America's 10 best bookstores.

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.

In March 2010, Michael Powell confirmed plans to hand over management of the business to his daughter Emily as of July.

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.

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 late 2014 "Powell’s Books Building 2" was closed and the technical books at that location were moved into the main City of Books location.

Following up on 2019’s Go Ahead in the Rain, which was longlisted for the National Book Award, A Little Devil in America is yet another masterpiece.Recommended by Kim T.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Powell's announced the closing of its five locations and the termination of nearly all employees in mid-March 2020.