Powell’s book backlog sale part of Portland store’s ‘spring cleaning’
Published 5:00 am Sunday, May 26, 2024
- Powell's City of Books in Portland is holding a two-day backlog sale at its warehouse. The event is part of an effort to rebalance the company’s inventory and unload books that have been sitting on the shelves for too long.
Powell’s Books built up a backlog of books during the pandemic and will be holding a sale to help unload over 30,000 books at its Northwest Portland warehouse this weekend.
The event will be held at the independent new and used book seller’s warehouse, located at 2720 N.W. 29th Ave., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 1-2. The book sale will feature a variety of genres, from literature to nonfiction and children’s books, at deep discounts — with hardcovers priced at $3, paperbacks for $2 and mass market paperbacks for $1.
It’s the first time the company is holding a sale at its warehouse, according to Powell’s spokesperson Jeremy Solly, who said the event is part of an effort to rebalance the company’s inventory and unload books that have been sitting on the shelves for too long.
He said sale events like these are a “normal part of spring cleaning” for the bookstore and that Powell’s has held similar events in the past. For example, Powell’s hosted what it called the “Square Deal” sale at the Pioneer Courthouse Square roughly 20 years ago, when the company still had its travel bookstore there.
“Over the course of the pandemic, we weren’t cycling our inventory the way we had normally done it,” Solly said. “Now we’re back into getting a lot of good, new books and titles, and we need to make room for them.”
Like many retailers in Portland, Powell’s shut all its stores at the onset of the pandemic. The store closures, which lasted for months, followed by the limited openings through the next year, impacted sales.
Solly said the pandemic disrupted Powell’s ability to cycle out older titles at its stores and warehouses. As a result, “this year’s spring cleaning is larger than anticipated.”
He said the company will be setting up tents that will take over half of the warehouse’s parking lot to make room for over 30,000 books.
Solly said the company also wanted to create the likes of a “block party” setting, so local eateries including Great Notion Brewing, Guilder Cafe, Nacheaux and Nico’s Ice Cream will sell food and drinks.
