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In 1996, Amazon nearly swallowed Powell's Books.
Sometime that year—Michael Powell of the venerable Portland bookstore, doesn't remember so much as which season—Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called a meeting in Seattle. He had a simple but potentially massive proposition. Amazon, then a 2-year-old company that sold only new books, wanted to expand into the used-books market—and Bezos wanted Powell's to be its sole supplier. He estimated it would translate to $200 million in sales annually.
There was a catch.
"The condition was that we couldn't do it under our name," Powell says. "It had to be under the Amazon name. We would in effect have been a warehouse distribution center for Amazon. We wouldn't be Powell's."
Powell, along with three of his employees, spent about five hours with Bezos that day. But it took a fraction of that time to reject the offer. "We discussed it in the car on the way back, and we all chipped in and said it just didn't feel right," Powell says. "Yes, it was a lot of money, but we're proud of who we are. We did not want to share ourselves as some kind of adjunct to another company in Seattle."
"I don't regret the decision," Powell says. "Amazon has proved to be a big and sometimes rather ruthless company. I'm sure at some point they would have decided they wanted a bigger field to plow than what we could provide them, and we'd wake up to discover we were no longer the sole provider."
Amazon has since swelled into the world's largest Internet company, with $75 billion in total yearly revenue, about 7 percent of that from books. And Powell's now sells some used books through Amazon, under its own name. But more than anything, the past 18 years have cemented Powell's as the model for independent bookselling and as one of this city's most important cultural touchstones.
1974: Mt. Hood Freeway Killed
1975: Soccer City, USA | A Vet Shuts Down Nuclear Power
1976: A Home for Refugees | Intel Changes the Economy
1978: Bill Walton Sits Down
1979: Busing Ends in Portland Schools | Oregon Wine Gets Famous
1982: Courts Pave Way for Nudie Bars | The Other Daily Paper Folds
1984: Satyricon's First Show | A Bartender Becomes Mayor | The Air Jordan Saves Nike
1985: First Female Police Chief Ousted | Wieden+Kennedy's Most Important Ad
1986: Dark Horse Comics' First Issue
1988: Inaugural Oregon Brewers' Fest | Rise of Hate Groups
1989: NW Rowhouses Burn | Gus Van Sant's Portland Hits Screen
1990: Our First Great Restaurant | Oregon's Longest Tax Revolt
1991: Cleaning up the Willamette
1995: Bicyclists Sue Portland
1996: Vera Katz Builds a Wall | March to Save City Nightclub | Powell's Rebuffs Amazon
1997: Path Cleared for Pearl District
1999: Stumptown Coffee Opens | Fight Club Hits DVD
2000: Largest Union Pension Fraud Ever
2003: Fred Meets Carrie | Suicide of Elliott Smith
2004: Gay Marriage Legalized (Briefly) | Goldschmidt Exposed | Eastside Portland Rises
2006: The Death of James Chasse Jr.
2008: Our Fanciest Restaurant Ever Bombs
2009: Sam Adams Admits Lying
2011: Occupy Portland
WWeek 2015