Powell’s City of Books Is Reorganizing Its Space

Been in Powell’s City of Books on West Burnside Street recently and felt a little confused by the empty shelves? Don’t worry, the landmark Portland bookstore isn’t going anywhere.

For the past month, the Powell’s crew has been working through a massive cleanup and reorganization, swapping rooms to make more space for increasingly popular genres and regrouping to make the experience more smooth for shoppers.

“Powell’s hasn’t really done any shuffles or remodels in a long, long time,” says Jeremy Solly, Powell’s Books’ director of marketing. “We were really looking at a way for customers to rediscover Powell’s, to have a magical holiday shopping experience. I think a lot of people are yearning for that post-election, and with everything going on with downtown Portland. There’s a big push to drive people back into the things they love doing.”

As part of the push, Powell’s has moved entire rooms (you might’ve noticed a few signs, aside from the bare shelves). Sci-fi, fantasy and romance genres, for instance, are some of the biggest sellers at Powell’s, despite living in the store’s relatively smaller first-floor Gold Room. They will soon be housed on what was the larger, second floor Purple Room. “It’s been a chance for us to expand these categories,” Solly says.

While the color-coded room names are mostly sticking, the Orange Room is being renamed as the Home and Garden Room, now including architecture and decor books (film and TV reads will be moving up to the Pearl Room to make it “all creativity, all the time”). The Home and Garden Room will also include offerings from local business partnerships, like plants from Portland nursery.

The reshuffle isn’t just swapping rooms, but altering space to make Powell’s more inviting to linger in, freshening paint and changing up display flows “to have it be a place people feel relaxed and can come in and take the time,” Solly says.

The team at Powell’s aims to finish the reorganization by the end of November, but the store remains open during the final stretch, and is even kicking off a new rotating holiday pop-up shop on Nov. 15 in partnership with Built Oregon. The pop-ups will feature Built Oregon entrepreneurs like Mr. OK’s Essentials, Chio, Indigenize, How Sweet It Is, and Koa Roots.

There will be other phases of work ahead at Powell’s yet to be fully disclosed.

“Nothing’s going to be going away necessarily, but we’re trying to lean into the experience people want,” Solly says. “Powell’s has always been kind of a living place. We’re just continuing to try to evolve as customers evolve.”