Academic

Powells' layoffs

By Tung Yin

One of the best things about Portland has been Powell's Books, which is pretty much the best brick-and-mortar bookstore in the country. It's got new and used books shelved together in a building that takes up an entire city block and has 4 stories.  You need a map to find your way around.

Although I'm price sensitive like most other people, I'm willing to pay a little bit more to support the local economy, etc.  However, I have to admit that most of my book buying tends to be through Amazon.  I must not be that different, given the financial conditions that led Powell's to lay off about 7 percent of its staff.

An example of the challenge that Powell's and other brick-and-mortar stores face: we were there on Saturday and my wife found a cookbook that she was interested in getting.  The problem was that the price of the used copy of that book was something like 10 percent more expensive than a new copy at Amazon!

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).