1005 W Burnside St, Portland, OR | Map it
97209 45.523100 -122.681701(503) 228-4651 | View Website
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I love this bookstore. So fun to walk around and pretty good deals on used books! Very, Portland!
This legendary indie bookstore boasts 68,000 sq ft of bookshelves. There's even a free map to help you navigate it. Lots of in-store events.
12 color coded rooms each overflowing with old & new titles. Excellent helpful staff, accessible at every corner. Both kids & adults love it
Truely a great bookstore!. Still hanging on to this uncomfortable encounter years later? Must have been a bad day for both of you. I have had so many wonderful experiences at Powells City of Books that I can't even count them. I have both bought and sold books over the years and have never experienced anything like what you have described above. Maybe everyone there does not walk around with a false smile on their face but once engaged I have found everyone to be helpful. At times they may not have known everything about the millions of books on their shelves but who in their right mind would expect them to? They must have hundreds of people working there and the odds of coming across someone who is also having a bad day is pretty good. Like energy attracts like energy I for one never expect a sales person to be responsible for how I feel after our encounter. I think Eleanor Roosevelt put it best when she said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Let it go.…
SNIDE, SNOTTY, DISRESPECTFUL AND NASTY.
Say you clean out your house and decide to sell your books to Powells. Not a good idea unless you want to give away the only valuable books and take the rest home as well as endure a total lack of
respect.
We gave away 75 boxes of books rather than put up with the stuff we had to endure a couple years ago, and in fact have never crossed Powells doors again.
Why? We had cleaned out a large number of books from our then vast collection of literary, language and unusual books. We took about 6 boxes down and were interested that they scanned every one and took approx. 1/6 of the group. We donated the rest to the Goodwill.
The next day we returned with more books, the rest of our downsizing and were accused of being book scouts. It was a very nasty encounter. We took all with us and never returned again.
I have heard that a lot of the big bookstores have closed. We used to be regular customers, averaging purchases of 5-8 books a month. Now we never go anywhere where people make you feel bad.
I agree totally with the review that tells about the anti-establishment attitude. Only thing is we are pretty anti-establishment, at least not wearing suits or expensive clothes, and they treat people like us just as badly as they did that person.
I give Powells a deserved one star.…
