All year round, Richard Hétu and Yves Boisvert keep us informed about the American elections in a newsletter sent on Tuesdays. Their texts are then included in The Press+Wednesday.
Posted at 1:03 a.m.
Updated at 7:00 a.m.
(Portland, Oregon) Dan Horowitz comes to see the bookseller in the “gold” section. This is where we find thrillers, horror and science fiction books.
“I’m looking for books by Sinemon… Wait, no, Simenon. I have trouble with that name, there was a detox program called Synanon…
– First name ? »
He is looking. I whisper to him: “Georges”.
PHOTO YVES BOISVERT, THE PRESS
Dan Horowitz, books in hand
The bookseller goes into a section and returns with five used books. The reader examines them, rejects the $30 one, takes two for $10. Happy.
You can find everything at the Powell “city of books”, which prides itself on being the largest independent bookstore in the world. Including an indomitable spirit of independence and resistance.
The place, housed in a former car dealership for 53 years, is an incredible labyrinthine temple to the glory of books. Here, we do not discriminate between new and used: we classify them by genre. The plywood shelves line up in sections of colors – pearl, purple, red, pink…
Without the plan, we get lost. The best is therefore not to follow the plan, and to get lost between the recommendations of booksellers on the cards, the lists of bestsellers, the written recommendations of readers… I grabbed hold of the Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America (Practical guide to the stupid birds of North America), number 1 in the “Nature” section, and a history of the beaver, this “strange rodent that conquered America”.
Here, here The Orange Groveby Larry Tremblay…
The history of this bookstore is no less strange than that of the beaver. It began in 1970, when a student at the University of Chicago decided to open a used bookstore in that city. Michael Powell may be passionate, but he’s not full of energy. Friends, including the future Nobel literature winner Saul Bellow, advanced him $3,000. After two months, he repays them because he is so successful.
Across the country, right here in Portland, his father thinks this book business looks like it’s paying off. He started Powell’s City of Books, also an instant success. Now Michael’s daughter, Emily, is the boss.
PHOTO YVES BOISVERT, THE PRESS
Shelves (well stocked) at the Powell bookstore
And it was she, in 2020, who decided to send Amazon packing. She has nothing against online sales – although nothing replaces the sensuality of browsing in a bookstore. But she has decided to no longer sell her books through Amazon, as the bookstore did before, and as many independents are more or less forced to do. Which means losing a big slice of the revenue pie.
Powell has his own site. There we find the section Resist Amazon : “Browse Powell’s directory of books to learn how to stop using Amazon and support a healthy, ethical business.”
Amazon was barely two years old, in 1996, when Jeff Bezos tried to convince the Powells to become his purveyor of used books. They refused.
In 2016, Amazon opened its own bookstore in Portland. It didn’t go over well with many Portlanders, for whom Powell is downtown’s most vital business.
There was the pandemic, which forced temporary closure and mass layoffs. At the time, when it came to online sales, Powell felt he had no choice: Amazon’s position was so dominant that it was better to join than to perish.
But in August 2020, Emily Powell severed ties with a bang. “It’s as hard as quitting smoking,” Emily Powell told media at the time. “We know we shouldn’t do it, but we feel like we can’t do without it, for fear of seeing sales decline. We could not envisage losing this sales channel. »
“We have watched passively for too long as neighborhoods and small businesses were destroyed. We decided to take a stand. »
In 2022, Amazon announced the closure of all its bookstores and other physical businesses in the United States.
The Powell Bookstore, with its million books stored in 3,500 subsections, is itself in a unique position to face this giant. She was not immune to criticism: a long labor dispute was resolved in December.
But the company was not content to surf on the sentimental attachment of bibliophiles. In this cultural institution open 365 days a year, we also offer entertainment. There are meetings with authors every day, and two or three at the weekend. The two I attended were full houses – a good hundred people.
“Do you ever find yourself unable to find a book, Madam Bookseller?
“Never,” she told me with a mixture of pride and bad faith. »
The independent bookstore has not said its last word in this country.
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Photo of the week
PHOTO MICHAEL NOBLE JR., THE NEW YORK TIMES
Scene of destruction in Sulfur, Oklahoma on April 28
A second tornado in five weeks struck the same Oklahoma town. The storms moved across Oklahoma as some areas, including Sulfur and Holdenville, were barely recovering from a tornado that killed four people and left thousands without power late last month.
