Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., is permanently closing its Powell's Books for Home & Garden store in southeast Portland, the company announced yesterday. Powell's Books for Home & Garden, which specialized in books on cooking and entertaining, decorating and remodeling, gardening and landscape design, and crafts like knitting, jewelry making and woodworking, is on Hawthorne Boulevard, two doors away from the Powell's Books on Hawthorne store, which will remain open. Powell's Books for Home & Garden has been closed since mid-March because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides Powell's Books on Hawthorne, Powell's operates its flagship Powell's City of Books downtown and has another store in Beaverton. In July, Powell's permanently closed its store at Portland International Airport.
Powell's Books owner and president Emily Powell said, "Powell's Home & Garden store has been an important, and unique, part of our business for many years. Unfortunately it was also an increasingly challenging part of our business as retail continues its evolution. With the onslaught of this year, we simply could not find a way to bring it through 2020 and 2021 and into an unknown future. We are grateful to the customers and employees who made it such a special place for so long, and think with sadness about a Powell's without Home & Garden."
In 2016, Powell's had planned to combine the two locations on Hawthorne Boulevard "to make one enormous store but ultimately withdrew those plans," the Oregonian noted.