Powell's Books will hold major warehouse sale to make room for fresh inventory

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Book lovers, start your engines. Throughout the first weekend of June, Powell’s will host its first major warehouse sale in about 20 years.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2, the world’s largest independent bookstore will open its Northwest Portland warehouse's inventory so the public can secure exclusive deals.

The company will offer hardcovers for $3, paperbacks for $2 and mass-market books for $1. There’s also a chance customers can purchase an entire bag of books at a low cost sometime on Sunday.

Chief Executive Officer Patrick Bassett told KOIN 6 Powell’s hasn’t hosted a selling event of this scale in years. That changed during the pandemic, when the store couldn’t update its stock as often.

“I'd say over the last year, we've had a lot of really good inventory coming in, but we lack the shelf space to effectively merchandise,” Bassett said. “We're going to clear the shelves of the old inventory and make room for hopefully a lot of really good inventory that our customers are looking for.”

Along with up to 40,000 discounted books, the event will feature music, food and drinks.

Located around the corner from the warehouse, Great Notion will set up a beer garden. Guilder Cafe — found in Powell’s West Burnside store — will sell coffee and pastries.
Nico’s Ice Cream and Nacheaux will be on site as well.

As the sale is going on, Northwest Marine Artworks will be across the street hosting its open studio with more than 50 artists.

“We're trying to come up with ways to get people to come back downtown and engage with the Powell’s brand, so we wanted to make it a really festive event,” Bassett added.

The bookstore’s warehouse is located at 2720 NW 29th Ave.