Powell’s Books has permanently closed its Home & Garden store on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, another casualty of the coronavirus recession.
The bookstore announced the closure Thursday, noting the ongoing uncertainty triggered by the pandemic. Powell’s closed its branch at Portland International Airport in July but its three main stores – in Beaverton, downtown and on Hawthorne – are all back open.
The Home & Garden store, just a couple doors down from its regular Hawthorne store, stocked books and knickknacks devoted to cooking, gardening and other domestic arts. In 2016 the bookstore had planned to combine the two locations to make one enormous store but ultimately withdrew those plans.
Dozens of prominent restaurants and several neighborhood retailers have closed during the pandemic and, with new orders in place limiting in-person dining and the number of people who can be inside a store, more closures are surely in the offing.
Emily Powell, the bookstore’s owner and president, said Monday that the Home & Garden store represents a particular loss.
“It’s very sad. Part of what we loved about that store, and about bookselling in general, was it allowed us to be very specific to the Portland community.…It allowed us to stretch ourselves and sell something a little different,” Powell said.
Oregonian books editor Amy Wang contributed to this report.
— Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
