Powell’s Book was started by Walter Powell in 1971. His son, Michael Powell, had started a bookstore in Chicago, Illinois, in 1970. The bookstore sold used, rare, and discounted books of the scholarly variety. In 1979, Michael would join his father in Portland after his father’s store lost his lease. In 1984, Powell’s would open their first branch store in Loehmann’s Plaza. now known as Cascade’s Plaza (near Washington Square). There are 5 locations in total, with 4 of them being full-service locations, and 1 of them being a specialty bookstore. The product offerings of this business are new books, used books/rare books, eBooks and Google eBooks, magazines, cards, and sidelines. In several bookstores there are also Starbucks/coffee stores,
