Powell's New Beaverton Store -- Twice as Nice

On Friday, November 17, Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon, celebrated the grand opening of its new store in the recently renovated Cedar Hills Crossing shopping center in Beaverton. Hundreds of customers attended the opening, which included a reception and an author reading with Mireille Guiliano. The 32,500-square foot space is approximately double the size of Powell's previous Beaverton location at Cascade Plaza.

"We were scurrying to get everything together in the last 48 hours before opening," said Powell's marketing manager Michal Drannen, "but it was phenomenal. We had a great turnout." Approximately 200 people came for the event featuring Guiliano (French Women for All Seasons, Knopf), and an additional several hundred people were "just milling around and checking things out," he added. Powell's served hors d'oeuvres, sweets, and sparkling apple cider to celebrate.

The new location differs from the previous one in more than just size. "Atmospherically, the feel of the space is vastly different," Drannen said. "We've got 25-foot ceilings in some areas. We've got a lot more seating -- lots of large, leather club chairs -- skylights in a large number of areas. Aisles are carpeted. We've really tried to warm the atmosphere up." Another bonus, noted Drannen, was that in addition to the seating area of the events space, which has room for 200 to 300 people, there was an overflow space that could accommodate 300 to 400 more.

Powell's, founded in 1971, currently includes four general bookstores and two specialty stores. Powells.com, which started selling books online in 1994, offers the combined inventory of its six retail locations and five warehouses -- approximately four million books in all. --Karen Schechner