Powells Books

See http://www.powells.com/. But don't trust their web server to actually have an accurate description of the books they have for sale. If you see one used copy of SmalltalkBestPracticePatterns on the list, chances are it has already sold....

From their web page:

Who are you, anyway? What is Powell's? What's the big deal?

We are the largest used and new bookseller in the world. At the same time, we inhabit only a few locations here in PortlandOregon, so we are still in many ways just your friendly local bookstore.

Powells is huge and rambling and has lots of used books that you won't find all together anywhere else.

If you get anywhere near PortlandOregon, go to Powells. It and TatteredCover? in Denver are my two favorite bookstores anywhere. Before you go in, set yourself an absolute price limit ($500-1000?), then don't exceed it by more than a factor of two. Thank goodness they ship. --KentBeck

Lately (well, OK, a couple of years ago), it was all the rage to disdain Powell's on news:pdx.books. If you are a true literophile or technical reader in PortlandOregon, you have your own favorite little hole-in-the-wall bookstore where you get all your reading needs.

Me, other than for technical books, I find the Beaverton library more than sufficient....

BillTrost

Powells is unique among booksellers in the UnitedStates in that the employees of the store have recently unionized (and are now--12/03--in the process of negotiating the second union contract). I imagine the experience has been interesting (and revealing) for owner MichaelPowell? (long known for liberal political leanings)...at any rate, the union (the ILWU, aka the Longshoremen) is demanding pay and benefits far in excess of what employees at your typical BarnesAndNoble? or Borders make.

Myself, I have mixed feelings. One one hand, I sympathize with the plight of workers in the service industry (having worked at RadioShack in my college days)--it's frequently low-paying work with little benefits, and you often get treated like an idiot (both by customers and by management). On the other hand--the ILWU seems to be intent on killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Rather than making life more difficult for the one union bookstore in town--why not go organize BarnesAndNoble? instead? (If the competition were also organized; Powells would be in a weaker position to resist).

I suspect part of it is the attitude of many Powell's employees--many of them consider themselves as part of the literati, and intellectually superior to the the typical Borders cashier (who, in their view, might as well be flipping hamburgers or slinging coffee at StarBucks?). In other words, the Powells' booksellers are the creme de le creme--and thus ought to command a premium when it comes to pay and workign conditions--and have no reason to make common cause with their brethren in the malls. (Certainly there are some Powell's customers who feel this way regarding the staff there).

If this is true--it is arrogant shortsightedness of the first order. Many labor unions (and industries) have been crushed when one group ignores the multitudes below them (whether doing less-skilled work, or doing it in a foreign country) rather than reaching out to help them.