Powell’s City of Books, the well-known Portland bookstore that previously banned journalist Andy Ngo’s best-selling book on Antifa, has begun laying off staff as financial struggles deepen. According to an internal email obtained by the Portland Business Journal, 18 positions across departments were cut in July, with more layoffs expected in the coming months.
“We will conduct additional layoffs in phases over the next few months and do our best to manage the impact for everyone involved,” Powell’s owner and president Emily Powell said in the email. Most of the layoffs so far have affected management and business services, and raises for non-union employees have also been frozen.
The bookstore cited ongoing financial difficulties stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, which reduced in-store sales. Powell’s has struggled to recover as downtown Portland continues to face decreased tourism, reduced foot traffic, and competition from online retailers. “While many factors impact our financial health, Portland is simply not where we had hoped it would be in its recovery,” Powell explained. “While online sales are growing, this increase has not made up for the decline at our Portland store.”
In 2021, Powell’s faced controversy when it stopped selling in-store copies of Ngo’s Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy after left-wing extremists pressured the store. Violent Antifa demonstrations even forced Powell’s to temporarily close, citing staff safety. At the time, the bookstore falsely accused Ngo of being a “provocateur who has made a career of inciting violence.”
Ngo, who has been repeatedly assaulted by Antifa for his reporting, reacted to the layoffs on X, saying Powell’s management banned his book because they “didn’t want the public to read and learn about what was causing the decline of the city,” a decline the bookstore now faces itself.
