PORTLAND — Legal forms and office supplies store Stevens-Ness Law Publishing Co. will close permanently at the end of the year after 100 years doing business in downtown Portland.
Owner Elizabeth Snow-McDougall said the store’s sales plummeted this year as more employees began working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic and downtown businesses had less of a need for office supplies.
Stevens-Ness is two blocks from the Multnomah County Justice Center where protests have taken place routinely since May. The store has been spray-painted and was forced to put boards up after its windows were smashed following protests.
Scores of other businesses have faced similar challenges but Snow-McDougall said it wasn’t the key factor in her decision to close. She said the damage added “insult to injury,” but that the store was already struggling to stay afloat before it was vandalized.
“We’re just another victim of 2020 and the pandemic,” Snow-McDougall said. “Our business relies on people being downtown and purchasing product from us.”
Stevens-Ness will operate as an online-only business through stevensness.com beginning Jan. 1, 2021, continuing to sell digital forms, but no longer publishing paper forms or selling office supplies. The store is offering a 20% discount to customers on everything in stock while it remains open.
A longtime fixture in downtown Portland, Stevens-Ness has been a family-owned and operated business for three generations. Snow-McDougall is the granddaughter of Pat Ness, who founded the legal forms store with Laurence Stevens in 1920. Before the pandemic hit, Stevens-Ness had hoped 2020 would be a celebratory year as it marked its 100th anniversary downtown.
Stevens-Ness thanked customers for their support over the years in a Facebook post announcing the closure last week. They also urged Portlanders to make an effort to shop local and support small businesses struggling to stay afloat amid the pandemic.
“Small local business is the heart of any city,” Snow-McDougall said. “It makes Portland what it is.”
