Earthquake Shakes Seattle's Retailers

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 3/12/2001

SEATTLE -CE retailers with storefronts and operations here reported minor damage in the wake of this month's 6.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the Pacific Northwest.

Headquarters of Magnolia Hi-Fi and Amazon.com, which are both based here, sustained minor structural damage, spokespersons said, while Good Guys was forced to close its Tukwila, Wash., store due to damage at the shopping center where it is located. Magnolia's stores remained intact, and no injuries were reported at any of the sites.

Four of Circuit City's nine Seattle stores experienced minor damage and opened late the next day after passing safety inspections. No one was injured, and there was no significant damage to merchandise, a spokesman reported.

Aside from a brief power outage and some fallen merchandise, Best Buy's two Seattle stores were unaffected by the quake, a spokeswoman said, and in fact, experienced a run on power-related products such as surge protectors and batteries.

An Amazon.com spokesman said the e-tailer's servers and regional warehouse were unaffected by the quake, and that the site was up and running throughout the event. Amazon's headquarters office reopened the next day.