Of the 600 Costco locations across the U.S., 500 will no longer be stocking books year round, starting in January 2025. All locations will continue to carry books during the holiday season, but there will no longer be a dedicated section for books. This decision was made partly because it’s difficult for them to compete with Amazon. Another factor is that books are more labor-intensive, because they have to be stocked by hand, not by fork lift.
While readers may not associate big-box retailers like Costco, Target, and Walmart with book sales, they play a major part in the industry. When a chain like this carries a title, they buy a ton of copies to stock, sometimes in the tens of thousands. That could singlehandedly put a book on the bestseller list. There’s also the factor of exposure: books being stocked in Costco and other big-box stores reach people who don’t visit bookstores and likely would never have heard of the book otherwise.
Costco officials have said this decision may not be permanent: if book sales improve in the remaining 100 locations with year-round stock, they may add more stores to that number. But if sales decline, there will likely be even fewer locations that keep those books in stock year-round.
Find out more about this story at Publishers Weekly and Yahoo!Finance.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.