Costco Shoppers to See Book Section Disappear from All Stores
Costco shoppers are in for a surprise as the wholesale retailer has announced that it will stop stocking books all year round from January. The company had been in a long-running battle with Amazon over book selling, which began when the tech giant started selling books online in 1995. As a result, books will no longer be available in Costco stores year-round, but only during the holiday period from September to December, with occasional sales in the remainder of the year.
The move is due to the high cost of staffing required to stock books, according to executives. The extra labor comes from the time it takes to lay out books every Tuesday as new ones are released, as well as returning unsold copies to publishing houses. Given its scale, Costco would often order tens of thousands of copies of a book it was stocking, and for major best sellers, it could stock hundreds of thousands of copies per title.
The decision is a blow to publishers who are battling stagnant sales while increasing numbers of customers are buying books online from sites such as Amazon. Publishers have been struggling to find new ways to reach customers and are now facing a loss of a major outlet for books.
The move comes as Costco has also begun cracking down on its membership policy, enforcing a card scan with identification before being allowed entry. The retailer has also upped its membership prices for the first time in seven years. The standard membership increased by $5, taking it from $60 to $65 a year.
