In years past, the membership only retailer Costco has been a large seller of books. In fact, for many years Costco was the second largest bookseller in Canada. The companies monthly magazine sent to members had, until 2021 featured a book column penned by Pennie Clark Ianniciello whose column, Pennie’s Pick, could create a bestseller.
It was announced this week in an article in the New York Times, that the retailer will be heavily scaling back, and effectively eliminating nearly all book sales with the exception of children’s holiday titles. They cite ‘selling books is too labor intensive.”
As stated in the NYT article: “Copies have to be laid out by hand, rather than just rolled out on a pallet as other products often are at Costco,” the Times reported. “The constant turnaround of books—new ones come out every Tuesday and the ones that have not sold need to be returned—also created more work.”
Since the book industry has seen the decline and closing of numerous retail outlets, this undoubtedly will impact all book sales.
