Costco (COST) is making a major change in its stores that bookworms may not like. The warehouse club has reportedly decided to stop selling books year-round and will only sell them during the holiday season, according to a new report from The New York Times.
Costco executives revealed in the report that the retailer will solely restock book shelves between September and December every year. The change already took effect in Alaska and Hawaii and will roll out across the rest of the nation next year in January.
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The report also states that Costco will sell “some books” from “time to time,” but won’t be stocking shelves consistently. The change is reportedly the result of the amount of time it takes for staff to stock stores with new books every week by hand and return the ones that did not sell.
Some consumers took to Reddit to express their disappointment with the company’s recent decision.
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“That blows. I really depended on them for big releases at way under cover price,” wrote one Reddit user.
“I buy books there every couple of weeks at minimum,” wrote another Reddit user. “They don’t always have the best titles but they usually have new releases that I want to read. This news makes me sad.”
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Despite the rise of digital books over the past decade, a high amount of Americans are still reading physical books. According to a recent survey by YouGov, 42% of U.S. adults read physical books in 2023, while 21% said they read digital books and 19% said they listened to audiobooks.
It is no surprise that Costco is opting to sell books during the holiday season as book sales have historically been higher during that time of year. According to data from Statista, 20% to 30% of consumers typically purchase books as presents during the holidays.
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The move from Costco to restrict when it sells books in its stores comes at a time when the company reported on June 5 an increase in net sales for the month of May. In the report it revealed that its sales increased by 8.1% in May compared to the same month last year. In the U.S., its comparable sales also increased by 5.8%.
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