Say it ain’t so, Costco!
The popular discount store chain is throwing in the towel when it comes to reading, as beginning in January the majority of the outlet’s 600+ stores will no longer be selling books. For years, bargain book hunters were able to head to Costco, stock up on toilet paper and canned goods, grab a $1.50 hot dog, all while reading the latest book.
However, beginning in a month, readers will have to turn to Amazon or other stores in order to get their book fix.
COSTCO HAS SOLD BOOKS FOR DECADES
The New York Times reports that Costco had recently alerted book publishers of the major change, citing the fact that it’s more labor-intensive to stock books because it must be done by hand, rather than use a forklift as it does with their other products.
Approximately 500 of Costco’s 600 stores will go book-less except during the end of the year holidays. The move comes as a shock to publishers, who are facing increasing difficulties in trying to sell books in retail stores. For some of literature’s best-selling books, Costco was sometimes responsible for hundreds of thousands of sales of them.
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BOOKS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE DURING HOLIDAYS
It’s an easy place to just grab the latest in a series you’re reading or pick up a book for your kid,” Brenna Connor of Circana US Books told the UK Daily Mail.
Costco shoppers were already high-strung due to shopping cart wars or the retail store’s recent increase in their annual membership to $65 per year. But now getting rid of books? That’s not something that Costco bargain hunters are going to be writing home about.
