After word spread this spring that Costco was planning to implement a “holiday season model,” selling books only in the final three months of the year starting in 2025, various sources now say the mass merchandiser has committed to keeping bookstore sections year-round in 100 of its more than 600 locations. The remaining stores will move to the September-December bookselling model, and publishers will also have the opportunity to sell promotional pallets in stores. Costco had no comment on the report.
While overall sales to Costco will almost certainly decline, the news still comes as a relief to publishers. Costco, along with other mass merchandisers such has Walmart and Target, has become an important bricks-and-mortar outlet for print books. Not only do they have the capability of selling tens-of thousands copies of a title, but they serve as important places for consumers to discover new titles not typically sold in other stores and which can be difficult to find online.
Publishing executives see 2025 as an important year for the future of books at Costco. If sales remain strong and a more user-friendly model is created, Costco could return full-year book sections to more stores. If sales decline, however, book sections across the chain could all move to the holiday season model.
Industry executives acknowledge that books are competing for space against products that can be more profitable and easier to stock than books. At Target, for instance, sources said that while executives are not against keeping book sections, they feel those sections need to be easier to maintain. In making its previous decision to limit book sections in its stores to the holiday season, Target executives said the sale of books was too labor-intensive. Publishers hope the argument that books add something different to the typical product mix combined with solid sales will convince Costco executives to keep books in stock.
Costco executives and other parts of the book publishing-retailing world will also be keeping an eye on how Taylor Swift’s self-published Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour book sells. The book, which features more 500 images, goes on sale Black Friday and will be sold exclusively at Target—while supplies last.
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