Costco Is Dropping This Specific Item From Its Shelves

Starting in January, Costco won’t be selling books year-round at most of its locations. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman reports.

Transcript

00:00Your local Costco may soon be removing books from its shelves.

00:03The New York Times reported in June that starting in January,

00:06the company would move to a seasonal model for books,

00:09selling them only in September through December for the holiday season.

00:12Company executives told the Times that stocking books is too labor-intensive.

00:17This could be a blow to the publishing industry.

00:19Brenna Connor, U.S. books director at market research firm Circana,

00:22told the Times that big-box stores are

00:25an easy place to just grab the latest in a series you're reading

00:28or pick up a book for your kid.

00:29They are important for the book market overall.

00:32This transition won't be completely abrupt.

00:34The Times says locations in some markets like Alaska and Hawaii

00:38have already dropped books.

00:39And Publishers Weekly now says that 100 of Costco's 600 locations

00:43will keep books on the shelves year-round.

00:45Yahoo Finance reports that those locations' sales could determine

00:49whether that number goes up or down in the future.

00:51And the book section's fate could also depend on Taylor Swift.

00:55Publishers Weekly reports that the book retail industry

00:57will be closely monitoring sales of the pop star's book Taylor Swift The Era's Tour,

01:02available exclusively at Target.