Costco maintains book departments in 100 stores year-round

After word spread this spring that Costco was planning to introduce a “holiday season model” in which books would only be sold in the last three months of the year starting in 2025, various sources now say the mass marketer has committed to maintaining bookstore departments year-round 100 of its over 600 locations. The remaining branches will be converted to the September-December bookselling model, and publishers will also have the opportunity to sell promotional pallets in branches. Costco did not comment on the report.

Although overall sales to Costco will almost certainly decline, the news is still a relief for publishers. Costco, along with other mass marketers such as Walmart and Target, have become an important brick-and-mortar outlet for printed books. Not only are they capable of selling tens of thousands of copies of a title, but they also serve as important places for consumers to discover new titles that are not typically sold in other stores and that 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 offer year-round book departments in more stores. However, if sales decline, all book departments across the chain could switch to the Christmas model.

Industry executives recognize that books compete for space with products that are more profitable and easier to store than books. At Costco, for example, sources said that while executives weren’t opposed to keeping book sections, they felt those sections needed to be easier to maintain. In its previous decision to limit book sections in its stores to the holiday season, Costco executives said selling books was too labor-intensive. Publishers hope that 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 and retail world will also be keeping an eye on how Taylor Swift self-publishes her book Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Book sold. The book, which features more than 500 images, goes on sale on Black Friday and will be sold exclusively at Target – while supplies last.