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