Costco book sales end: Good news?

If the prospect of Costco stopping selling books in its stores pleases some booksellers, other players in the sector are somewhat disappointed.

• Read also: No more book sales at Costco!

“[Costco] “It's a very big player, and it's an important retailer for a lot of products, and for books as well,” says Natalie Carbono, vice president of communications and marketing at Ricardo Media, in an interview with LCN.

According to her, Costco “allows us to reach customers who are people who don't want to go to a bookstore.”

“We can find people who don't necessarily buy books when they see books [chez Costco]Decide [les] Suitable for that place,” says M^I Carbonneau added that the “very attractive” prices could also convince some customers to buy a book.

But while booksellers are happy that more people are interested in reading, they lament the lack of diversity in the books on offer at Costco.

“In any case, Costco provided a fairly small sample of books, which could be detrimental to biodiversity overall because people who only bought books at Costco only had a very small selection of books produced,” says Elena Laliberte, Costco board member. for production”. Quebec Booksellers Association.

Since easy access to a book at the giant store “breaks attendance habits at bookstores,” companies can hope to increase attendance if Costco puts an end to book sales in its stores.

“This is probably where the damage was the most, because in terms of sales numbers, there was still a decline in recent years and the percentage of sales was lower than in the past,” says Elena Laliberté in an interview. With LCN.

according to New York PostCostco will stop selling books year-round in its U.S. stores, starting in January.

Books will only be sold at certain strategic times of the year.

In Canada, books are still supposed to be sold “at least until the end of 2025,” according to Nathalie Carbonneau.