The New York Times reports (gift link) that Costco will stop stocking books regularly in January 2025, except for the holiday season (September through December). Costco’s well-known book buyer, Pennie Clark Ianniciello, departed in 2021, which may have been the beginning of a longer drawdown for the category at Costco. Ianniciello also left around the time Costco launched an audiobook app and started selling digital audiobook bundles, products it has already abandoned.
Prior to the pandemic, book sales through mass merchandisers (which includes stores like Target, Walmart, and Costco) were declining significantly. But publishers saw sales grow at such stores in 2020 and 2021, when other types of retail outlets may have closed or been limited in their ability to fully open. In 2017, BookScan reported 687 million print units sold (sub required); mass merchandisers sold about 13.5 percent of that total.
Costco is known for selling bestselling titles and authors, politically conservative titles, public domain classics, and children’s books—especially value bundles, befitting Costco.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
