How Costco Hurts The Book Business

Blockbuster books have led to huge sales this summer at places like Costco and Walmart – as well as smaller bookstores everywhere. But bookstore owners are not smiling. “The major discounting efforts of these non–bookstore chains are not stimulating and growing the market but simply shifting consumer dollars away from bookstores and other potential book sales. Consumers buying a mega–seller at a Walmart will not be discovering a book of promise, as such chains do not invest in authors and non–bestselling books. Bookstores do, and we are losing an opportunity to handsell other good books to these consumers who do not regularly visit and browse in a bookstore.”