Costco is getting rid of this entire popular section from its stores

Say it ain’t so, Costco!

The popular discount store chain is throwing in the towel when it comes to reading, because starting in January, the majority of the outlet’s 600+ stores will no longer sell books. For years, bargain book hunters were able to go to Costco, stock up on toilet paper and canned goods, grab a $1.50 hot dog, all while reading the latest book.

Starting in a month, however, readers will have to turn to Amazon or other stores to get their book fix.

COSTCO HAS BEEN SELLING BOOKS FOR YEARS

The New York Times writes that Costco had recently warned book publishers about the big change, citing that stocking books is more labor-intensive because it has to be done by hand, rather than using a forklift, as it does with their other products.

About 500 of Costco’s 600 stores will go off-book, except for the end-of-year holidays. The move comes as a shock to the publishers, who are facing increasing difficulties trying to sell books in retail stores. For some of literature’s best-selling books, Costco was sometimes responsible for hundreds of thousands of them in sales.

‘

BOOKS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE DURING HOLIDAYS

It’s an easy place to just grab the latest in a series you’re reading or pick up a book for your child,” Brenna Connor of Circana US Books told the UK Daily Mail.

Costco shoppers were already under a lot of pressure from shopping cart wars or the retailer’s recent increase in their annual membership to $65 a year. But now to get rid of books? It’s nothing Costco bargain hunters will write home about.