Because they are capable of moving tens of thousands of copies of books a week, the big-box stores have shaken up the publishing industry. Pennie Clark Ianniciello buys books for Costco and is such an important player in book publishing that the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page feature story on her power and influence. Publishers seek out—and follow—her advice on cover designs and marketing plans. Her monthly “Pennie‘s Pick,” which is sent out to millions of Costco customers, is almost as good as a recommendation from Oprah Winfrey.
The warehouse clubs and discounters—which sell primarily popular fiction, cookbooks, how-to books, and children’s books—treat the printed word just as they would toilet paper or AAA batteries. They buy a relatively few titles—two hundred compared with Barnes & Noble’s two hundred thousand—and keep them on the shelves for about six weeks, then send them back to the publisher if the books aren’t moving.
Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business School Press. Excerpt from Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and its Impact on Consumer Culture by Robert Spector. Copyright 2005 by Robert Spector. All rights reserved.
Posted by Robert Spector at January 25, 2005 8:49 AM