A tale of four buyers
Every title that graces The Table is hand-selected
by just four buyers—head buyer Pennie Clark
Ianniciello and assistant book buyers Shana Rawers,
Wendi Wamboldt and Melissa McMeekin, all of
whom are astute, voracious and passionate readers.
Pennie has been Costco’s book buyer for almost
20 years. Together, the team of Shana, Wendi and
Melissa bring another 26 years of publishing experience into the mix.
Things have changed considerably since Pennie
first began in the department in 1989. Although
Costco is now one of the top five booksellers in the
United States, Pennie says, “I remember when publishing houses considered Costco’s book business
ancillary fluff.”
In those days, a good week in Costco meant selling hundreds—occasionally a thousand—books, and
only a limited selection of bestsellers were kept in
stock. Today, Costco moves tens of thousands of books
per week, brings in all the bestsellers—and select other
titles the team chooses—and carves out some of the
deepest savings in the industry for readers.
“There’s no doubt the department adds spice to
the Costco shopping experience, but our primary
focus has always been on savings,” Shana says. “We
never lure members in with a handful of short-lived
specials. Every book at Costco is sold with savings
between 30 to 60 percent off the suggested retail
cover price.”
ALL PHOTOS IRIDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
DIBQUFS J
Selections are skewed toward slightly more
upscale readers, befitting Costco’s membership
demographics. In fact, due to members’ savvy,
trend-setting habit of selecting authors and subjects still under the radar, the buyers consider them
their secret weapon. For example, if vegetarian
cookbooks begin selling rapidly, the buyers notice,
get a jump on other retailers and bring in more.
Magazines sold at Costco have a similar sto-ryline. “We knew there was a savings for members,
but major magazine publishers and distributors
gave us this blank stare, like ‘Costco wants to sell
what?’” says Wendi. “But that look didn’t stay
around for long.” Magazines are now one of the
top-selling categories in the department.
When I mention how the book section at Costco
reminds me of smaller, independent neighborhood
bookstores rather than the mega giants, Pennie
jumps in with a few words about small bookshops:
“I am a big fan of independent bookstores; we
can’t survive without them. They many times start
groundswell. Or sometimes we generate author
excitement and our members visit bookshops to
purchase additional titles. Also, if they’re running
low on their own stock, bookshops are known to
buy off The Table and still make a profit.”
DIBQUFS
Book buyer Pennie Clark
Ianniciello (favorite book of all
time: Wallace Stegner’s Angle
of Repose) predicts that the big
holiday seller in 2008 will be
the 20th-anniversary cloth box
set of Dilbert 2.0 with DVD by
Scott Adams. (For more about
Scott Adams and Dilbert, see
October’s Connection cover
story on costco.com.)
The art of buying books
Over the years, Costco’s book buyers have developed deep and respectful relationships with all the
major publishing houses, including HarperCollins,
DIBQUFS Random House and Penguin Group, as well as hun- dreds of smaller publishers under consideration.
Independent authors are also highly regarded.
I recently sat in on an intense, six-hour HarperCollins book-buying meeting, going over the hundreds of potential titles for 2009. Of course, bestselling author Michael Crichton and others were
discussed and orders placed. But it was the amount
of time spent on regional and local authors,
sleepers and literary
works that other retailers might pass
over that pleased
me the most. If
the team likes
Assistant book buyer Shana Ra wers
(her must-read: The Shack) predicts
that members will love The Snow ball:
Warren Buffett and the Business of
Life by Alice Schroeder.
SEPTEMBER 2008 T he Costco Connection 27
Decisions, decisions, decisions
Similar to the way Costco offers merchandise
throughout the warehouse, book selection is limited
to about 200 titles at a time. And because the team
considers books perishable commodities that can
quickly lose flavor, The Table is a rainbow of constantly changing colors. Space is always left for last-minute drop-in treasures.
Make no mistake: The team is all over The Table
every day. They consider themselves information
maniacs, reading oodles of book reviews daily,
tapping their sources in the publishing trade for
hot tips, reviewing sales data, working their way
through (literally) stacks of books to read and
visiting other retailers—as well as standing in
the warehouse to hear what members are saying.
“One of our favorite things is to help create
a level of local and then national excitement
for a previously unknown book and help propel the author to a bestseller list,” says
Pennie. “This is what occurred with
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain.”
