A Surprisingly Strong Year of Book Sales Continues (publishersweekly.com)

Costco Wholesale Corporation reported net sales of $15.21 billion for the retail month of July, the four weeks ended August 1, 2021, an increase of 16.6 percent from $13.04 billion last year. For the forty-eight weeks ended August 1, 2021, the Company reported net sales of $176.30 billion, an increase of 17.8 percent from $149.66 billion last year.

For the first quarter, net sales were $540.9 million compared to $388.0 million in last year's first quarter. This 39.4% improvement primarily reflects a comparable sales increase of 40.6%, partially offset by 29 permanent store closures since last year's first quarter. The 40.6% comparable sales improvement was driven by an increase in transaction count and higher average dollar sale. Gross margin was $216.6 million, or 40.0% of net sales, compared to $126.8 million, or 32.7% of net sales, in last year's first quarter. The 730-basis point improvement in gross margin rate primarily reflects higher average unit retail and full price sales combined with occupancy leverage that offset elevated raw material and freight costs. At the end of the first quarter, inventories totaled $325.6 million compared to $209.7 million at the end of last year's first quarter. The $115.9 million, or 55.3%, increase from last year's first quarter primarily reflects elevated on-hand inventories to align with higher consumer demand, an increase in in-transit inventories due to extended in-transit times in the global supply chain, strategic investments in basics and replenishment inventories, and higher average unit costs.

Helped by the release of Bob Woodward’s Rage, unit sales of print books jumped 16.4% in the week ended Sept. 19, 2020, over the comparable week in 2019, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Rage was the overall top title in the week, selling sold more than 344,000 copies. Another new release, Blackout by Candance Owens, sold more than 70,000 copies, and total sales in the adult nonfiction segment rose 14.7% over the week ended Sept. 21, 2019. YA fiction continued to benefit from the success of Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer, which sold more than 32,000 copies, helping to give category sales a 44.3% boost. Last year at this time, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was the top YA fiction title, selling more than 7,000 copies, and The Giver by Lois Lowry was second, selling 6,000 copies.