Books
How Do Publishers Afford Dollar Store Books?
Why good reads are available for low prices
I love books, and I love dollar stores, so this article was inevitable. Though dollar book shopping can be hit or miss, I enjoy checking out the book section to see what I might find.
You can definitely pick up good books in dollar stores. Sometimes the book section might be pretty empty or look like it was hit by a small tornado. Other times it’s as tidy and well-stocked as the shelf of books by the magazines at the grocery store. No matter how the section looks on a given day, you never know what gems might be hiding there.
Varieties of dollar store books
Children’s books are one of the best, most consistent buys at dollar stores. In part, this is because kids’ books are smaller and shorter and cost less to print, bind, etc. As a result, more publishers make books specifically for dollar stores to reach kids and families who shop there.
Adult and teen fiction and nonfiction book selections will depend on what books publishers are clearing out of their warehouses. You can sometimes find great buys for yourself or for gifts. I’ve seen recent novels, cookbooks, graphic novels, memoirs by famous folks, and more.
Religious books, and Bibles, in particular, are routinely good buys as religious publishers have experience in publishing low-cost items that people can afford to give away in ministry work.
Last but not least are activity books, with options for people of all ages, from coloring books to word finds to “paint with water” books. These books are also typically made for the dollar store market. The prices printed on the covers will often be higher than a dollar, but doesn’t that add to your feeling that you found a good buy?
But seriously, how do books end up at the dollar store?
Where I live, we only have Dollar Tree, and at my local store, everything is still $1 (despite news that prices are increasing to $1.25). So how do books with cover prices of $5 or $10 or $20 or more end up for sale for a dollar (or even $1.25)?
There are two main answers: remainders, and books from publishers who deliberately make books for the dollar stores (and other value-centered markets like the Target Bullseye section of discount items).
For her article on dollar store novels for BookRiot, Callie Ryan Brimberry contacted Dollar Tree and learned that “the majority of novels they sell are called ‘remainders,’ the books in stock at the publisher’s warehouse that have not been requested for resale at typical bookstores, like Barnes and Noble, because of a lack of sales, a new edition reprint, or simply because of overstock.”
This goes for hardcover and paperback nonfiction for adults, too, in all kinds of genres, from self-help to business management techniques. Those celebrity biographies from celebs you haven’t heard of? Check.
Dollar stores get remainders at deeply discounted wholesale prices, pass the savings onto consumers, and thus keep some books out of landfills. Many remaindered books will be marked with a line or dot in permanent ink to indicate that they’re remainders and can’t be resold elsewhere as new books.
I also learned from Publishers Weekly about publishers who focus on keeping an ultra-low overhead and developing audience-focused products that will sell a high enough volume of copies at dollar stores where they can make a solid profit over time.
The PW article explained that some well-known publishers like Sesame Workshop develop special product lines for dollar stores because they want “to reach parents and kids wherever they are.”
But there are also publishers who got started specifically to reach the dollar store market: for example, I immediately recognized the name Papp Publishing as their puzzle books are always in stock when I go to Dollar Tree.
It’s pretty impressive to me that publishers can get their margins so low to reach this market. The publisher of Really Big Coloring Book Co. told PW that “he has to sell 14–18 books in a dollar store to earn a net profit equal to the average he normally gets from the sale of one book at most other retailers.”
Something for most readers
Turns out there are active readers who love to score books from dollar stores and then post about them on their blogs and/or YouTube, describing their book hauls and dollar store book collections. Gotta say: I love it.
Last night, I watched a YouTuber, called Anne with a Book, as she determinedly read through a stack of (remaindered) books she bought at the dollar store in order to answer the question, “Are Dollar Tree books even good?”
She had her hesitations going into the project, but she liked some of the books more than she thought she would. She ended up talking about her dollar store books with such interest that she surprised herself when she realized her video had gone on for almost 45 minutes.
In Anne with a Book’s words, “great Dollar Tree books may be rare, but there are some amazing ones you can find there. And it’s only $1!” I think that’s true about books in general — the great ones (in the opinion of each individual reader) are rare, but there are lots of pretty good ones if you look for them.
Why not stock the bookshelf of your favorite niece or nephew or little neighbor? Or if you want to cheer someone who loves to read or loves puzzles or both, you could do a reader’s and/or puzzler’s gift box (the dollar store also sells many snacks that are perfect for reading time).
If you have any dollar store book finds to talk about, please share in the comments. I’d love to hear about your dollar store book experiences.
