Buying books at Walmart …

• Posted in About Books

So, as some of you know, Spider’s Bite is available at Walmart, so I’ve been checking out my local Walmarts to see if they have they book. Some of them do, some of them don’t. But it’s got me thinking about books and Walmart lately.

I think that if Walmart really wanted to, they could give Amazon and Barnes & Noble a run for their money in the book business. (Or maybe they already do, I don’t know). I never used to look at the books at Walmart. I was there to get groceries or office supplies or whatever — not books.

So you can imagine how surprised I was to discover that most paperbacks are at least $2 cheaper at Walmart than they are at B&N and other bookstores. It’s like a whole new world has opened up to me! I bought Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole at my local Walmart for $5.97, along with The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay. Now, every time I go to Walmart, I swing by the book aisle just to see what they have.

My only complaint? It’s hard to see what they really have or find a specific title that you’re looking for. It seems like the books at Walmart fall into four categories — inspirational, romance, best-sellers, and westerns. (I think they had more westerns at Walmart then I usually see at B&N.) The books are loosely grouped into sections, but within those sections, there’s no real order. All the authors/genres are just jumbled together. I think that if Walmart put in a few more rows of books and had them all organized, that they could really put a hurt on the other book chains. I’d go there if it meant saving $2 on a paperback.

I asked the folks in my local critique group about this, and they said that they all cruise by the book shelf at Walmart on a regular basis just to see what they might have. Looks like I was the only one out of the loop on this. LOL.

What about you guys? Do you ever buy books at Walmart? Why or why not?

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8 Responses to “Buying books at Walmart …”

  1. Jennifer Rayment says:

    Yup, with 2 kids we are usually there at least once every 2 weeks and I always check out the books. Our Walmart has very little in the way of books, but I have least saved some money buying the Bone series of Graphic novels for my 8 yr old. I also check out the book selection at Costco a couple of times a year, since they usually have a bit of a discount.

  2. Jennifer Estep says:

    Some of my local Walmarts have more of a selection than others. The one that I go to all the time seems to be the only one that isn’t carrying Spider’s Bite. LOL.

    No Costcos near me, only Sam’s Clubs. That’s another place I’ll have to check out the books the next time that I’m there …

  3. Susan Helene Gottfried says:

    Wal-Mart heavily influences publishers these days. I have a friend who was told she had to remove a few “damn” references before Wal-Mart would carry her stuff.

    I remain a fan of the indie bookstore…

  5. Melissa B says:

    I’ve bought books at Wal-mart, but do prefer other outlets for books. One they don’t always have what I want, Two, it is hard to find what you want if it is there.

    If you are willing to wait a bit, you can order on-line at the book depository. (https://www.bookdepository.com/). It comes from England, but all shipping is free. Sometimes you can also find a great deal on books. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the big deals on books that they used to have.

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