Costco is adding an audiobook app as a new perk for members ahead of an anticipated price hike
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- Costco started selling audiobooks and launched an app for listening.
- Audiobooks are sold in bundles to members at discounted rates.
- The new perk comes soon after experts predicted a potential price hike for memberships.
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Costco recently launched an audiobook store and a free iOS and Android app to listen to purchases, Good EReader reported.
So far the retailer appears to only be selling bundles of audiobooks grouped by author or genre, including books by Gillian Flynn, classics, and biographies of famous figures. Bundles range in price from about $5 to $50, although most are between $15 and $25.
The app itself is free, but all book deals are exclusive to Costco members. The membership allows Costco to prices its books much lower than competitors; for example, a bundle of the first three "Outlander" books is $29.99 at Costco. The first book alone is $34.99 at Amazon's Audible.
Buyers also must live in the US, because Costco has not yet launched the store in Canada.
The new perk comes as Costco is expected to raise membership prices for the first time in years, according to a Wells Fargo analyst. The big box retailer last raised prices in 2017, adding $5 to basic memberships and $10 to executive memberships, which are currently priced at $60 and $120 per year.
As of February, Costco had 108 million members, so even a minor increase could have huge effects on the company's profits. Analysts expect the price increase to hit members in Europe first, and then come to the US in 2022
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