Episode 67: Merchandising Insights from Books-A-Million’s Kathy Gagliano

Joshua Tallent

Welcome to the Booksmarts podcast, where we talk about publishing data and technologies, and send you away with insights that will help you sell more books. I'm your host, Joshua Tallent.

So, this month on the Booksmarts podcast, I'm chatting with Kathy Gagliano, who is the executive vice president of merchandising at Books-A-Million. Kathy joined the company in 2007, and she has served in various positions within that merchandising group since that time. For those who may not know much about Books-A-Million, it was founded in 1917 as a street corner newsstand in Florence, Alabama, and has grown to become America's second-largest book retailer. They also have 220 stores across 32 states and are growing quickly. So, Kathy, thanks for joining the program.

Kathy Gagliano

Thanks, Joshua. I'm delighted to be here and talking with you today.

Joshua Tallent

I appreciate you coming on. It's nice to talk to a bookseller. I don't have that opportunity very often because there's not a lot around anymore. There's quite a few that have shut down over the years. You know, Borders went out of business, and Lifeway Christian Stores, and some others. But the ones that have stuck around—you know, Books-A-Million especially—have found a niche and have found success, and that's something that's commendable, and something I think we should definitely know more about in the industry.

Here on the Booksmarts podcast, we talk about technology a lot, so talking to a retailer, and especially a merchandising expert at a retailer, is a little different, which I think is great. I want to dig in a little bit with your thoughts on how the industry is doing. How is book publishing doing? There are a lot of changes that always happen in book publishing, and we're coming out of COVID in the last couple of years—I guess five years or so here. What are you seeing? What do you think is the growth in the book industry? Where are you seeing the pros and the cons, the good and the bad, and what do you think Books-A-Million can do to help publishers engage with that change?

Kathy Gagliano

You know, there has been so much change really since 2020 with COVID and what we experienced then. Bigger picture, first of all, I would say we've seen a dramatic change in who the customer is that is really driving book sales. Pre-COVID, it was very much a 40-year-old-plus customer, primarily female-driven, that was in our stores. During the COVID time period, with all of us being shut away in our homes, we were looking for content, and we really saw a much younger customer emerge. That customer has become sticky, much to our delight. By younger customers, I would say we're in the 18 up to 40 demographic that really has fueled a real renaissance in the bookstore.

The other piece of that goes back to our origin story with Books-A-Million. We were founded to serve a community that was looking for news of home, because people were coming into Florence, Alabama, to build the TVA dam—they were coming to build the Wilson Dam from all over the country. So, we were founded on the newspaper and broadsheet business. We still exist today to serve all the communities that we're involved in across the nation. Many communities we've been in for a number of years, but that community story is really at the heart of what is driving bookstore growth across the country, whether it be the independents or retail chains. That community went viral online with BookTok and social media. Whether you're in an individual store or part of a bigger community online, it is a big part of the whole evolution we've seen and the growth we're seeing with books today.

Joshua Tallent

Yeah, that's really true. I think everybody sees BookTok and these kinds of things as very clearly pushing book publishing to a different demographic that may not think about books in the same way that older people like us tend to think of them. That younger demographic has different tastes, desires, and needs.

One of the things that your team as merchandisers has to figure out what are those tastes? What are those things that are going to come that are new? What's going to hit next year so we can start preparing for that? Manga, for example, is a big one. I know you guys have really doubled down on manga in your stores and have focused on that. How do you do that? How do you pay attention to trends in such a way that you can help predict what you need to be buying for the next season of sales and where the trends are going to go?

Kathy Gagliano

I think the two key components of that are, first of all, people. We are fortunate in that we have a wonderful mix of long-tenured people whose entire careers have been in books. We've got people who have worked for us for over 25 years in our stores and in our home office (our support center). They're really experts in the categories they work with because they know them so well. We also have younger team members. All of them are very passionate about different areas of the business. When you're passionate about books and adjacent categories, you bring that to life in the stores. It resonates more than any algorithm ever could because you're meeting like-minded readers looking at what you have curated in your stores. That is where that community forms. Because you form a relationship with your readers that are in your stores. 

The other big piece of that is that the bookstore is really a cultural barometer for what is going on with culture and how people feel at any given moment. Dating back to COVID and where we are today with a variety of different factors—from society, technology, the political landscape—you can really see what people are thinking in terms of what they're buying. That could be an escape into dystopian fiction, or uncertainty driving sales of Bibles. You can see that in every part and it's a real commentary.

It's a combination of not just reacting to trends, but understanding in real time what the cultural sentiment is, and being in a lot of different places you aren't normally. For example, maybe you didn't normally attend MomoCon in Atlanta—which has just become the second-largest anime event in the United States and had a huge expansion—but you dip into that. Mixing it up to understand more broadly what's going on in popular culture is what influences what we bring to our customers.

Joshua Tallent

Yeah, that's great. And you're building community around that in the stores themselves. It's not just books anymore; it's got to be more broad than that. You've got other merchandise that brings people in and helps them see the value of coming to the store. So I'm sure that part of the merchandising is helpful too—seeing the trends in the books alongside the trends in the other merchandise you sell.

Kathy Gagliano

Yes, we absolutely can. Another big part of that barometer is the loneliness epidemic in the United States. We clearly see that playing out in the books we're selling in the nonfiction space, and also in places like Faithpoint, where we see a rise in devotionals related to managing anxiety.

We're also seeing the bookstore emerge as a community hub more than it was even a few years ago. People want to find a community of engaged readers and have an in real life experience. There has been a lot in the media recently about getting off your phone. As much as we love our technology, we also understand the importance of being in person with other people. We're seeing record turnouts for events in stores and off-sites. That is a big part of human connection—whether it be Allen Levi with Theo of Golden, or last week with a huge turnout of Dungeon Crawler Carl fans with a big turn out for Matt Dinniman. It runs the full gamut, and it's delightful to see people engaging with their community of like-minded fans for whatever area you might be in. That really is what resonates and draws people together. 

Joshua Tallent

Yeah, bookstores become the center point of culture, new ideas, intellectual pursuits, and community in a way. There are so many different types of books and communities. I'm a big board gamer, as you can probably see from my background here, and board game shops are the same kind of thing. You've got these places where you can go and engage with people about that content. Bookstores obviously have that value as well; they are the third place—not just work and home.

Building that in-person community is important, especially given the struggle with online book retailing. I live in Seattle, so there's a very large online retailer here that everybody knows and is trying to compete with. But Books-A-Million has effectively done in-person what an online seller can't do.

Let's talk about expansion. You guys have been building new stores—I think 15 in 2025—and expanding to other parts of the country. From a merchandising perspective, what are you doing when you think about a new store? How do you engage with questions about local culture to ensure you're meeting the needs of that specific community?

Kathy Gagliano

There are several aspects to that. We actually just opened three new stores in the last 10 days. We do initial work when we go into a market: we visit, we talk with a lot of people in the market, and we look to engage with local organizations, weather it be a children's hospital, that we can partner with to bring books to people in need. We go in with boots on the ground to really understand the regionality of the market and what readers there want to see in their bookstore.

And then, in addition to that, more broadly speaking, we also know these cultural trends are important to represent. Our stores are laid out with a shop-in-a-shop concept. When you open the doors, there will be discoverability and browsing moments at the front. Much like the board games you mentioned earlier, shopping is often like a tree with branches: you start with one interest and find something adjacent you want to explore, that you're curious about. 

We design those shop-in-a-shop concepts with the reader in mind. That could be our Faithpoint Shop (our Christian book and Bible area) or our Pop Culture Shop, which leads with manga and graphic novels. It just so happens that our Kids' Comic and Graphic Novel Shop is deliberately adjacent to our Adult Pop Culture Shop. We know a lot of readers who grew up with Pokémon have young readers in their family they want to share that passion with, or they see a new deluxe collector's edition they want to add to their basket. We purposefully design stores to make it easy for people to shop their interests.

Joshua Tallent

Yeah, that's really good. When you're thinking about publishers, they're obviously key to your success—you can't sell books if you don't have books. If someone working at a publisher is listening to this right now and trying to adapt to the realities of bookselling in 2026, what should they be thinking about to help Books-A-Million retail their books better? How can publishers help you be successful?

Kathy Gagliano

Going back to something I said earlier: it's so important to really understand and anticipate what is going on in the broader culture and what needs they can fill—whether that be bringing joy or tapping into nostalgia and analog media. They need to understand what the culture is looking for and present that in a fresh way to take the guesswork out of it.

I grew up in retail and have spent many hours working in retail stores. And there is nothing better you can do than to get out into bookstores—independent stores, any bookstores—to really get close to the customer. It's one of my favorite things to do, and I would encourage all publishers to do that. Getting out of offices and engaging where the rubber hits the road is one of the most tactical things you can do to challenge your current thinking about what you are bringing to market.

Joshua Tallent

Yeah, that's great. So, Kathy, any final thoughts? Anything else that is top of mind right now about where book publishing is and how publishers can be more successful in this changing landscape?

Kathy Gagliano

I think it's an incredibly exciting time to be in publishing. Particularly with the growth we have seen in streaming media and the IP they're pulling from, we are in a space where we are seeing books being optioned for rights faster than ever. Two of the ones we've more recently seen are Yesteryear, which I think Anne Hathaway was cast to lead, and Virginia Evans'sThe Correspondent. Books are at the top of the stream, and it presents fantastic opportunities. I just think that's interesting. 

That coupled with what we're seeing from a viral media standpoint, it's a super exciting time. One of the things I love about retail is the unknown. That might sound crazy, but that is what gets me up, and gets me going, and keeps me excited. Every day there is an opportunity to use creativity and passion to connect with people. It all starts with the story and the author who decided to pour something out on the page, and they're giving a piece of themselves to us. And that connection drives this community. It doesn't matter how much technology we get; at the end of the day, it's about the story.

Joshua Tallent

That's great, and that's a perfect place to land the plane on this conversation. I think that's so important to remember. Thank you so much, Kathy. I really appreciate you joining me on the podcast this month. Where can people learn more about what Books-A-Million is doing, or what you're doing on the merchandising team?

Kathy Gagliano

Well, you can always find us at booksamillion.com, and I am gaglianok@booksamillion.com. Thank you so much, it's been great talking with you today.

Joshua Tallent

Appreciate you being on the show.

That's it for this episode of the Booksmarts Podcast. If you like what you've heard, you can leave a review or a ranking on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to the show. We also really appreciate it when you share the show with your colleagues. If you have feedback, comments, or ideas for the show, you can reach out to me at joshua@firebrandtech.com. Thanks for joining us and getting smarter about your books.