Source: Open Secrets

Story from NewsMax.

Excerpt:

Thousands of Costco shoppers took to the wholesaler’s Facebook page threatening to drop their store memberships after the retailer pulled copies of Dinesh D’Souza’s newest anti-Obama book from its shelves, but a company official insists the decision was financial, not political.

And the reaction got almost immediate results as the company announced it would put D’Souza’s book, “America: Imagine a World Without Her,” back on its shelves, despite, what it says are poor sales.

“Costco is not a book store. Our book shelf space is very limited,” read a statement posted shortly after 8 p.m. on Tuesday. “We exercise discipline in the best utilization of that limited space based solely on what our members are buying. We can’t carry every title that our members are interested in reading. We are constantly monitoring book sales, and make decisions to pull books off the shelves frequently based on sales volume to make room for other titles. Politics or controversy over content do not influence our decisions.”

The statement, signed by “Dave,” went on to say the movie had renewed interest in the book causing “brisk sales at locations still in stock.”

“Therefore, we have made the decision to reorder the book,” added Dave.

Customers were not impressed – even after the decision to censor the book was reversed:

“By refusing to sell an anti-Obama book, you come across as a bunch of self-censoring fascists,” added Shobhna Kapoor.

Even after the decision, anger at the company was still showing on the Facebook page. “Your (sic) full of baloney,” wrote Linda Marie Hamlet. “The book is high on the best seller list. If you think we believe your twist then you need to look at all the comments and those including me who are pulling our membership. Costly move for you, Costco!!!”

And “Jean Marie” wrote, “Until CEO Jim, the Democrat, acknowledges the error OR resigns, I’ll not spend the $9200 that I spent in 2013 at Costco. Also, sold my Costco stock today and advise others to do the same. It ran up today on short covering.”

At the time of writing, the book was ranked so on Amazon.com:

Pulled due to low sales? I don’t think so. So why was it pulled?

Obama has been a great friend to Costco, “Costco Wholesale seems to lean to the Democratic side: Co-founders Jeff Brotman and Jim Sinegal held fundraisers for President Obama at their Eastside homes…”. FYI, I never shop at Costco. This story just supports that decision.