Doctor, it hurts when I do this

Tim Huggins writes an interesting essay called The Costs of Costco in which he describes the follow-on effects, mainly negative, of tentpole bestsellers such as the Harry Potter and Tom Clancy novels being flogged by big box, non-bookstore retailers such as Costco and Wal*Mart. In the essay, Huggins states that book publishers are hurt as much or more than booksellers because the opportunity to connect buyers with other potentially interesting purchases, books not carried at Costco et al, is lost. But is this not simply giving the mugger a gun with which to rob yourself? I mean hey, there’s no law that say publishers have to sell to Costco, is there? Since IANAL, maybe there is a law, as I recall certain controversies in the past over MSRP and minimum selling prices. Still, one expects that the industry could find a way to manage this if their was sufficient motivation, as opposed to a group of lemmings nearly all marching to the cliffs.