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April 18- April 24, 2011 Edition Books-A-Million Sales Decline

NEW YORK/NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/April 18, 2011–Books-A-Million, the nation’s third largest bookstore chain, reported a sales decline of 6.3% to $385 million, for the year ended January 29. The figures were released in its 10-K filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission Friday. While sales of books and magazines declined, other product categories rose 28.6% to $40.5 million, including music, DVDs, e-books and other products.

BAM attributed the decline to its core book business in the year. Sales through its retail channel fell 3.3%, while online sales rose 9.9%, to $26.2 million. The sale of Nook e-book readers and accessories was attributed to the increase in e-commerce sales.

BAM has 231 outlets, 201 of which are superstores and the other 30 are traditional stores. During the 2010 year, the chain opened 11 outlets, closed three and relocated two.