MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
October 19 – October 26, 2006 Edition
Bookstore Sales
Continue Slump,
U.S. Census Says
/10/18/06—The US Census Bureau last Friday reported preliminary year-to-date book store sales of $10.548 billion, down 2.1% from cumulative sales of $10.765 billion for the same year-ago period. Figures for August 2006 fell 7.7% over the previous year, only slightly better than July 2006 sales, which fell 9.3% behind the same year in 2005.
Sales for overall retail trade and food services segments increased by 6.9% in the first eight months of this year. Advance estimates of US sales for September, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, decreased 0.4%from the previous month but were up 5.5% from September 2005.
The Census Bureau estimates have a 90 percent confidence level.
