Bookstore Sales Decline in June Stay Up for Year

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August 21 – August 28, 2008 Edition

Bookstore Sales

Decline in June;

Stay Up for Year

WASHINGTON, DC/8/21/08–Bookstore sales, which started at a surprisingly strong pace in January 2008 at $2.28 billion, fell to half that amount–$1070–in June, 2008. The August 2008 report from the U.S. Census Bureau showed a 7.1% decline for June over the previous month.

Year-to-date sales of $7,676 billion, remained ahead of the same period in 2007 by about 3%.

Bookstore sales reported by the U.S. Census Bureau are for brick-and-mortar stores only and do not include online sales.

The Nonstore Retailers segment, which does include online book sales, grew by more than 6% from June 2007 to June 2008. However, the report does not break out book sales from the general online retail category.

Sales for the entire retail segment grew only 1.3% in June and 3.1% for the first half of 2008.