MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
May 15 – May 22, 2008 Edition

Bookstore Sales

See Third Straight

Increase This Year

WASHINGTON, DC/5/13/08–The U.S. Census Bureau reported this week that bookstore sales increased 1.3% in March to $1.03 billion. It was the third consecutive month that sales have risen in 2008, however the March increase represented the smallest gain so far this year. Sales for the first quarter totaled $4.46 billion, an increase of 5.1% for the three-month period.

Total retail sales for March were up a fractional 0.5% to $379 billion. For the first quarter, the retail segment increased 3.9%.