Book Sales Plunge at Books-A-Million

Book sales, which had been something of a bright spot at Books-A-Million for most of the year, plunged in the nine-week period that ended January 4, with same-store sales in the book segment falling 6.9%. The weak book group performance was a major contributor to the 2.7% decline in total revenue, to $107.2 million, reported by BAM for the nine weeks. For most of the year, BAM's book segment had performed better than its nonbook sections, particularly collectibles; in the third quarter, for example, same-store sales of books were up 1.6%, while overall comparable-store sales were down 2.6%.

"The bad news is we are disappointed in Christmas," BAM CEO Clyde Anderson told analysts in a brief and subdued conference call. Anderson said revenue shortfalls came in the children's department, where sales were hurt by no new Harry Potter title, as well as in its Christian book section, which "lost a little ground" to last year. Comparisons were also hurt by strong sales of September 11 titles last year that were not repeated in this holiday season. Anderson also lamented the lack of a "big book" in the period. Categories that did well over the nine weeks included cooking, diet and health, and entertainment.

On the bright side, Anderson said, sales after Christmas were up, and he was hopeful that trend would continue throughout January. The company has also had a large number of customers sign up for the new John Grisham book, The King of Torts, which is due out February 4. Anderson had no further comments on prospects for the remainder of fiscal 2003, which ends February 1, 2003, and the company announced that it would no longer issue sales and earnings guidance.

For the first 11 months of the year, total revenue at BAM was up 0.2%, to $410.3 million. Comparable-store sales were off 2.6% in that span, with same-store sales in its book business down 0.7%.