March Bookstore Sales Plunged 11%
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 5/19/2003
The word circulating throughout much of publishing in recent weeks was that March was one of the worst sales months in a very long time. Census Bureau preliminary figures released last week confirmed just how bleak March was, reporting that bookstore sales dropped 11.1% in the month, to $929 million. Sales for the entire retail segment were much better, up 3.9%. For the first three months of the year, bookstore sales were down 2.2%, to $4.03 billion; sales for all of retail were up 4.3%.
