Stores Sales Drop 1.7%

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 1/15/2007

The disappointing fall bookstore news keeps coming. In addition to soft sales at the major bookstore chains, the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that overall bookstore sales in November dropped 1.7%, to $1.09 billion. October sales were off 2.3% and, for the first 11 months of 2006, bookstore sales were down 1.8%, to $14.16 billion. For the entire retail segment, sales rose 4.9% in November and 6.3% in the year to date.