Publishers Weeklyreports that book sales plunged in February by 10.8%. Even so books performed better than the total retail sector which fell 11.5%.
Bookstore sales, which were bolstered somewhat in January by back-to-school buying at college stores, declined 10.8% in February, to $1.02 billion. Sales for the full retail sector fell 11.5% in the month. For the first two months of 2009, bookstore sales were down 3.2%, to $3.32 billion. Sales for all of retail tumbled 9.9%.
The bookstores are certainly feeling the impact of sales falling 10%. There have been plans to close hundreds of its Waldenbooks stores.
