Anime News

Chain Bookstore Slide Continues BAM's Same Store Sales Down 9.9%
Date: 11/25/2008
Books-a-Million is the latest bookstore chain to report financial results, and the news in not good. Net sales in its quarter ended November 1st declined 5.7% versus the same quarter in 2007, and the key indicator of same-store sales was down a 9.9%, a steeper drop than the 7.4% reported by Barnes & Noble for its quarter ended September 30 (see ?B&N Q3 Loss Bigger Than Expected?), but an improvement over BAM?s previous quarter, which saw a drop of 10.4% in same-store sales (see ?GNs, RPGs Bright Spots at BAM?). .



In her response to the gloomy quarterly report Books-a-Million CEO and President Sandra B. Cochran concurred with statements by Barnes & Noble CEO Leonard Riggio and Hasting?s CEO John Marmaduke (see ?Hastings Echoes Barnes & Noble?) about the difficult economic climate for bookselling and placed the blame on the overall economy: ?Results for the quarter were clearly disappointing," Cochran said. "We faced dramatic macroeconomic headwinds, and as a result we experienced our weakest comparable store sales in many years.?



The only bright spots that Cochran found were in the categories of bargain books, gifts, and books for teens.
Source: ICv2