Bookstore Sales Lag Behind Overall Retail
Preliminary March sales figures of $1,122 million were 3.7 percent off the $1,165 million of the previous March. While not a significant drop, it is disappointing when compared with bookstore performance over the last two years and when compared with overall retail recently.
Overall March retail sales for 2002 came in 2.8 percent over the $288 billion realized in March of 2001.