Bookstore sales fell 6.3% in July, to $808 million, the second consecutive month that retail segment had a meaningful decline in sales compared to 2012.
In June, bookstore sales dropped 9.5%. For the first seven months of 2013, bookstore sales were down 2.1%, to $6.86 billion, according to preliminary estimates released Friday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. Bookstores are having a difficult time in summer 2013 making up for the blockbuster sales of the Fifty Shades trilogy last year.
For the entire retail segment, July sales were up 7.1% and sales for the first seven months of 2013 rose 4.1%.
