Hampered no doubt by bad winter weather, bookstore sales fell 6.8% in February, to $791 million, compared to February 2013, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The decline was close to the 6.4% drop posted in January, putting bookstore sales down 6.6% in the first two months of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013. Bookstore sales in the 2014 January-February period were $2.55 billion.
For the entire retail segment, February sales rose 1.8% and sales were up 2.1% for the two month period compared to 2013.
