After a sluggish first two months of 2015, bookstore sales rose a healthy 5.1% this past March, over March 2014, according to preliminary estimates released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Bookstore sales were $686 million in March, up from $653 million a year ago. With the increase, bookstore sales in the first quarter of 2015 were up 0.1% compared to the first quarter of 2014, hitting just shy of $2.80 billion.
For the entire retail segment, March sales rose 2.1% and were also up 2.1% in the quarter.
