Bookstore sales rose 10.8% in March over a year ago, increasing to $593 million from $535 million in 2022, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The increase in March is the third month in a row bookstore sales rose this year over 2022. At the end of the first quarter, bookstore sales were up 11.9% over the first period of 2022, increasing to $2.07 billion from $1.85 billion in the comparable period a year ago.
The newest figures follow significant revisions to previously released sales numbers since 2021. Sales for 2022 were lowered to $8.35 billion in 2022 from the preliminary estimate of nearly $9 million, and 2021 sales were lowered to $8.02 billion from the original $8.47 billion estimate. The changes mean that while sales in 2022 still rose over 2021, the increase fell from 6.2% to 4.1%.
The revisions also mean that, rather than bookstore sales having a slight increase in 2022 over 2019, they were down about 6%, meaning bookstore sales didn't fully recover last year from declines endured during the pandemic.
