Bookstore sales stopped a year-long slide in April, with sales rising 3.4% over April 2018.
According to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Commerce Department, bookstore sales for the month totaled $693 million, up from $670 million during the same period a year ago. A likely reason for the gain was Easter, which hit later in April 2019 than it did in April 2018.
Even with the April gain, though, bookstore sales for the first four months of 2019 were down 6.0%, compared to the same period a year ago. Sales dropped to $3.07 billion, from $3.26 billion in the first four months of 2018.
Sales for the entire retail segment increased 4.9% in April, over the same period last year, while sales in the first four months of 2019 were up 3.1% over the same four months in 2018.
