The 4.9% decline in January bookstore sales was partially blamed on snowstorms that delayed students from buying textbooks for the spring semester. That reasoning seems to have been correct as the Census Bureau this morning reported that bookstore sales jumped 9.3% in February, to $1.11 billion. Sales include all items sold in college and trade bookstores. The rebound in February resulted in a slight two-month dip for bookstore sales, which were down 0.5%, to $3.33 billion.
For the entire retail segment, sales in February rose 9.5%, while sales for the first two months of 2011 were up 8.4%.
