Barnes &Noble reported solid gains for the five-week holiday season ended January 2. During the period, sales rose 8.6% to $555 million, led by a 13.4% increase in superstore sales to $450 million. Comparable store sales at the superstores rose 5.7%, bettering the national retail average of a 5.2% improvement in same-store sales for the holidays. Comparable store sales at Dalton fell 1.4% for the five weeks.
Sales at barnesandnoble.com for the seven-week period ended January 2 totaled $17.8 million, nearly quadrupling 1997 sales for the same time. According to B&N, more than 320,000 customers used the online service for the first time over the holidays, raising barnesandnoble. com's customer count to nearly 1.3 million.
B&N reported that, based on results to date, it expects to meet its earnings estimates in 1999.
BAM `Encouraged' by Holiday Sales
Books-A-Million announced that its holiday sales grew 3.4%, to $62.3 million, but that comparable-store sales in the period dropped slightly, by 0.4%.
Commenting on the results, president and CEO Clyde Anderson said, "We are encouraged by the essentially flat comparable sales for the five-week December period in light of lower year-to-date trends."
For the first 11 months of fiscal 1999 sales increased 7.4%, to $322.6 million, while comparable-store sales declined 3.4%
