In this Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018 photo, Dan Iddings, owner of Classic Lines, works in his shop in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Bookstore sales rallied in April, according to the US Census Bureau.
April has been somewhat of an interesting month, historically. Although bookstore sales have trended downward since the closure of the last Borders bookstores in 2011, April sales have been a mixed bag. This year, for example, sales were up 3.43% over April of 2018; April of 2018’s sales, however, were down 2.76% over April of 2017.
Also of note: although April bookstore sales were up, year-to-date sales are still down. January through April saw sales of $3.068 billion this year, while the same period last year saw sales of $3.264 billion – a decrease of 6.00%. (The period in 2018 was itself a 2.65% decrease over the period in 2017.)
Any positive news is good, though, and this April’s sales ($693 million) were the highest of any April since 2012 (sales that April were $742 million)–good news, indeed.
