Book industry retail sales

04:55 pm January 15th, 2007




			King Rat Private Life

gkr

Book industry retail sales

Huh. I pulled the data for this from the Census Bureau. I would have figured that December was the largest month for sales, followed by November and October. In fact, it generally goes December, August, January, September. Even that isn't certain. In some years, December is not the month of largest sales. August is taking a dramatic rise over the last five years, and it appears January is as well. Or it could be that 2001 and 2000 numbers are just the result of the recession and the ordering of the more recent years is noise generated. I don't think the numbers are adjusted for inflation, and I know they are not seasonally adjusted.

Tags: the bookstore

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	Comments

	From: dichotomous	Date: January 16th, 2007 01:08 am (UTC)		(Link)

I wonder if, in this count, they included secondary education (i.e., university) bookstores... that would account for the January sales, as students get books for spring semester, and may also account for August

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	From: gkr	Date: January 16th, 2007 01:12 am (UTC)		(Link)

It could be the reason. Though I thought most college level stuff was on a quarter system these days.

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	From: martygreene	Date: January 16th, 2007 01:22 am (UTC)		(Link)

all but one university/college here in Pittsburgh are on semesters. I generally buy my textbooks and such August and January, so that would account for a lot of it. Also not sure what all is being counted in those, but datebooks, moleskeine, etc. all are common items for me to purchase around those times.

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	From: kaosqueen	Date: January 16th, 2007 02:02 am (UTC)		(Link)
	i thought of college books sales too

more schools i know are on semester than quarter. and more and more highschools order through university bookstores and on line sites now.

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	From: mercuryslavejq	Date: January 16th, 2007 02:04 am (UTC)		(Link)

Sales in the CE sectorare rising in Jan due to the increased popularity of giftcards. Perhaps books are doing the same thing?

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	From: gkr	Date: January 16th, 2007 02:10 am (UTC)		(Link)

That's a possible explanation for the January sales. B&N accounts for gift card sales in the month they are used, not the month they purchased.

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	From: mercuryslavejq	Date: January 16th, 2007 02:15 am (UTC)		(Link)

Same with Best Buy.

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	From: laurelfan	Date: January 16th, 2007 07:51 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	the real question

is when did Harry Potter come out?

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	From: gkr	Date: January 16th, 2007 07:55 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: the real question

They've generally been released in July. Which I think accounts for that month being a bit more spread out.

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