August 23, 2001 Bookstore Sales Hold up Nicely in June Preliminary bookstore sales of $1,257 million for June 2001 exceeded the $1,191 million performance of June 2000 by 5.5 percent. The increase continued the recent trend in solid bookstore performance. Sales for the month not only improved nicely over June of 2000, but the percentage of increase exceeded that of overall retail for the seventeenth month in a row. Overall preliminary retail sales in June, at $299 billion, was a 3.1 percent increase over the $290 billion in sales recorded the previous June. 2000-2001 RETAIL SALES for BOOKSTORES (unadjusted) Period 200 Final (Millions of Dollars) 2001 (Millions of Dollars) % Increase 2001 Over 2000 January 1,552 1,771 14.1 February 1,133 1,213 7.1 March 1,077 1,214 12.7 April 1,024 1,078 5.3 May 1,166 1,238 6.2 June 1,191 1,257 (p) 5.5 YTD 7,143 7,771 8.8 (p) Preliminary figure Note: Estimates reflect sales of all types of participating bookstores, including trade, college, religious, chain stores (including superstores), and others. A bookstore is defined as any retail establishment with sales comprised of more than 50 percent new books and periodicals, and estimates include sales of all products in these stores. Special Note: As of March 2001, the Bureau of the Census, Current Retail Trade Branch, began using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) in place of the Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC). The Bureau of the Census has restated the SIC data for monthly sales to a NAICS basis to create an historic series beginning with January 1992 through March 2001. A more complete summary of methodology will be posted at a later date. Source: Bureau of the Census, Current Retail Trade Branch. Topics: Industry Statistics, News - Bookselling,