At Hastings Entertainment, total revenues in the second quarter ended July 31 fell 7.9%, to $95.8 million, and the net loss increased 20.6%, to $4.1 million.
Total revenue at stores open at least a year fell 6.2%. At the end of the quarter, the company had eight fewer superstores than it did a year earlier. Hastings currently has 129 superstores, averaging 24,000 square feet, in medium-sized markets and three concept stores.
CEO and chairman John H. Marmaduke said that revenues at the multimedia retailer have been hurt "by the popularity of digital delivery, rental kiosks and subscription based services, as well as the longevity of the current video game console life-cycle." In addition, book sales had the biggest drop in Hastings's categories, falling on a comp-store basis 14.9%. This was attributable to "a relatively weak new release schedule" and a fall in trade paperback sales. Furthermore, "the decline in sales of the Fifty Shades trilogy, when compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2012, accounted for over half of our decline in book revenues."
To revive sales, Hastings has been introducing new product categories, including consumer electronics, music electronics and accessories, hobby, recreation and lifestyle, vinyl and tablets. Most of these products are part of the company's electronics categories, whose comp-store sales rose 17.2% in the quarter. Most of the other products are in the trends department, whose sales were up 10.7%. The movie and Hardback Café departments also had sales gains. Besides books, consumables, music and games all had sales drops.