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In June, bookstore sales fell 5%, to $672 million, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the first half of the year, bookstore sales fell 5.1%, to $4.6 billion.
By comparison, independent bookstores have done better than the Census Bureau average, which includes a range of retailers that sell books. Through June 12, slightly less than the six-month period as measured by the Census Bureau, sales at ABA member stores, as reported to the weekly bestseller lists, are down just 0.3% compared to the same period in 2018. Compound annual growth among ABA member stores is 7.5% during the past five years.
Total retail sales in June rose 1.6%, to $518.2 billion. In the first four months of the year, total retail sales rose 2.1%, to $2.9 trillion.
Note: under Census Bureau definitions, the bookstore category consists of "establishments primarily engaged in retailing new books."