Bookstore Sales Erosion Is Only Part of the Story

Against the backdrop of a bankrupt Borders bookstore chain and Amazon.com’s booming book business—print and e-book—the erosion of industry-wide brick-and-mortar bookstore volume continued in 2010. Sales dropped by $233 million to an industry total of $16.5 billion, a decline of 1.4 percent compared to last year’s gross revenue of $16.7 billion. Store sales have been declining since 2007 when they hit a peak of $17.4 billion, a drop of 5.5 percent in the last three years.