B&N Dips During Holiday Season
After Barnes & Noble indicated to the financial sector that prospects looked good for the last months of 2006, the story says otherwise. In a statement released on Thursday, they announced that same-store sales – or sales from stores open for a minimum of 12 months, and a key measure of industry performance – edged down 0.1 percent during the holiday season, below company expectations. The news was better overall for the nine-week holiday period between October 29 and December 30, as total Barnes & Noble sales grew 2.6 percent to $1.1 billion. But the news was grim no matter what for B. Dalton: same-store sales fell 7.6 percent from holiday 2005 to holiday 2006, and overall sales fell 31.3 percent to $28.4 million, affected by closing 32 stores over the past 12 months.
B&N Chief Steve Riggio understates things by saying the news was “somewhat disappointing” in light of a a “highly promotional and competitive environment.” Translation: the holiday season was crowded with big-name blockbusters in a way we haven’t seen in years, and that sales still declined spells trouble for the industry. Were the wrong horses back? Did certain veteran authors finally plateau or fall off? The numbers will tell, but since the winter and spring seasons are looking weak, don’t expect cheery news anytime soon, at least from B&N’s camp…
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