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Move Over B&N – Books-a-Million! Had an Even Worse Quarter

books-a-million itunesThe second largest US bookstore chain has just released a financial report for the last 2 quarters and it looks like B&N might not be as unhealthy as I had thought.

BAM! reported a drop in revenue that was nearly as steep as the one reported by B&N last week. From the press release:

Net revenues for the 13-week period ended August 3, 2013 decreased 8.6% to $109.2 million, compared with revenues of $119.5 million in the year-earlier period. Comparable store sales for the second quarter declined 12.0%, compared with the 13-week period in the prior year. Net loss from continuing operations for the second quarter was $9.0 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, compared with net loss from continuing operations of $0.9 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, in the year-earlier period.

For the 26-week period ended August 3, 2013, net revenues decreased 8.0% to $213.2 million from net revenues of $231.8 million in the year-earlier period. Comparable store sales declined 9.5%, compared with the same period in the prior year. For the 26-week period ended August 3, 2013, the Company reported a net loss from continuing operations of $12.6 million, or $0.86 per diluted share, compared with net loss from continuing operations of $2.8 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, in the year-earlier period.

In comparison, B&N said that their retail division saw comparable store sales decrease by 9.1%. B&N retail division’s total revenue dropped by 9.9%, which is not too different from the drop reported by BAM!.

The data suggests that B&N’s retail stores are only as unhealthy as BAM!’s, which puts things in a different perspective. Of course, B&N is also being dragged down by their Nook division, which saw a 20% drop in revenue, so B&N is still in a more precarious situation.

As I reported last month, BAM! never invested in an ebook platform and in hindsight that has turned out to be an excellent decision. They do, however, own a small chain of used media stores, and last month they announced plans to test the idea of installing POD machines in their stores.

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Comments


flyingtoastr August 27, 2013 um 8:07 pm

All retail had a rough quarter – look at Target and Wal Mart’s recent quarterly results.


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