From Publishers Weekly:
Bookstore sales inched up 1.5% in November over November 2015, according to preliminary estimates released Friday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. November’s sales were $805 million, up from $793 million a year ago.
. . . .
For the first 11 months of 2016, bookstore sales were $10.58 billion, an increase of 3.4% over the same period in 2015.
Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly
So, if profits were up an average of 3.4% the first eleven months, wouldn’t being up a mere 1.5 in November actually be a ‘drop’?
ETA And how much of that was Amazon?
.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
One minor detail:
US inflation rate, november 2015-2016?
1.7%.
@Allen F.
You look foolish when you don’t understand but think that you do and make gleeful noise about it. Sales were 1.5% higher for the month of November 2016 than sales were for the month of November 2015. They’re speaking about comparing sales for just those two months. It has nothing to do with sales for the whole year.
They’re nonetheless crowing about *not* beating inflation. Not something most business brag about.
(“Our sales only declined slightly!” “The boat is barely leaking!” “Not dead yet!”)