Q2 Sales Dropped 8.1% at Barnes & Noble Education

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From Publishers Weekly:

Revenue fell 8.1% at Barnes & Noble Education in the second quarter ended October 27, 2018, compared to the second quarter last year. In the crucial back-to-school period, total sales were $814.7 million, down from $886.9 million a year ago. Operating income slipped to $78.5 million from $83.3 million, but net income, thanks to $16 million in lower taxes, rose 8.3%, to $59.7 million.

At the company’s largest operating group, B&N College, sales decreased 7.2%, to $702.8 million, compared to the prior year period. B&NE blamed the decline primarily on a 5.6% drop in comparable store sales, which it said was largely due to lower textbook sales.

Revenue at the MBS Textbook Exchange division fell 11.8%, to $118.9 million, in the quarter. Sales at the MBS Wholesale unit dropped 20.2% compared to last year’s second quarter, due to what B&NE said was lower rental revenue plus lower net sales of traditional wholesale textbooks. At MBS Direct, sales fell 7.2%, due to lower sales from Higher Ed accounts and net new stores, the company said.

Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly

3 thoughts on “Q2 Sales Dropped 8.1% at Barnes & Noble Education”

  1. Of course this has nothing to do with students (and not just a few teachers) finding other ways to avoid paying for overpriced-can’t-be-used-next-year books.

  2. I found this article interesting, even though it’s 3 years old now.

    https://www.chronicle.com/article/In-Students-Minds-Textbooks/231455

    Especially this quote… (emphasis mine)

    There is an additional issue, which is that our “bookstore” connives in worsening the problem. Knowing that students often don’t buy the books, they under order. I had twenty students in a course I taught this spring. The bookstore ordered ten copies of the first book I taught. Students were expected to read the first chapter for the second class and we used the book for the first two weeks. My students were willing to buy the book, which was under $20, but they couldn’t get copies.

    As the book (a microhistory) was intended to set up the rest of the semester (in which students were writing their own microhistories), the bookstore (I shall not name the offenders but they are a huge chain) basically crapped up my course for me and my students, based on their belief that most of the students weren’t going to buy the books anyway. It had a negative effect on the students’ experience and on their work and of course reinforced the bookstore’s sense that buying the books wasn’t really necessary.

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