October Bookstore Sales Fell 6.6%

After posting surprisingly large gains in August and September--likely fueled in part by Borders's going-out-of business sales--bookstore sales fell 6.6% in October, to $886 million, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite the drop in October, bookstore sales for the first 10 months of 2011 were up 2.0%, to $12.91 billion.

For all of retail, October sales rose 7.2% and were up 8.0% in the January-October period.