Retailers in several categories important to the business of geek culture reported sales for the holiday period over the past few days, and reflected varying conditions by category and retailer.

Comp sales in the book chains were flat-ish to up slightly, with strength in physical products and weakness in digital.  Barnes & Noble reported sales down 1.6% in its bookstores and BN.com, which it attributed to “stabilization” of physical book sales and increased sales of educational toys and games, and gifts.  Core comparable bookstore sales (excluding Nook) were up 1.7%, picking up the pace for the nine-week holiday period over its last quarter (ended November 1, see “B&N’s Core Bookstore Business Growing”).  With Nook sales included, comp sales were down .6%.

It looks like readers are bailing on the Nook, despite the improved devices B&N is selling as a result of its alliance with Samsung.  Nook device and accessories sales were down 67.9%, and digital content sales were down 25%, producing a 55% decline in the Nook segment overall.  The company is planning to spin off the Nook business, but finding a buyer is going to be difficult with cratering sales. 

As a result of the better-than-expected holiday sales, B&N announced that it is increasing its full-year sales estimate to flat, which given the declines in digital would be a solid performance.

Books-A-Million reported very similar results.  Overall sales were up 1%, and comp store sales were up 1.2% for the holiday season vs. the year ago period.  Excluding digital devices, comp store sales were up 1.7%.  The company had “strengthening sales” in its largest categories of full-priced books, gifts, and café, according to the announcement.  In a more detailed breakdown after its quarter that ended November 1, BAM said that manga and strategy games were two contributors to its growth (see “Manga, Strategy Games Grow for Book Chain”).     

Toys R Us had a rough season for sales, but improved margins will help the bottom line.  Comparable store sales in the U.S. were down 5% over the previous year’s holiday season, but with an increase in gross margin due to more careful promotions and other initiatives the company actually eked out an increase in gross margin dollars.  Sales outside the U.S. were up, producing 2.7% lower comp store sales overall, but increased gross margin dollars.  The company has been trying to refinance debt (see “Toys R Us Seeks Refinancing”), and these results should increase the perceived prospects for survival and help sell those bonds.    

Packaged media is a tough business these days, and the holiday results from Trans World Entertainment, which operates FYE and Suncoast stores, reflected that.  Comp store holiday sales for the chain were down 1% vs. the year ago period, a respectable result, perhaps due to the improvement in trend merch sales that the company has been reporting (see “TWE Suffering Down Year”).  But overall sales for the company were down 9.6% due to store closings.