Books-A-Million, which operates 253 bookstores, reported that net sales for the quarter ending on May 4th, 2013 declined 7.4% to $104.5 million compared with sales of $112.8 million during the first quarter of 2012.  Same store sales for the quarter were down a substantial 6.8%.  Books-A-Million’s net loss for the quarter was $3.7 million, compared with a net loss of $1.9 million during the first quarter of 2012.  Books-A-Million did manage to post a profit in Q4 of 2012 (see "Book Chain Makes Money').  
 
Books-A-Million CEO Terrance Finley cited weak new releases in Q1 for the company’s inability to match the numbers it posted in 2012 when Fifty Shades of Gray and The Hunger Games were driving sales.
 
But while bookselling is a hit-driven business, there are other long term factors at work, especially the gradual erosion of brick-and-mortar bookstore sales as customers migrate to online shopping and e-books.  According to the recently-released authoritative Bookstats survey, while American publishers had a solid year in 2012 with sales up 7% overall, sales by those same publishers to brick-and-mortar stores declined by 7% (see "Online Book Sales Poised to Pass Brick-And-Mortar").
 
During the quarter Books-A-Million opened three superstores and one traditional store, while also closing seven superstores and one traditional store.