Bookstore Sales Fell 28.3% in 2020 (publishersweekly.com)

For the first quarter ended May 4, 2024, net sales increased 5.1 percent versus the same period in fiscal 2023, and total Company comparable sales increased 3.8 percent. Gross merchandise value ("GMV") increased 4.9 percent. First quarter net sales include a 75 basis point negative impact from the wind-down of Canadian operations. During the quarter, Nordstrom banner net sales increased 0.6 percent and comparable sales increased 1.8 percent. Net sales for Nordstrom Rack increased 13.8 percent and comparable sales increased 7.9 percent.

Eighteen state attorneys general on Wednesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to postpone a planned vote on net neutrality until investigators have weeded out fake comments submitted to the agency about its proposed rollback. "If the well of public comment has been poisoned by falsified submissions, the Commission may be unable to rely on public comments that would help it reach a legitimate conclusion to the rulemaking process," the law enforcement officials write. "Or, it must give less weight to the public comments submitted which also undermines the process." The FCC is scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposal to repeal net neutrality rules that prohibit broadband providers from blocking or throttling traffic and from creating paid fast lanes. The agency is expected to repeal the rules on a 3-2 party line vote.

With gains across all categories, unit sales of print books rose 16.9% last week over the week ended December 5. Adult nonfiction and juvenile nonfiction led the way with increases of 19.7% and 19.5%, respectively. Barack Obama’s A Promised Land remained the top seller in the week, selling nearly 325,000 copies at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Two newly released titles also contributed to the increase in adult nonfiction sales—Bag Man by Rachel Maddow sold over 46,000 copies and The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson sold more than 36,000 copies.