Barnes & Noble Doesn't Like Its Holiday Reading

Barnes & Noble (New York), the largest bookseller in the country, said yesterday that it would miss its previous forecasts for the holiday shopping season because of disappointing sales of books and video games.

The news provides ominous signs for both businesses this year.

The retailer said a part of the shortfall stems from slow sales in the core bookstore business. It now expects fourth-quarter same-store sales to be flat to a -3 percent.

CFO Larry Zilavy said the company's disappointing performance reflected the combination of an anemic economy and a short shopping season this year from Thanksgiving to Christmas. He noted that other retailers were reporting similar letdowns.

“There is a still a holiday season left to be completed,” he said, “but at some point you have to figure that you can't recoup what you missed.”

Barnes & Noble's earnings are also suffering because of disappointing sales at its video game retailing subsidiary, GameStop, where it expected same-store sales for the fourth quarter to be down 4 to 6 percent from a year ago. This marks a sharp drop from its projection last month that sales would increase 8 percent to 12 percent. The company had raised its fourth-quarter projections during the year because of strong demand from its core market of video game players. Then the company was surprised by the lackluster demand from holiday shoppers and retreated to its original projections.

Zilavy also said Barnes & Noble expected a loss at its sister online store, Barnesandnoble.com, of which it owns 40 percent.