BOOK RETAILING
The latest ABS report on the state of play in the Australian book selling industry was released in September 2004.
The 2002-03 Book Retailers survey found that there were 1,415 employing businesses in Australia that sold almost $1,275m worth of new books during the financial year. Most of these were sold in bookshops ($947.3m), with the balance divided amongst department stores ($188.9m), newsagents ($122.2m), supermarkets and other retailers ($16.5m).
A total of more than 75 million new books were sold by book retailers to the public, with bookshops accounting for around 58% (43.7 million books) of sales, department stores 27% (20.5 million), newsagents 9% (6.5 million) and supermarkets and other retailers 6% (4.5 million). This reflects a considerable variation in the average sale price of books across the different types of retailers, ranging from a high of $22 for bookshops to $4 for supermarkets and other retailers.
Further details are available in Book Retailers, Australia, 2002-03 (cat. no. 1371.0).
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