At the same time that Barnes & Noble was announcing a second quarter loss of $8.46 million, its arch competitor, Borders Group, announced an 11 percent increase in consolidated sales. (That represents Borders superstores, Waldenbooks, Borders international and Borders.com.) The superstore business alone realized a 14 percent sales increase and a 117 percent net income gain. Same store sales for both Borders and Waldenbooks increased 3.6 percent.
Borders opened nine new superstores during the quarter, and now has 307 locations. Waldenbooks opened five stores and closed one, and now has 891 stores nationwide. Internationally, Borders opened a second superstore in Australia and now has 12 around the globe. And it opened two new Books etc. stores in the U.K., and now has 30 of those.
Online, too, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based retailer had a little better luck than its New York-based competitor. Sales through Borders.com increased 55 percent over second quarter 1999, though it had a not-unexpected net loss of $4.2 million. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, attributed a significant part of its quarterly losses to investing in Internet operations. Barnesandnoble.com, a separately traded company, showed a 31 cents-a-share loss, nearly double last year's loss of 17 percent a share.