Snow is good for on-line book sales, bad for in-store retail

We had our first snow of the season in Springfield night before last, and driving to work yesterday morning in the single-digit temperature was…interesting. Not so much for snow on the roads—Springfield is far enough north that it knows how to deal with the stuff, unlike southern states where a light dusting is enough to warrant a state of emergency—but because my brakes were frozen, and I all but had to stand on them to stop.

Of course, Missouri is far from the only place in the northern hemisphere to be experiencing winter weather. A report in the Bookseller makes note of snowy weather Britain experienced last month, and the effect it had on book sales. The British Retail Consortium indicated that the snowy weather decreased in-store book sales, but increased on-line book sales (albeit not by enough to make up for the in-store shortfall).

It would be interesting to know what effect the wintery weather had on e-book sales. I would be guess that, percentage for percentage, it must surely have increased them more than it did on-line paper book sales. After all, e-books share with retail stores the relatively fast gratification of having something to read in your hands right now, And if you’re stuck inside while the snow blows outside, you’re going to want something new to read right now without having to go out for it.