Gottschalks Inc. posted a 3.9% decrease in same store sales for the month of July. Total sales for the month decreased 5.5% to $41.1 million from $43.4 million in July 2006. On a year-to-date basis, same store sales decreased 2.4% from the same period of the prior year. Total sales for the year-to-date period decreased 3.4% to $286.8 million compared to $296.9 million for the same period of fiscal 2006. The company operated three fewer stores in the month and three fewer stores for the year-to-date period compared to the same periods of fiscal 2006.


Jim Famalette, president and CEO of Gottschalks said, “Our July sales continued to reflect weaker consumer trends in California markets. Our best performing merchandise areas were dresses, children's and cosmetics, which benefited from a special event during the month. Despite good results in these categories, we experienced softness in women's apparel as well as in our home store merchandise. We ended the month with comp store inventory 2% above the same period last year due to earlier back to school receipts.”
    Sales results are summarized as follows:

                                                                Same Store

                             August 4,  July 29,    Total %       Sales %

                               2007      2006        Change       Change

                                 (in 000's)

    Sales, 4 Weeks Ended     $41,051    $43,443      (5.5%)       (3.9%)

    Sales, 13 Weeks Ended    $144,982   $153,397     (5.5%)       (4.0%)

    Sales, 26 Weeks Ended    $286,770   $296,909     (3.4%)       (2.4%)