The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. announced comparable store sales for the five weeks ended Jan. 2, 2010 decreased 2.6%. Total sales for the five weeks decreased 3.0% to $511.1 million compared with $527.2 million for the prior year period.
Year-to-date comparable store sales decreased 6.1%. Year-to-date total sales decreased 6.0% to $2.80 billion compared with $2.96 billion for the same period last year.
Tony Buccina, Vice Chairman and President Merchandising, commented, “We are pleased with our December sales results, which exceeded expectations despite the snow storms that negatively impacted our performance on key selling days. Our eCommerce business continues to be the fastest growing segment of our company.”
Top-performing categories included ladies’ accessories and jewelry, shoes, children’s and moderate missy sportswear. Outerwear and cold weather accessories posted strong sales results as well. The weakest categories were furniture, hard home and better missy sportswear.
Dec. end-of-month inventory was down 4% on a comparable store basis.
“This reduction, along with 22% less clearance merchandise, will benefit our margin,” said Buccina. “Our inventories reflect fresh, transitional merchandise and we are pleased with our customer’s positive response.”
