J. C. Penney Company, Inc. reported that its comparable store sales for the four-week period ended Aug. 27, 2011, decreased 1.9 percent compared to a 2.3 percent increase in the same period last year. As expected, the Back-to-School selling season started later again this year, with sales trends improving throughout the month.
However, the Company's sales during the last week of August were negatively impacted by the significant disruption in the northeast and southeast regions of the country caused by Hurricane Irene. Total Company sales decreased 4.5 percent for the month.
Overall, men's apparel and women's accessories were the top performing merchandise divisions this month, while the southwest and southeast were the best performing geographic regions in August. The Company also announced the expansion of its exclusive attractions, Sephora inside jcpenney and MNG by Mango, bringing the total number of locations to 297 and 500, respectively.
Preliminary August Sales Summary | ||||||||||||||||||||
($ in millions) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total Company Sales | % Increase/(Decrease) | |||||||||||||||||||
for period ended | Total Sales | Comp Stores | ||||||||||||||||||
Aug. 27, | Aug. 28, | |||||||||||||||||||
2011 | 2010 | 2011 | 2010 | 2011 | 2010 | |||||||||||||||
4 Weeks | $ 1,374 | $ 1,439 | (4.5) | 0.8 | (1.9) | 2.3 | ||||||||||||||
30 Weeks | $ 9,223 | $ 9,306 | (0.9) | 0.6 | 2.0 | 1.4 |